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The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion: A Guide to Understanding Your Expertise
Don't venture into the consulting field without this essential Fieldbook & Companion!
Following on the heels of the best-selling Flawless Consulting, Second Edition comes The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion. Whether you work as a consultant or you work with consultants, this relentlessly practical guide will be your best friend as you discover how consulting influences your business- and real life-decisions and those of others.
The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion is packed with:
Sample scenarios Case studies Client-consultant dialogues Hands-on tools Action plans Implementation checklists "Wow! A companion a business owner can't be without! The insights of 30 consultants the caliber of Peter Block is priceless."
--Sue Mosby, principal, CDFM2 Architecture Inc.
"This book is a companion piece for both the desktop and bedside of those who do consulting full time or in their role as leader. I plan to keep this book close to me to both guide and inspire my work."
--Phil Harkins, president, Linkage, Inc.
480 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 22, 2000
45 people are currently reading
471 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 10, 2015
There are a lot of excellent chapters in this collection of articles on consulting, but there are a few duds as well. The book's focus is generally on the very soft-skills end of consulting: group psychology, organizations, change management. Well worth reading for anyone who provides "outsider" advice to leaders and organizations, but skip the chapters that don't click for you.
August 14, 2018
It's really flawless and effortless to read.. Rich content.. Best for consulting
January 26, 2015
A number of years ago, I found myself without a job for the first time in my adult life. At 40, this was scary until I woke up one morning, created a subchapter-S corporation and became a consultant. This book, along with others by Peter Block, was a significant help in getting started and having the confidence to persevere for two years independently. Now I'm a consultant in a big four firm and the things I learned from this book still ring true.
April 9, 2024
This was used as a text for a course I took but it was actually engaging, had plenty of stories to break up any methods or learnings
May 23, 2024
Some sections are really good while others are a complete waste of time. Couple that with the books age and it’s of questionable value these days.
February 17, 2025
I read this Fieldbook right after reading both Flawless Consulting and another new Peter Block book on community. It may have taken away some of the fresh energy I may otherwise have received from some of the ideas in this Fieldbook.
It's inherently useful to hear from over two dozen people who have years of consulting experience under their belt. I love the variety of formats that appear in this books - essays, articles, personal anecdotes, short fiction, poetry, advice columns, and interview transcripts.
One of my favourite essays was actually written by Peter Block, and revisits an idea explored in Flawless Consulting - that risk is inherently a part of change and therefore part of meaningfully addressing an organizational or community problem. The conversation we need to have is not about eliminating risk, but rather about taking some risks. This quote gets at the essence of it:
"Business philosopher Peter Koestenbaum offers us insight about risk when he describes four fundamental fears that exist in being human: 'We fear becoming a fool, being abandoned, being assaulted, and going mad. Each of these takes a deeper cut at understanding what we are afraid of. They also place the question of risk within the individual rather than within the institution. When we can see that risk is our own construction, that it is built into us as a condition of our freedom, we change our stance toward it. It becomes the opportunity we have been waiting for instead of a problem to be solved or a reason to stay where we are.'"
A few other ideas that stuck with me at this point in my life are:
- “We change the world one room at a time.” (Louise Van Rhyn)
- “We are a serene rainbow gracing a turbulent waterfall. The rainbow grows only more stately as the turbulence increases.” (Peter Koestenbaum)
- “The two things that fascinate me most as a consultant are the strengths and value of ‘partnership,’ which I would contrast with the promise of ‘teamwork,’ and how powerful people become when they feel understood.” (Elizabeth McGrath)
- “One of the side effects of competition, grades, and test scores as measures of worth is that it feeds and perhaps helps produce the isolation of our children. This may have a more profound effect on all that concerns us about our youth than we can imagine.” (Ward Maillard and Peter Block)
I also really liked David and Carole Schwinn's very simple breakdown of what a community might want to organize their work around - I always a appreciate different ways of breaking down community needs that are simple & brief but more specific than 'equity' or 'abundance'. They suggested communities might organize “around the principle that every citizen needs to:
- Have reasonable resources to meet their own needs
- Share in decisions that affect their well-being
- Find meaning in their lives, experience belonging in the community, and enjoy a clean, healthy environment
- Have the means to shape the values and ethics of the community, and to have access to resources for dissolving conflict
- Be able to learn and develop their unique talents, skills and abilities."
It's inherently useful to hear from over two dozen people who have years of consulting experience under their belt. I love the variety of formats that appear in this books - essays, articles, personal anecdotes, short fiction, poetry, advice columns, and interview transcripts.
One of my favourite essays was actually written by Peter Block, and revisits an idea explored in Flawless Consulting - that risk is inherently a part of change and therefore part of meaningfully addressing an organizational or community problem. The conversation we need to have is not about eliminating risk, but rather about taking some risks. This quote gets at the essence of it:
"Business philosopher Peter Koestenbaum offers us insight about risk when he describes four fundamental fears that exist in being human: 'We fear becoming a fool, being abandoned, being assaulted, and going mad. Each of these takes a deeper cut at understanding what we are afraid of. They also place the question of risk within the individual rather than within the institution. When we can see that risk is our own construction, that it is built into us as a condition of our freedom, we change our stance toward it. It becomes the opportunity we have been waiting for instead of a problem to be solved or a reason to stay where we are.'"
A few other ideas that stuck with me at this point in my life are:
- “We change the world one room at a time.” (Louise Van Rhyn)
- “We are a serene rainbow gracing a turbulent waterfall. The rainbow grows only more stately as the turbulence increases.” (Peter Koestenbaum)
- “The two things that fascinate me most as a consultant are the strengths and value of ‘partnership,’ which I would contrast with the promise of ‘teamwork,’ and how powerful people become when they feel understood.” (Elizabeth McGrath)
- “One of the side effects of competition, grades, and test scores as measures of worth is that it feeds and perhaps helps produce the isolation of our children. This may have a more profound effect on all that concerns us about our youth than we can imagine.” (Ward Maillard and Peter Block)
I also really liked David and Carole Schwinn's very simple breakdown of what a community might want to organize their work around - I always a appreciate different ways of breaking down community needs that are simple & brief but more specific than 'equity' or 'abundance'. They suggested communities might organize “around the principle that every citizen needs to:
- Have reasonable resources to meet their own needs
- Share in decisions that affect their well-being
- Find meaning in their lives, experience belonging in the community, and enjoy a clean, healthy environment
- Have the means to shape the values and ethics of the community, and to have access to resources for dissolving conflict
- Be able to learn and develop their unique talents, skills and abilities."
September 24, 2013
I am not a cerified consultant yet and this book will help me to understand consulting. I know for many business people such as myself will need to know how to improve their ideas of consulting to be successful.
This book is a companion piece for Flawless Consulting A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used, and of those who do consulting full time or in their role as leader both books will give great insite to working with others even in networking. I plan to keep both these books in arms reach to me to both guide and inspire my studies and later in my work.
This book is a companion piece for Flawless Consulting A Guide To Getting Your Expertise Used, and of those who do consulting full time or in their role as leader both books will give great insite to working with others even in networking. I plan to keep both these books in arms reach to me to both guide and inspire my studies and later in my work.
May 12, 2010
Had to read this for a college course I was editing. Nice work by Mr. Block.
January 10, 2014
Good companion to flawless consulting. Not all that I was expecting, though helpful.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews