Consulting Models

The four primary models utilized by consulting firms are the: Expert, Doctor-Patient, Process Consultation and Emergent models. Each one of these has a set of overarching principles and can be relevant under certain conditions. Consultants can adapt each model to suit the context of the assignment and there is no one size fits all approach in the execution consulting engagements. However, it is noted that many consultants have used the expert or doctor-patient role. We describe each one of them in the following narrative.

• Expert Model: Here, the client mostly defines the problem and the consultant impends the solution. The consultant offers a service that the client is both requesting and unable to provide for him/herself. The level of interaction between the client and consultant is medium. There are important assumptions in this model. Has the client accurately identified their own needs? Have they considered the consequences of expert data collection and recommendation on organizational change? This model puts great power into the hands of the consultant. This model is appropriate only when clients can determine their needs and consultant capabilities correctly, can communicate their needs to the consultant, and can support (or can pay to support) the outcomes once the initial consultancy is over(Carnegie Mellon University, n.d.).

• Doctor-Patient Model: The consultant is hired to diagnose a problem and administer remedial treatment. In other words, the client presents symptoms of the problem, but the doctor must also gain a deeper understanding of the problem. Fundamentally, this model assumes that an outsider can diagnose a problem, and issue an effective remedy. This model places even more power and dependence into a consultant’s hands. The level of interaction between the client and consultant is high. It is appropriate only when the client is experiencing clear symptoms, knows where the sick areas are, is willing to allow the consultant to intervene and is willing to become dependent on the consultant for both diagnosis and implementation.
• Process Consultation model:  Process consultation is defined as a series of steps facilitated by the consultant that help the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the issues that occur in the client’s environment(s) in order to improve the situation as defined by the client.” (Edgar H. Schein, 1987). The consultant endeavors to increase the client’s capacity to learn and to fix problems, today, tomorrow and in the future. The client sometimes presents symptoms of the problem, but more often presents a possible solution from which the underlying problem must be investigated and the consultant works with the client to arrive at a mutually understood solution. This model is appropriate when the client is motivated to work on improvements on an ongoing basis and wants to develop greater capacity for change within their own organization.

• The Emergent Approach: A critical distinction between the ‘process approach’ and an ‘emergent approach’ is that the former is generally focused on ‘solving a problem’, as well as focused to the past-to-future state. Whereas, an ‘emergent model’ is focused on an open, evolving process of unfolding discovery and shaping that discovery on an ongoing basis in present real-time.  Emergent change has two elements worth noting; chaos theory and complex adaptive systems. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamic systems highly sensitive to initial conditions, which is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Small differences in initial conditions are said to yield widely diverging outcomes for chaotic systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible in general. This happens even though these systems are deterministic. Complex Adaptive Systemsstate that out of complexity, emerges simplicity from form. They are thought of as ever adapting networks influenced by internal and external factors systemically and constantly evolving in dynamic, chaotic and interlaced environments (Trottier, 2012).