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Businesses & Organizations
| Frequently Asked Questions |
1. With what kinds of issues can you help us?
Our intervention is most effective in situations that are unique, unprecedented,
and complex. The situations that impel most people to contact us involve
serious, often protracted, and contentious disagreement regarding the
appropriateness of organizational objectives or the means being used
or considered for achieving those objectives. If you are experiencing
a disagreement that can be resolved by an arbiter or through compromise,
then you don’t need us. If you’re not sure whether you are
dealing with a problem or a critical issue, call us, and we’ll
be glad to help you figure it out at no charge. For over forty years,
we have been working with businesses and organizations of every size
and type. (Please see Examples of Past Work.)
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2. How would you begin?
First, it is imperative that we have the attention of the top-most executive
in the organization. Under no circumstances will we accept an engagement
without his/her invitation. However, if a lower-level executive or manager
approaches us with the ”problem,” we can usually work with
that person to get the attention of the chief executive to address it.
Second, we would meet with all immediately relevant parties within the
organization to listen to what they perceive the “problem” to
be. Since the perceived “problem” is very seldom the real
issue, we then begin the process to discover and resolve the actual critical
issue.
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3. How long would it take?
In our experience, depending on the urgency of the issue and the willingness
to commit the necessary time, we can usually identify the real issue
within a matter of hours or days. Again depending on the commitment of
time, we can usually begin to frame a potential resolution within a few
days or weeks. To complete the implementation of the full emergent solution
can sometimes be accomplished in a few days, e.g., a weekend, but often
requires three to six months for a typically complex situation.
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4. How much time will you need from us?
Our process is indisputably time-intensive, which is why we are used only
for the most critical issues. Specifically, you should anticipate spending
an average of two hours a day addressing your critical issue with us.
Frequently, however, we can concentrate or compress the time into a couple
of half-days a week or a weekend. If several people or groups of people
are involved, obviously we will need to make a much more significant
commitment to you.
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5. How do you handle resistance to change?
We reject the idea that people resist change. In our experience, people
actually welcome change, because the change allows them to be more productive
and to experience greater satisfaction in what they do. In other words,
the problem is not change; it is a failure to recognize that one’s
environmental complex has changed and that behavior that had been appropriate
in the old context is no longer appropriate in the new context. Once
that recognition takes place, the concomitant change in behavior within
the system will be welcomed.
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6. Can you help us to determine if we need to get rid of certain employees
who are incompetent?
Yes. However, we will also help you to recognize that people who are not
performing adequately are often incompetent only within a context of transition.
In other words, their incompetence is a consequence of ambiguity, missing
information, overload, and inappropriate conceptual models, and more often
than not, a combination of these factors. We can and will identify and
resolve all of these issues.
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7. How can we be sure that you have the expertise to understand our organizational
functions well enough to help us effectively and efficiently?
First, because one of the cornerstones of our methodology is General Systems
Theory; second, because it is unlikely that we have not already worked
within a similar context; third, because our experience has given us intimate
familiarity with all major industries, as well as with all organizational
functions; and fourth, because if we can’t, we will tell you so.
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8. In what way does your approach differ from that of other consultants
or organizational counselors?
We believe that almost all of the people who have chosen to work within
the domain of behavioral change bring sincerity and compassion to their
efforts. They do the best they can with what they have. Unfortunately,
all they have is a rational epistemology, an epistemology that does not
provide any real operational mechanisms to comprehend the complex dynamics
of the restrictive nonconscious and that implicitly segregates cognitive
dynamics from affective dynamics. Using transrational analysis, together
we will seek to answer the following four questions:
What are your current realities?
How were those realities created?
Are those realities presently serving you well?
If not, what new realities do you need to construct?
The transrational process is not linear, nor does it rely solely on cognitive
processes. Quite to the contrary, in fact, without emphatic attention to
affective dynamics, attempting to address these questions is futile. You
should also know that the process is intense and demanding, but also rewarding
in ways that cannot be anticipated.
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9. To what geographical area do you restrict yourself?
We don’t. We operate worldwide.
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10. I have some other questions that you have not addressed here.
We would be glad to have the opportunity to address them.
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11. How do we start?
By calling us
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