PROCESS CONSULTATION

Edgar Schein: “Process Consultation is the creation of a relationship with the client that
permits the client to perceive, understand, and act on the process events that occur in the
client’s internal and external environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the
client.” Schein stresses that the process consultant's role is one of helping groups, rather than
directing their members with expert advice. The focus is on the group's processes, such as
communication and leadership -- especially in areas that members are not aware of, but that
adversely affects them achieving their goals. The process of process consultation generally
follows that of action research. This definition aptly describes the unique nature of mutual
collaboration between the facilitator and client in process consultation.

Process consulting is a model of consultation based on mutual “helping relationship”

propounded by Edgar Schein. It all started as a practice during the late twentieth century as a
consulting work in which the consultant works ‘with’ the client and not ‘for’ the client. This
constitutes the Fundamental philosophy of process consulting. In process consultation there is
no one management expert who comes up with an off-the-shelf solution for the client, rather
the consultant and the client indulges into a participatory process from diagnostics to
implementation in finding out a solution that specifically applies to the said client system
organization. The key aspects of mutual participation and specificity makes the process
consultant methodology a powerful management consultancy tool.

Process consultation is a specific approach. It is the help given to a client group in

understanding and developing the methodology of working in general and understanding and
managing the effects of work methodology on involvement, alienation, collaboration,
conflict, consensus, and such other group processes which affect decision-making and the
members' commitment to the decisions made.
Process Consultation Process:

Edgar Shein’s  (1987) model of process consultation focuses on the basic assumption that
problems will be solved more effectively and stay solved longer if the organization learns to
solve the problems itself. 

Process consultation (PC) is based on the foundation that consultation focuses on a helping
relationship. There is a mutual nature in which the consultant works with and not for the
client (Schein, 1999). This model encourages the client and consultant to act as equals. This
approach is contrasted with that of the expert or doctor roles in that the consultant is not
expected to arrive on the scene with answers to every problem, nor a prescription to fix
whatever problem the organization has identified.

The PC approach assumes that problem-identification is part of the process, and that the
client may not know wherein the problem lies. “Process consultation (PC) is the creation of a
relationship with the client that permits the client to perceive, understand and act on the
process events that occur in the client’s internal and external environment in order to improve
 the situation as defined by the client” (Schein, 1999, p.20). The PC approach is known as a
more developmental approach, seeking to empower the clients to solve their own problems,
and places a limit on the outsider consultant’s knowledge (Schein, 1987).

PC recognizes three main principles. First, the client always knows more about their own
situation than the consultant will. Second, the process requires psychological ownership of
the activities on the part of the client, and third, the consultant should seek to develop the
client’s capabilities to solve their own problems. The main focus is on human processes,
including face-to-face relationships, communication, group and inter-group processes, and
broader organizational issues such as values, culture and norms. The ultimate goal is to
establish an effective helping relationship.

The Ten Principles of Process Consultation are:

1. Always try to be helpful.

2. Always stay in touch with the current reality.
3. Access your ignorance.
4. Everything you do is an intervention.
5. It is the client who owns the problem and the solution.
6. Go with the flow.
7. Timing is crucial.
8. Be constructively opportunistic with confrontative interventions.
9. Everything is a source of data; errors are inevitable-learn from them.
10. When in doubt share the problem.

As with any consultation relationship, the main goal would always be to help. To effectively
help, one must have a deep understanding of her own picture of reality, which would include
personal preconceptions, biases, and judgments. The best helping relationship offers the
client empowering strategies to own the problem, diagnose and to come to a conclusion on
how best to implement the solution. Schein (2003, p. 76) stresses that no one can understand
the organization better that the client. The most fundamental premise of the PC approach is
that all work with human systems, whether it be contracting, data gathering, diagnosing,
interviewing, testing, assessment, or surveying, is an intervention.
It is important to stress that the PC approach does not preclude the use of an expert model.
Often times switching to the expert mode, it is important to keep in mind that the approach is
only designed to fix the problem. On the other hand, when neither the problem nor the
solution are clear it appears the PC approach offers the best underlying philosophy in both a
remedial and preventive outlook. Process consultation is somewhat like a journey in that the
voyage is as important as the final destination. Some interventions are anticipated and others
are opportunity based in nature. Change is constant and all interventions leave an impact. In
the words of Ann O”Roark (2002, p.44), “ the consultant needs to know the best research on
individual differences, on group dynamics, and on organizations as system”. One of the
biggest contributions a psychological consultant can offer to any organization is the
psychological point of view and the profound importance of the psychological causation of
events internal and external to the organization.