Organisational Consulting @ the Edges of Possibility

Organisational Consulting @ the Edges of Possibility

Organisational Consulting @ the Edges of Possibility presents the accounts of ten consultants who describe what happens when their work with clients challenges management orthodoxy, or when the processes they employ challenge the received wisdom about the nature and methods of consulting.

 The contributors, all of whom have been part of the Ashridge Masters’ and Doctoral Programmes in Organisation Consulting, describe what it takes to consult to the organisational world as it is, while trying to bring about significant change. While the stories are personal, sometimes deeply so, through their practical and theoretical rigour they speak to a more general truth. They describe consulting in a world of multiple realities that cannot be reduced to a single version of what is true. The contributors reflect on what is needed to do useful and valuable work for their clients in situations when as consultants they feel they are working at the very edge of their capabilities.

 Organisational Consulting @ the Edges of Possibility is for all consultants and developers, inside and outside organisations, looking for insight about non-prescriptive consulting. It is also valuable for those who would like a challenge to their established ways of understanding organisational life. The book demonstrates that it is essential to know people and organisations in a complicated and multi-faceted way in order to effect lasting change. Organisational Consulting @ the Edges of Possibility is especially for those frustrated by the failure of purely analytical and methodological techniques to make much of a difference to organisational life.

A related video can be viewed here.

 About the editors

The editors are Kathleen King and John Higgins. Kathleen is a practising consultant and leads the Doctoral and Masters’ Programmes in Organisation Consulting at Ashridge.  John Higgins is a research associate of Ashridge Business School who has been investigating the practice of psychologically and socially constructed consulting for five years.  He is the author of an intimate inquiry into the experience of authority:Images of authority – working within the shadow of the crown.