STRATEGYCOACHING 215
supporting team. It is very difficult, however, for the solo practitioner to reach
deep enough into the organization to experiment with how new ideas can re-
shape the way day-to-day work gets done. They rely heavily on resources
within the client organization, but these organizations often find it harder to
focus on questioning and testing assumptions about themselves rather than
outsiders. This difficulty arises as much from the challenge of creating time
for that discipline as from the intellectual challenge of breaking frame.
My partners and I have been experimenting with an institutional form
that we think will be more successful in advising clients who are engaged
with questions of strategy in this newer and broader conception. We work
best with clients who see the difference between “strategy” and “implemen-
tation” as a false distinction, and who are willing to engage both their own
organizations and external thinkers in developing and testing new ideas.
Many ofour clients are situated in companies that lead their industries.
These clients are looking for new ways of conceiving how value can be cre-
ated. They do not perceive strategy as a benchmarking exercise that will re-
sult in an adaptation of practices that others in the industry have already
proven. Our clients understand that strategy, organization, and people can-
not be separated, and they look to us to help them consider how those three
elements can evolve together.
To deliver this vision, we have had to do something new in the consulting
industry:
•Focus at least as much on experiments that point the way to new strate-
gic options as on studies that prove the case for a new strategy
•Maintain the levels of revenue per consultant necessary to attract and
retain the very brightest people, while keeping project costs low
enough that we can engage with clients over time frames much longer
than a traditional strategy project
•Create an environment in which people who are “high /high” on intel-
lectual and emotional intelligence feel valued for “critical doing” as
well as “critical thinking”
•Develop communication approaches that work at both the most senior
levels in an organization and at the front lineAlthough our efforts in this regard are currently distinctive, we expect,
and even hope, that others will follow us in developing institutional forms
that enable a new kind of advisory work around strategy. There is perhaps no
more important question for an individual who seeks to be a world-class ad-
visor on strategy than “ What institutional context will enable me to provide
the best help and counsel to clients?” As clients realize more and more that