Drawing on the authors experiences of working with the professional development of consultants and change-agents over many years, this book provides an asset-based approach to consulting, where the resources to work at this stuckness come from the way that the authors think about and use themselves: their Identity and their Presence. The authors propose that developing capacities to recognize and analyze who they bring into their consulting, and how they bring themselves is central to resource-ful practice. Without a skill-ful integration of these resources, the potential for change can be compromised. In handbook format, the book is structured in seven sections: Potential Space, Identity, Presence, Role Space, Practice, Change, and Future Developments. Focusing on practitioners preoccupations, the authors offer models, theories, tales and activities to help describe and analyze your Identity and your Presence. They tell stories which question how your Practice supports or compromises change, and suggest playful experimentation as a route to Change, and the development of a more resource-ful approach to your consulting practice."

Consultants and practitioners working with change can feel at a loss as to how to help their clients move forward. Organisations get stuck in routine ways even when they have innovations in mind. Consultants get stuck in familiar interventions which no longer prove stimulating or effective. Such challenges to practice can preoccupy and reinforce these stuck positions. Drawing on the authors' experiences of working with the professional development of consultants and change-agents over many years, this book provides an asset-based approach to consulting, where the resources to work at this 'stuckness' come from the way that we think about and use ourselves: our Identity and our Presence. The authors propose that developing capacities to recognise and analyse who we bring into our consulting, and how we bring ourselves is central to resource-ful practice. Without a skill-ful integration of these resources, the potential for change can be compromised. In handbook format, the book is structured in seven sections: Potential Space, Identity, Presence, Role Space, Practice, Change, and Future Developments.

The publication of this book coincides with a increasing recognition that the challenges facing society and organisations are not amenable to "quick fixes". The approaches to consultancy which underpin the cases presented here are particularly relevant in this new context. The contributors are graduates of AOC The Tavistock Institute Masters Programme in Advanced Organisational Change and Consulting and their associates; and the work they describe here is a testament to the quality of that programme and the learning that participants get from it.

Organizational change is often insider-led and supported by internal consultants and change agents. Most of what is written about change comes from the perspective of external consultants or from academics researching the activities of those with insider change roles. Changing Organizations from Within is unusual in providing a range of authentic insider accounts. The editors define 'insiders' as employees who lead and support change efforts within their own organizations, and those psychoanalytically aware external consultants - external 'insiders' - who work closely with organizations and use the dynamics of transference and projection in their relationships with clients to illuminate organizational issues. Each chapter is written by an author with experience of different kinds of insider relationships with their client organizations. Some work 'inside' as employees. Some are external consultants whose work involves developing insightful insider perspectives. The book's editors and several of the authors are graduates, or have been faculty members, of London's Tavistock Institute Advanced Organizational Consultation programme, with experience of running development programmes for consultants and of coaching insiders. Changing Organizations from Within examines the pulls on role and identity that can easily undermine competence and practice. Understanding the system psycho-dynamics present in organizations helps consultants and change agents to make use of an insider perspective without becoming enmeshed in the client organization's regressive and inertial dynamics. The authors provide practical advice to help insiders navigate organizational space, make sense of tricky situations, and work more mindfully to help organizations change.

"The publication of this book coincides with a increasing recognition that the challenges facing society and organisations are not amenable to 'quick fixes'. The approaches to consultancy which underpin the cases presented here are particularly relevant in this new context. The contributors are graduates of AOC and their associates; and the work they describe here is a testament to the quality of that programme and the learning that participants get from it.One thread which runs through the book is consultancy as learning: learning for both the client and the consultant. The contributors to this book are both accomplished and experienced as consultants, and in a continuous process of development. They are open to reflection, critique of their work, and learning from and with their clients.This notion of learning on the part of client is important too. An effective consultancy intervention is one which not only helps the client to address a particular issue or problem, but which also develops the capacity of the client organisation and individuals in it to respond to change and development in the future." -- From the Forward by Phil Swan, Director of the Tavistock Institute