Leading with NLP

Change and Challenge 175

How far are your disagreements fuelled by the way the

business is set up?

How far does your relationship reflect the relationship

between the different parts of the business you are

part of?

Has it built up gradually or did it happen suddenly?

If this situation were to continue, what might the

longer-term impact be?

Do you need to do anything about this situation right

now?

If nothing changes, when in the future will it be

essential to change this situation?

A few years ago I was engaged as a consultant by an orga-
nization based in Germany. The head of department told
me the work he wanted done and then passed on the
details of the contract to the personnel department. Time
passed, nothing happened and I started to worry. I tele-
phoned them to check that all was going smoothly and they
assured me the contract would be ready shortly. Still noth-
ing. Weeks dragged on. From first position I was concerned
that the contract would not go through and I was annoyed
at the seemingly endless delay. The personnel department
was very apologetic whenever I spoke to them, but they
seemed incapable of speeding up the process. Taking sec-
ond position with them, I sensed that they were as
frustrated with the delay as I was, but no one there had
the power to do anything about it. My telephone calls were
having no effect.
From third position it seemed that we were frozen in a pat-
tern of frustration, delay and apology. I stopped calling
because it was a waste of time and frustration slipped into
resignation.
The contract was eventually approved and some months
later I discovered that every outside consultant’s contract
had to be approved by 12 different people! The majority
were not even part of the personnel department. No wonder
it took so long.