OD Practitioner - Consulting, Entry, Contracting

In initial meetings during the entry stage, clients often want reassurance that the practitioner can address the problem, but the practitioner must try not to over promise results. What are some ways that the practitioner can walk this fine line in the first meeting?

Active listening and proper notetaking are essential within the entry stage. Not only should practitioners demonstrate that they are listening for the client's emotional reassurance, but it's critical the practitioner explicitly understands the desired outcomes of their work. Only at this point can they determine whether or not they can be of help to the client.

To mitigate "over-promising," practitioners should utilize background data and specific experiences to help the client understand the scope of their expertise. If the practitioner comments, "I've done that before," the statement should be followed with an explicit example of how they've previously accomplished that specific goal.

Read the opening vignette to chapter 6 again. Why did the client respond that "this is the strangest sales pitch I've ever heard"? What do you think the client was expecting?

As a sales professional, I can empathize with this client's response. Consultants earn attractive rates to fix problems- so why are they saying the group must have a "willingness to help themselves" and that there is an "absence of any guarantee of improved effectiveness"? It could seem like the consultants are getting paid to delegate work and not promise results.

Being a student in this class, I understand the consultants attempted to set realistic expectations for the client. But the problem was that they didn't consider their audience's perspective—a lack of meeting the audience from where they were at led to a poorly executed entry.

Their messaging is suited for other OD practitioners (or business students). I find it ironic how they, themselves, weren't "self-aware" within their delivery.

A key question to be answered in any OD engagement is, "Who is the client"? Why do you think this is such a challenging question? Why does it really matter?

Our text shares that there are six "client types." These are Contact Clients, Intermediate Clients, Primary Clients, Unwitting Clients, Indirect Clients, and Ultimate Clients.

Identifying each of your clients and considering them throughout the consulting process is essential to help mitigate potential change hurdles or roadblocks. For example, if consultants were to neglect intermediate clients' needs, many meetings wouldn't be productive as those clients would be fighting to have their voices heard.

This question becomes especially challenging when different client types have different and conflicting motives and goals. At that point, how do you determine what direction you'll take your consulting process?

Refer back to the Northern County Legal Services case. Can you find examples of one or more of the "client types" listed in this chapter? What are they?

Contact Clients: Christina (Initial point of contact)

Intermediate Clients: The Interning Law Students (Data is gathered from them by Julie)

Primary Clients: Julie (Director of NCLS)

Unwitting Clients: Those seeking legal consult from NCLS

Indirect Clients: Future NCLS employees and volunteers

Ultimate Clients: Those seeking legal consult from NCLS (the unwitting clients- its a nonprofit organization, after all)

Imagine you were meeting with the client in the Northern County case study. What questions would you want to ask during the contracting stage. What do you think is the most critical question to ask in this case or for that matter in any consulting situation?

Beyond the contracting example questions listed on pages 136 and 137, I would specifically ask NCLS to self-identify their organizational bottlenecks. Further, I would ask them to explain each of their legal services from the beginning of the client's experience to the end. The objective is to discover any other unknown bottlenecks.

I believe a highly critical question for any client, especially NCLS, would be, "A year after we've implemented our changes, what does your organization look like?" Then, I would challenge them with the follow-up, "how can we make that future even better?"

Submitted 1/28/22