Client-consultant relationship is a fundamental piece in the puzzle of successful consultation. Soft systems thinking provides a powerful framework to conceptualize and make sense of such relationships, clarifying mutual commitment and demonstrates collaborative values.

1. Facilitator-Client
relationship
How systems thinking can help
create collaborative client
relationships
Paul Nunesdea | CEO
groupVision | Optimizing group collaboration

2. Session outline
• Whiteboard: Intro & setting
expectations.
• Special breed of consultants?
• Challenges in process
consultation.
• Soft systems thinking: two types
of systems.
• Analyzing the intervention.
• Circle: wrap up and close.

3. Special breed consulting
• Is a group facilitator a special breed of a consultant?

4. Starting by some definitions
Consultant:
• is an advisory contracted for and provided to organizations to help in an
objective and independent manner, the client organization to identify
management problems, analyze such problems, and help, when
requested, in the implementation of solutions
(Greiner and Metzger, 1983).
Group facilitator:
• Is a substantively neutral person without any decision making authority,
whose selection is acceptable to all members of the group to help improve
how it identifies and solve problems and make decisions to increase the
group effectiveness
(IAF – International Association of Facilitators)

5. Two types of group facilitation
Roger Schwarz et al. (2005) define:
• Basic facilitation – helps groups learn ground rules and
develop ability to self-facilitate most conversations.
• Developmental facilitation – Helps groups identify and change
deeply held defensive routines and develop skills for leading
organizational change and transformation.
• Developmental facilitation strongly overlaps with
organizational development (OD) interventions
• OD = systemic and systematic change effort using
behavioural sciences knowledge and skills to transform the
organization to a new state.

6. 3 models of consultation
Edgar Schein (1990) has identified three broadly accepted models of
consultation:
• Purchase-of-expertise. There is no expectation to focus on the client
relationship per se, but rather to provide expertise in a detached
manner.
• The doctor-patient model. The focus is on using a diagnostic
approach to examine the client organization’s problems and advise on a
solution. This model emphasizes the importance of building a strong
relationships and developing trust between the client and the consultant.
• The process consultation model. The consultant is a facilitator with
the client actually providing much of the relevant expertise. The
consultant provides more of the framework and methodology for
defining the problem and the best possible alternatives. In the end the
client chooses what to do about the problem.

7. The roles of the client
In Schein’s model, six basic types of clients can be distinguished:
Contact clients – the individual(s) who first contact the consultant with a request, question, or issue.
Intermediate clients – the individuals or groups who or which get involved in various interviews,
meetings, and other activities as the project evolves.
Primary clients – the individual(s) or group who ultimately “own” the problem or issue being worked on;
they are typically also the ones who pay the consulting bills or whose budget covers the consultation
project.
Unwitting clients – members of the organization or client system above, below and laterally related to
the primary clients who will be affected by interventions but who are not aware they will be impacted.
Indirect clients – members of the organization who are aware that they will be affected by the
interventions but who are unknown to the consultant and who may feel either positive or negative about
these effects.
Ultimate clients – the community, the total organization, an occupational group, or any other group that
the consultant cares about and whose welfare must be considered in any intervention that the consultant
makes.

8. 5 categories of consultants
Alternatively, Nees and Grenier (1985) propose five categories of consultants:
• (1) The mental adventurer analyzes truly intransigent problems such as long-term
scenarios for country development, by applying rigorous economic methods and
leveraging his or her experience base.
• (2) The strategic navigator bases his or her contribution on a rich quantitative
understanding of the market and competitive dynamics, and then recommends courses
of action without too much regard of the client’s perspective.
• (3) The management physician derives his or her recommendations from a deep
understanding of the internal dynamics of the client organization, often willing to
sacrifice some objectivity to gain a realistic perspective on what is achievable.
• (4) The system architect impacts his or her clients by helping redesign processes,
routines, and systems – always in close cooperation with the client.
• (5) The friendly co-pilot counsels senior managers as a facilitator rather than as an
expert, and has no ambition to provide new knowledge to the client.

9. Mapping group facilitator’s consulting roles
Purchase of
expertise
Doctor-patient
model
Process
consultation
Mental adventurer
Management
Consultant
Management
Consultant
The strategic
navigator
Management
Consultant
Management
Consultant
The management
physician
Management
Consultant
Management
Consultant
The system
architect
Organizational
development
consultant /
Group facilitator
The friendly co-
pilot
Organizational
development
consultant /
Group facilitator

10. In summary
• A group facilitator is a particular breed of a consultant
• She/he can deliver basic facilitation when focusing
exclusively on the group objectives
• She /he can deliver developmental facilitation and as
a result approaches the role of an organization
development consultant
• When approaching the role of an OD consultant the
group facilitator operates in the process consultation
mode – client is ultimate responsible for decision
making.

11. Challenges of process consultation
• The group facilitator as a process consultant means that
she/he must challenge the group to find their own answers
providing the right conditions for effective team work.

12. Literature review
Handley et al. 2005 researched the client-consultant
relationship and found out:
• Consultants have the ability to challenge the organizational
status quo and lead the client to new or different forms of
knowledge.
• Clients perceive the 'challenge' role of consultants to be
very valuable by bringing an external or otherwise
'marginal' view which prompts clients to re-evaluate their
own knowledge.
• However the dynamics of challenge interventions are often
presented at the level of generality, and have not been
fully explored in the context of case study research.

