Diary of a Change Agent

Citation

Krausz, M. (2002), "Diary of a Change Agent", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 296-298. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm.2002.23.3.296.2

The book is a diary of a consultant over a period of three years. Unlike many diaries, it is not merely a continuous account of events and encounters telling a rather continuous story. Instead, each episode or event is followed by a titled paragraph which highlights the value that the episode had created. The main reason for writing the diary, in the author’s own words, was:

I wanted to understand why clients engage me, what the longer terms of our work together really were and how best to create value with, and for, the client (p. 8).

Value is conceived as a wide array of gains, achievements, and contributions including time, money, appreciation, a better job, better relationships and so forth. And since all of us, consultants included, operate in social contexts most of our life, all partners to social encounters strive for value for themselves but at the same time have to take into consideration their role‐partners’ value strivings as well. In a word, this may be seen as the art of interpersonal relationships in general and the consultant‐client relationships, the focal interest of the diary. Creating value for all parties connected with an organizations is, thus, a complex issue since the different parties have different perspectives of what is “value” for them; customers, employers, shareholders, and employees, each has its own preferred states. Therefore, adding value to one client, say management, does not necessarily go together with needs of employees or customers.

Creation of value is also a key theme in the work of many other professionals such as nurses, physicians, accountants, CEOs, or social workers. Viewed in this way, the diary may be of interest not only to individuals involved in organizational consultation in the strict sense, but also to audiences such as those just mentioned and probably many others. Creation of value, in the author’s opinion, is essentially a question of relationships with the client. He believes that the tough part of consulting is not the task‐oriented activities but the creation and maintenance of relationships with the client.

The author presents five phases of personal transformation that the author underwent throughout the three years period covered by the diary. Transformation, according to the author, is a “paradigm change”, or a three stage route of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis or the harmonization of conflicting ideas into a synthesis. The ability to create synthesis from conflicting cognitions is particularly important in the current global world where perceptions, concepts, beliefs and realities are constantly being challenged by the turbulent changes in most aspect of life, including the realities of organizational life and those of each individual as a working person and career person. Even those persons who are unaware of the need to detach oneself and reflect upon the meaning of events they underwent are, in fact, enforced by the changing realities to do so. For organizations and their consultants, as well as for many professionals, the need for constant inward‐looking is a question of professional life and death. Learning is, therefore, another key concept in the book; consultants have to learn, adapt, and become aware of the meaning of inner and environmental events and changes, and have to be aware, and alert their clients to what they have to learning from changes.

There are varied ways to achieve transformation – through meditation therapy, coaching and so forth. The way preferred by the author is through conversation – a dialogue between two persons or a small group conversation. To achieve transformation through conversation requires, first, an awareness of its importance and secondly, creating a appropriate setting and time for such conversations. The author offers several methods and exercises to achieve this. The main ingredients are:

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  setting time aside;

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  listening;

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  accepting;

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  building on ideas; and

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  connecting.

Those elements create result in “flow states” which are the essence of transformation conversations. The turbulent world in which all of us live requires both personal and corporate transformation to survive and to thrive. The author rightfully notes that this need had never been so important and urgent as it is in current times. He sees the conversation as an efficient tool to achieve transformation of the consultant, the consultee, and the organization as a whole. Despite some risks, constant transformation is a necessary condition to achieve personal satisfaction and high quality performance.

The author had chosen the diary technique as a method for his personal continuous learning, and suggests this method to others as well. He recommends it as a way of understanding and reflecting one’s own feelings. At the same time, this is also a necessary step to understanding others. The diary method is based on asking yourself several questions and through answering them, the individual gains the insight that is needed for stating and achieving value for oneself and for one’s clients and customers.

The book itself is an example on how to use the diary method. The author views it as an example of a “learning diary”. Based on its format, one may call it a “didactic diary”. It is simultaneously the author’s own diary over a three years period, and teaching tool for readers who may be interested in starting their own diary. Many of the descriptive episodes are followed by distinct sections which spell out the lessons that the author wants his reader to learn. It is quite interesting but indeed, somewhat too didactic in my view. In many of the episodes described in the book, the “moral” (the created value), is quite obvious to the skilled reader and therefore, the interruption of the flow of the diary by indicatory paragraphs is an unnecessary interference which diminishes the interest created by the sheer description of events and encounters with clients. I consent, though, that those clarifying paragraphs may carry much more value and significance for students or consultants in the early stages of their career or for other professionals with less background in psychology or related social sciences. For the latter, description alone may not suffice. The diary method is without doubt a very interesting and useful way for people to achieve their personal flow state and eventually a personal transformation. It is not always the most appealing format for the reader, or rather, there are probably large individual differences in regard to that appeal. For me, the flow of reading and enjoyment was somewhat interrupted by “flashes of the blindingly obvious”, “value statements”, or “exercises” which follow many of the descriptive sections.