Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
The second edition of Peter Block's Flawless Consulting gracefully updates what many consider the best resource of its kind. New chapters on implementation, "whole-system" strategies, and ethics are included, but in general it simply fine-tunes Block's proven advice to match the transformations that business and society have undergone since initial publication two decades ago. "The days of long studies and expert-driven answers are passing," the author proclaims in his new preface. "The task of the consultant is increasingly to build the capacity of clients to make their own assessments and answer their own questions." He then subtly modifies his established recommendations accordingly for every step, from the initial client meeting and problem diagnosis through data collection and the execution of solutions. In the section on "Conducting a Group Feedback Meeting," for example, he advises: "Treat the group as a collection of individuals.... Ask each person what he or she wants from the meeting. This will surface differences and force the group to take responsibility for some of the difficulties that may arise." --Howard Rothman
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Was not the edition I needed
Customer Rating:
I had searched by ISPN number and this book came up so I ordered it. Upon reciept of the book, I realized it was a very old edition and useless to me.
An Incredibly Engaging Book
Customer Rating:
Peter Block's "Flawless Consulting Second Edition" is an outstanding book and I recommend it for anybody who is ever asked for advice. Consulting skills are not limited to people with a consultant title but anybody who helps others but has no authority over the outcome of their advice. Leaders, project managers, church elders, event planners, and many others will find benefit in this book.
I bought this book because I am an internal consultant. I had a coach challenge me to define my role as a consultant. I was not able to do so in a way that satisfied me. This book helped me tremendously to be purposeful in all of my consulting work.
Block defines the roles and needs for both consultant and client. He provides the thinking behind the business of each phase in consulting. The definition and encouragement of how to be authentic are very actionable. The book also highlights the differences between external and internal consulting.
Some stand out chapters cover: * Contracting with a client (this is not just a formal & legal contract but a relationship contract) * Understanding, recognizing, and dealing with resistance * Obtaining data * Engagement thinking and tools
"Flawless Consulting" has many elements consistent with Lean thinking such as whole system engagement, being a learning organization instead of only focusing on teaching, and moving away from just engineering to include the social side of change.
I really like the wide margins in the book to be able to write my notes and thoughts. A good sign that I get something from a book is the amount of pencil marks inside of it. Practically every other page has some notation from my pencil!
Flawless Consulting
Customer Rating:
An easy to use guide on contracting with a client. This step by step guide is full of insights into where things can go wrong in the engagement process and gives strategies to put them right.
Complete and Well Written
Customer Rating:
Certainly useful for anyone currently consulting or considering entering the field. Also helpful for those who deal with cross functional groups, particularly project and program managers.
This is the bible for Entrepreneurship studies
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Prof. Eugene Fregetto uses this book in his 4th level Entrepreneurship Consulting Class 464 at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC). I am a retired businessman and SCORE counselor and have worked as a volunteer mentor to this class for the past 17 semesters. This book is the best I've come across on the subject. It is well informed and easy to read from begining to end. It stands alone as a great reference and sits on my self for that purpose.
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