CHAPTER 17

THE ELEMENTS OF ENGAGEMENT

One powerful service of the consultant may be to raise clients’ consciousness about the value of engagement in the implementation process. Engagement has power independent of the content of the recommendations. The most technical content or important business decision will not be acted on without a different interaction within the client system. If the quality of the interaction does not change, no standards, measurement, and rewards will have an impact. Consultants can help leaders engage others in implementing decisions by following the same principles for building commitment that we explored in the process of contracting and discovery. To review briefly:

The contracting phase was based on

• A deep understanding of the problem