Organizational Dynamics, Va. 34, No.1, pp. 1-17, 2005 {© 2005 Elsevier Inc. llrightsreserved, wow organizational dynamics com ISSN 0000-2616/$~s0e frontmatter do 10.1016/;orgayn 2008.11.06 ‘alae online at wrmaciencediectcomn serence Gomscr- Organizations as Optical Musions: A Clinical Perspective on Organizational Consultation MANFRED KETS DE VRIES You know that a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much y method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after al —Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Searlet ‘These are much deeper waters than | had thought —Sherlock Holmes, The Reigate Puzzle DOING A SHERLOCK HOLMES Although organizational and management development consultants who help execu- tives to become more effective in managing the human side of work have a long and reputable tradition, many of them find them- selves at the crossroads in present-day society. Their original claim to fame had to do with their ability to disentangle knotty problems concerning group and interperso- nal issues. Among those issues were employee retention, employee job satisfac- tion, work-and-life balance, employee pro- ductivity, team performance, conflict management and organizational effective- ness. With a belief in each person's self- actualizing potential i TaTHUTapd an KATHARINA BALAZS emphasis on humanistic and ethical concerns lich _as democracy, social justice, and fair iioemlicpocle omar eiieaemove— ments aimed fe tansform the beliet systems” Dotbaienientionaniseaee Gente sleet ede sec {Htimate goal was to crete baton heater places to work Tn the rough-and-tumble of the global organizational jungle, however, some of these concepts, well meant though they may have been, seem somewhat naive Aer all in the global world, the rallying cay of shareholder value ball toa ten Be Sle slogan Heard. And yet with the inter. ests of all the olf stakeholders muted stakeholders such as customers, employees and the community, which have tobe taken into consideration in order to make organi- zations successfal in the long run = the Fesults are often devastating (6 the bottom line. The question, then, becomes how to go beyond simply: safeguarding sharehorder— fee eee eee Sesivg wags to amiage fee alae Ea Bow © eakpene tune of ede fase sine Maced Baton Set se Sherlock Holmes such an effective, highly successful detective? As he clearly arieu. Iated to Dr. Watson in one of his famous cases, A Stuiy in Sale. "The theories which [faeeeenpremtd- and ch appa to besochimercaarerealy extremely practical 49~ so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese.” In this era of accelerated change, people in organizations are very little or not at al 2 ee Packer a Tie Shoo Sa er ac nerves Humane concerns are all well and good, but organizational leaders want to. know ba paca ny aonagy wl be on wet et a che are gh Lee aera bung a a erent organize tional interventions, such as humanistic psy- apt aree. ae eee al manigenent and’ organization tedionl tS ue femeet dhe ca ee Oe ey Te aie lene oe ee eae net ieee eS ‘beyond the basie repertoire of teambuilding. a re SS se ne ener and ie Ee on of Te ore mt cal detdopment a ee cay at tes mead,» meet ot roa lenis Siete This orientation, solidly grounded in_con- aa eS aauicoaY Gs Seo EE ehen oo oe oraniae a Ee Moto Te Mae cn nT es rel. ey Ral nee ated ot san beh spin ete al peter i a eam elon Fe a et eal “autent eve Se oat being wh eee sense_of aut) ficity and feel alive, where see oa det here is a great need for convergence between, Te Spa Cen ome ol clinical orientation to organizational analysis and change. 2 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS ‘To illustrate the advantages of such con- vergence in the process of organizational intervention and change, we offer below a consulting assignment that benefited from a marriage of more traditional organizational development technology and the clinical approach. Though it seemed to be of only limited success by both the consultant's and the organization's standards, it would have been an even more difficult task to decipher what shappened with only the traditional organizational practitioner's tool kit. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: THE STRATEC COLLUSION Most of the partners ofone of the loc’ off Gf Stratec," a global_ consulting firm, 1d coneluded that the pariner_group was Wo Ignger functioning effectively. Partner meet ings were poorly attended; partners often came late or not at all, claiming that they ‘ad important clienls, The general consensus twas that no meaningful decisions were made ‘Faring partner_meetings anymore Many _ partners also expressed their concern about Pack of Teadership. Though the_pariner #foup had a nominal head — the managing ‘ariner = nobody seemed to be really in SRS many ind become quite evident that the office was no longer functioning at optimal capacit oeethe mubise of the partner group had spread throughout the office, and the con- sultants and other junior staff members were also commenting about a decline in morale. What once had been an exciting, stimulating. placeto work had become just another ordin- ary consulting firm, Transfer of knowledge — in the past a major source of compebitive advantage in the group — was no longer handled effectively. Many of the new part Tas of the rapidly growing firm ~ often “lateral hires” on the partner level who had not gone through the traditional career stages at Stratec had so litle contact that All names have been disguised.they barely knew each other, let alone what the others were doing. No longer was Stratec a place where people shared common experi. ences about client successes and defeats. No longer was there a free flow of information for the benefit of clients and partners alike True knowledge management had come toa Standstill, Management by walking around had turned into management by voige and e- inal, and organizational life smacked more of poiticsand ackstabbing than ofloyalty or_ 09 This growing malaise was reflected in the bottom line. Revenue per partner at this particular office was considerably lower than at most other offices of Stratec. What is more, a number of competing companies. had recently entered what had been Stratec’stra- ditional niche in the consulting market inthis office's region, putting great pressure on the partner group to be more effective Senior partners felt that the new part- neriwere responsible