13. Research reveals
A case study centered on a strategy project sponsored by a
senior executive in a multinational FTSE 100 organization:
"We had a facilitator for this meeting - an external facilitator called
Robin. He does a lot of work at the EXCO level. He’s very senior and
well regarded. He’s an external person, just works for himself. He's
been extremely helpful. Actually more helpful than STG (the consulting
company) from the point of view of structuring the day and challenging
us to really think through what we want to get out of it. He did all the
right things. Asked all the right questions." [Peter, Senita project manager]

14. Effective contracting
• For effective process consultation the client-facilitator contract
needs to be well defined upfront.
• A contract is "an explicit bilateral commitment to a well-defined
course of action" which means that all parties need to agree:
• why they want to do something
• with whom
• what they are going to do
• by when
• any fees, payment or exchanges there will be

15. A process consulting contract implies
• All parties need to state what they are prepared to do.
• Are they able and willing to undertake what is being
asked?
• Is this appropriate? Does it fit within any statements of
purpose and function?
• Is it legal, ethical?
• Do they have the competence to deliver this?
• What does each party want of the others?

16. In summary
• Contracts need to be: measurable, manageable and
motivational.
• Measurable means that the goals need to be
tangible.
• The goal will be specific and behavioural and
clearly defined.
• That each party involved in the contract will be able
to say in advance how they will know when the goal
has been achieved.

17. Soft systems thinking
Soft systems methodology offers a
powerful framework to analyze
contracting in a group facilitation /
process consultancy project.

18. The notion of a “human activity system”
• Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is a powerful
approach for managing a client-facilitator relationship

19. CATWOE
• 1. Transformation - what fundamental
change is made to the systems' inputs? in
what outputs are they converted?
• 2. Weltanschauung - what is the
fundamental worldview that makes this
transformation relevant?
• 3. Customer - who is the beneficiary of
this systems' transformation.
• 4. Actors - who enacts this
transformation?
• 5. Owners - who can stop this system to
operate?
• 6. Environment - what are the major
external constraints that can impact the
systems' operations?

20. An example
• we want the outside of our house’s fence to be painted.
• we need to find a person who will paint it and who will
give us a quote for doing it.
• If we agree the quote, and we like him or her enough,
we will no doubt employ them.
• We will agree a date and time, perhaps check they are
insured, and choose the colour of the paint and off they
go.

22. Think about your own examples
• Who would be in the role of Customer?
• Who would be in the role of Actor?
• What would be the Transformation?
• What is the Worldview behind this intervention?
• Who is the Owner?
• What are the Environmental constraints?

23. Model several CATWOEs
• You will be surprised with the knowledge that can be
shared about the situation

24. Analyzing the intervention
The enactment of group facilitation:
establishing ground rules, designing
group processes, etc.
Appreciation of the group intervention’s situation:
organizational context, business environment, etc.
Considerations concerning the intervention:
Who is in the role of client(s), who “owns” the problem, etc.
A B
C

25. Cultural stream of analysis
A) Analysis of intervention - Client/consultant relationship
• Who is in the role of client?
• Who is the 'would be problem solver'?
• Who is the 'problem owner'?
B) Social system analysis
• Roles, Norms, Values
Political system analysis
• How is 'power' expressed around here? What are the commodities through which
power is expressed?
C) Group intervention

26. Wrap up
Major findings

27. • OD competencies http://www.odnetwork.org/?page=odcompetencies
• Case study: http://www.designedlearning.com/press-room/articles/contracting-
eight-steps-to-building-a-strong-client-consultant-relationship/
• Alonso strategy consulting’s article:
http://www.alonsostrategyconsulting.com/The_Client-Consultant_Relationship
• Academic Paper: Client-consultant relations and the role of challenge
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc/archive/oklc6/papers/handley
_sturdy_clark__fincham.pdf
• OLKC portal: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc
• Blog article: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/change-academy/2012/04/30/change-and-
the-knowledge-iceberg/
References & additional resources
Acknowledgements:
The images in this presentation were captured from a book that I strongly recommend:
Checkland, P & Scholes, J. (1990) Soft Systems in Action –
John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. http://amzn.com/0471986054

28. • Paul Nunesdea is the English author name of
Paulo Manuel Coimbra Nunes de Abreu an
organizational psychologist, MSc in Information
Management and PhD in Management Science.
• Paul has conducted research work and external
consultancy in a varied number of organizations
including National and Regional Governments.
• In 2003 he started the "Forum Hospital do Futuro"
a not for profit initiative that convened a national
Think Thank in Portugal
• In 2009 he founded the Iberian Healthcare
Leaders Forum that has convened several
Thought Leaders summits in Spain and Portugal.
• Since 2012 is a member of the International
Association of Facilitators
About the author

29. • groupVision specializes in group collaboration
and works with group facilitators from the IAF -
International Association of Facilitators -
worldwide.
• We provide software tools and the expertise to
apply them in any type of collaborative working
environment.
• Combined with a clear understanding of your
objectives we design interactive and participative
working environments that transform your
organization to thrive in the 21st century.
About groupVision

30. Please keep in contact following us in Linkedin!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/groupvision