Intervention skills

The Learner's Guide for Consulting for Systems Practice Interventions (a)

Learner Guide

 Consulting for Systems Practice Interventions (a)

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This course will provide learners with key principles and a structure for interventions. Topics covered include:<ul><li>The five phases of the consultative process;</li><li>‘Techniques are not enough’: relationships in consulting;</li><li>Dealing with ‘the space of service’;</li><li>Setting up a clear ‘contract’ for interventions – including triangular and rectangular contracting;</li><li>Authenticity and setting your assumptions;</li><li>The client behind the client and the problem behind the problem;</li></ul>To maximise your chances of being effective in achieving positive change, you should combine a sound understanding of systems approaches with well-developed intervention skills.This in turn requires a clear conception of the role of the systems practitioner as ‘consultant’, of their relationships with stakeholders, especially the ‘client’, and the nature of the practitioner’s influence on the organisations they seek to transform.Drawing on Flawless Consulting, Barry Oshry’s Organic Systems Framework, and more, Consulting for Systems Practice Interventions emphasises a collaborative approach and equal responsibility between the intervention practitioner and the client, navigating a path between the twin traps of ‘consultant as boss’ and ‘consultant as servant’.These courses are relevant to anyone – consultant or not! – who is engaging in organisational change.Trainer These courses are delivered by Benjamin P Taylor, an expert in systems, cybernetics, and complexity in service transformation.Benjamin P Taylor (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.antlerboy.com">www.antlerboy.com</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.antlerboy.com/">)</a> is a leading figure in public service transformation, systems thinking, and organisational development with over 25 years of experience. He is Chief Executive of the Public Service Transformation Academy, a social enterprise delivering capability-building programmes such as the Cabinet Office Commissioning Academy, and Managing Partner at RedQuadrant, a consultancy he co-founded to innovate and disrupt traditional approaches to public service. With a background in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford, Benjamin has held advisory and leadership roles in local government and international consulting, including with PwC and Capita. Deeply engaged in the systems and complexity community, he is a Director of SCiO, a Fellow of the Cybernetics Society, and a prolific speaker, writer, and educator. He is currently authoring two books and co-hosts two podcasts on systems thinking and service transformation.

This 'half-day' course is the first of two that introduce consulting for systems practice interventions and engages deeply with Peter Block’s book Flawless Consulting. 

Consulting for Systems Practice Interventions (a)

Systems Thinking practitioner

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