forthe prtcen: malaise, while many of the Rewer Pateoe ais, They felt abandoned by Tea *pectuens ane eutsgal whether they cond pull the carriage alone. As diecontrt come tothe surface during a partner SESS he rol ci Tire fen, a well- Known consultant who specialieh see, (agi human resource managemen assigiiment given fo Ter wae Trades te question of how to become more effec- tive aS a partner group. ens pater Soa ‘Aafia step, Alice requested interviews with all members of the partner group (and some of the more fnias saute oe standing of the salient issues through these interviews, she also planned to use ofa set of survey instrumentation — including’ few Sét-degree Feedback tools that give insight into various sonal, ioup, culture and_strategic issues. This Would serve as the basis for a group discus. sion during a special off-site meeting. When informed about it, the two partners who had given Alice the official go-ahead expressed their view that the use of such survey mate- rial would be a good idea, wing the interviews, however, Alice became aware of an_ enormous amount Tesistance on the part of various partners to having to deal with t survey instrumentation, Common com- Plaints were that some of the questions in the 360-degree feedback instruments were overly personal. Reservations were expressed about how the responses were going, to be used in a group setting. When, surprised about their strong reaction, Alice pressed about what they saw as the problem, they explained that some of the senior partners had had bad experiences using. personal ‘material in the past The “Clinical” Supervision At her wits’ end, Alice decided to discuss the problem with a colleague who had solid clinical training. When, she explained what she had experienced, he noted that she had n_looking ‘ona surface evel only. He remarked that, true enough, there appeared to be consensus at the manifest fevel about What RoGIeT Bee hae the _parner group work more effectivel However, Alice's colleague suggested thai there_were significant, L ‘issues that_contributed_to_ the present malaise. Why were many of the pariners so reluctant to take the steps that seemed to be 0 obvious ~ steps that, in their own consult- ing work, the partners would surely recom- mend to their clients? The_colleague suggested to Alice that her sense of frustra- tion could indicate something more that just 2 reaction fo the OBVIOUS sition, thet & =n_as symptomatic of the level of unspoken frustration among The pari Her colleague also introduced her to the concept of “secondary gain,” which says that manifest ning (im this case, the resent malaise at the office) can offer elusive bsychological advantages. As an example of @ secondary gain in the case of Stratec, hepointed out that the dysfunctional nature of the partner meetings, though seeming painful for all, guaranteed that some of the firmy’s most eritical issues, such as the declin= ing revenue for-cerfain partners, would not be addressed. Instead, time would be wasted on more trivial matters. Hie also reminded Alice that during the interviews many people had hinted that not all of the partners were pulling their weight ‘anymore, that (according to them) some of the ear oeeiners waned tn tosiell Ie ose pariners wanted time fo smell the Tose aid were bringing down revenues as a result. sad yet, her colleague emphasized, Alice had not been able to get anyone to do anything ‘more than hint at this issue. To openly state that a Cache pares Were no longer sufficiently contributing to the firm, was apparently perceive partners as too anxiety inducing, because the §iscussionthat_would inevitably result Boe peak the Wesion that they Were 2 Subic aeal cooperative community Se ae mal to be preferable, in spite of the backstabbing that was its consequence, This might also be Fo raaon why tre suggestion by Alice touse survey and multi-rater feedback to start a discussion must have been far too scary for many of them. They may have feared that they would oped up Strate’s Pandor’s ox.” 1reak havoc and desh er Raps, if these partners were honest with themselves, many of them would have had to admit that they really ike ther present freedom; they enjoyed not having to explain SSR) pet te timer they RAT WORN ‘at Rome and putting in odd hours without Soy i dete We pices ‘snes colleague sald Hatt Tooked to him as though the key players were employing Shae he clad +e defense" Soa wrth the anxiety that spartan parcel of ie srrorganizations. When there 15 0 sufficient Repntsinment” of such ansiety — that when there are no opportunities 0 discuss and deal with heartfelt concerns — people in organizations are_inclined_to engage in defensive routines such as “splitting” (civid- 4 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS ing the world into black-and-white, us-vs. them categories), tive identification Gssigning to other people the “negative” feelings one has but cannot acknowledge) ind denial (not accepting responsibil certain_matters). He explained that these. mechanisms, which are universal modes of Zommunication (but which can seriously impair organizational functioning by creat- ing distractions and shifts of attention), are chological defenses_against_unwanted Pons fantasies Thay serve DO ansfomn and neutralize strong tensions and_affects, siilvas anxiety, shame, guilt, envy, jealousy, Tage, sexual frustration and low sell-esteein. Vey often an organization's bureaucratic features, with all the rules and regulations, checks and countercheck procedures, can be viewed as part of a social defense structure whereby form takes over from substance, {where so much time is spent on trivial mat- ters that the real work that has to be done loses out in the process. “The key to resolution of the present inipass® Alice colleague told her, Tay im greater transparency. Stratec could reitivigom Feit onky ifthe partners were prepared to deal with their problems head on, to dis- cuss some of the “undiscussables,” to stop the subtle infighting and to air out the increasingly politicized atmosphere at the office. Only by speaking honestly and listen- tig selatvely urcefensivey couTd ty d= Seygush reality from fantasy Gnd combat paranoid_thinking_and_sepegoating that threatened to sink the firm. : “However, it would take courage to insti- ‘gate and continue an honest discussion of the Kind of leadership needed to gear up the office during these difficult times. The part