Harvey Sayings #7 – Readiness

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I mentioned previoisly how important high quality documents were for us at Gellman, Hayward.  However to our great frustration, we would do a high quality report for a client and recieve high praise but nothing would change.  In the mid 70’s Harvey discovered an article by Bob Schaffer and showed to me.  Having read it, I flippantly said clearly he does not understand consulting he does not talk about "the report".  However the article was very profound and insightful.  The basic theme was that nobody does anything they are not ready to do (Readiness).  Thus the praise we recieved for our report was a method the client used to putting distance between himself and us.  We then realized what we really wanted to deliver was change not a high quality report.  The report could be a tool but not the product.  Readiness is a simple but very profound concept.  The concept applies to the consultant as well as the client.  Many consultants have difficulty with their egos and really want priase even though they know it likely means a failed consulting job.  I always had difficulty with that aspect of readiness.  This event dramaticly changed the way we delivered our consulting services.    

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