Review

This book is aimed at management consultants. My key takeaway from the book is that each consulting engagement should be an act of co-creation and collaboration. The consultant should be authentic and assertive. Present a clear picture of the situation - a fresh view, not an exhaustive account of all the facts. Make recommendations.

You Might Also Like

Curious about how are these recommendations generated? Learn more.

From the Front of the Room

This book offers valuable insights from an experienced facilitator, so I'm glad I persevered through it, despite finding it burdensome to read. Facilitation is evidently more of an art than a science. It appears to be tacit knowledge, meaning that you need to practice it in order to learn it. I believe this is reflected in the author's lengthy and meandering descriptions of situations and techniques. Nevertheless, there are some excellent tips in this book, and hopefully, my summary captures most of them for you.

andrewclark.co.uk

Good to Great

This is one of the great business strategy books, and it holds up relatively well. I think the real value here is in the research. This is a systematic approach to studying what’s worked across some of the worlds best companies. Full of actionable advice too.

andrewclark.co.uk

Book Review and Summary: The Art of Action by Stephen Bungay

Get a comprehensive review and summary of the best-selling book "The Art of Action" by Stephen Bungay, the business strategy and leadership expert. Learn about the key principles and practices for making effective decisions and taking action in complex, dynamic environments.

andrewclark.co.uk

Key Takeaways

The 20% that gave me 80% of the value.

Fundamentally, consulting is about influencing without direct control. Consultants help by improving processes and enabling client learning, acting as partners rather than authorities. Effective consulting requires technical expertise, strong interpersonal skills, and a clear 5-phase approach: contracting, discovery, analysis & decision to act, implementation, and closure.

Techniques alone are insufficient; consulting demands balancing content and relationship. Authentic behaviour, valid data, free choice, and internal commitment are pivotal. Consultants aim to establish collaboration, solve problems sustainably, and attend to both technical and interpersonal elements.

Contracting clarifies mutual expectations and surfaces control concerns. Skills include being genuine, negotiating wants, and ensuring all stakeholders align. Effective contracts are entered freely, balance responsibility 50/50, legitimise doubts, and have clear scope and support.

Discovery uncovers the real, often unstated problem. It requires collecting data at multiple levels, assessing culture and politics, anticipating resistance, involving clients, and distilling insights into meaningful choices. Shifting from a purely diagnostic mindset to exploring strengths and possibilities fosters deeper ownership. Techniques like appreciative inquiry and positive deviance amplify commitment.

During analysis and feedback, consultants funnel data into a succinct, everyday language picture covering both business and human factors. Presenting as a neutral witness, not a judge, preserves trust. Meetings need a tight structure balancing content and discussion time to drive clear decisions and next steps.

Implementation depends more on engagement than installation. Top-down plans underestimate the emotional and cultural aspects of change. Genuine involvement, co-design, and voluntary commitment matter more than mandates or metrics. Consultants serve best by honouring intangibles, flipping the mirror to management's role, and emphasising community over compliance.

Structures that rearrange hierarchy, encourage public doubts, and spark new conversations activate people's inherent capacity to transform systems. Even small shifts in meeting purpose and format can model the future in the present.

Ultimately, consulting is a relationship business enabled by faith that clients can solve their own challenges. By balancing authenticity and accountability, consultants help organisations evolve without rescue fantasies or blame. Each interaction becomes a chance to live into a new story chosen by the collective, not imposed by authority.

In summary, the key takeaways are:

1. Balance technical expertise with strong interpersonal skills
2. Follow a clear 5-phase approach from contracting to closure
3. Contract openly to clarify expectations and surface doubts
4. Discover the real issue at multiple levels, involving stakeholders
5. Distill data into a meaningful picture of choices, not just problems
6. Structure feedback meetings to drive clear decisions and ownership
7. Engage people authentically in implementation vs. top-down plans
8. Use participative structures to model desired changes in real-time
9. Emphasise client responsibility and capacity over blame or rescue
10. Treat each interaction as a microcosm of the future system

By embodying these principles, consultants become trusted partners able to evoke sustainable results and empower clients as co-creators of their own transformation.

Deep Summary

Longer form notes, typically condensed, reworded and de-duplicated.

Chapter 1: A Consultant by Any Other Name…

Consultants often inherit a tarnished reputation by acting as substitutes for management, either performing highly technical tasks managers can't do themselves or taking on uncomfortable duties like restructuring. Yet whenever we give advice or directions to someone who doesn't report to us, we're taking on a consulting role, regardless of our formal job title. The crucial difference between a consultant and a manager lies in authority: consultants have influence without direct control, while managers have the power to implement decisions. Consultants who step into the client's role and do the client's job become surrogate managers, creating confusion about their real contribution.

Your goal or end-product in any consulting activity is some kind of change.

Good consulting aims for change in two ways: by improving structures, policies, or procedures, and by enabling people to learn more about themselves or their organisation. Anyone in a staff or support function—HR, finance, IT, or other advisory roles—acts as a consultant to line managers, who have final responsibility for taking action. The consultant's goal is to help clients manage themselves more effectively rather than simply taking over their tasks.

Consultants need three skill sets:

• Technical expertise is the foundation: clients seek our advice because of specialised knowledge.
• Interpersonal skills such as listening, assertiveness, supportiveness, group wrangling, management style and building trust.
• Consulting skills apply a clear process to projects, typically moving through five phases:
1. Entry and contracting
2. Discovery
3. Analysis and decision to act
4. Engagement and implementation
5. Extension, recycle or Termination
• Skipping or rushing these phases often leads to frustration or incomplete solutions.

Entry and contracting define expectations and responsibilities, while discovery involves uncovering both the problem and existing strengths. During analysis, consultants sort through findings, present useful feedback, and facilitate decisions. Implementation might require the consultant's involvement in design or training, but often the line organisation must take responsibility for real change to occur. Once results are evaluated, the process may end, continue more broadly, or cycle back to a new definition of the issue.

Flawless consulting suggests an ideal: staying true to our values and beliefs while helping clients. Rather than being manipulated by organisational politics, it means being authentic, building genuine partnerships, and developing internal commitment.

Consult Flawlessly and you can expect to…

• Have your expertise better used
• Have your recommendations more frequently implemented
• Work in more of a partnership role with clients
• Avoid no-win consulting situations
• Develop internal commitment in your clients
• Receive support from your clients
• Increase the leverage you have with clients
• Establish more trusting relationships with clients and with whoever is important in your work

Part 1: Fundamentals

Chapter 2: Techniques Are Not Enough

Consultants can fill three main roles depending on the context and the preferences of both consultant and client. In the expert role, consultants are given freedom to diagnose and solve a technical problem on their own, but may struggle to secure accurate information or long-term commitment. In the pair-of-hands role, consultants carry out the client's plan with minimal input or challenge—risking a flawed diagnosis whilst also becoming the scapegoat if results disappoint. In the collaborative role, both consultant and manager share responsibility for diagnosing problems, designing solutions, and implementing changes. This last approach emphasises joint ownership and often leads to more lasting results, though it requires more time and a willingness by both parties to share control.

Three fundamental assumptions shape the approach in this book:

• Problem-solving requires valid data, which includes both objective facts and people's feelings or perceptions about what is happening.
• Effective decision-making requires free and open choice, so that people are more likely to commit to and support what they have helped decide.
• Effective implementation requires internal commitment, ensuring that people don't just comply under watchful eyes but continue to act with dedication in the long run.

Drawing on these assumptions, consultants typically aim for three goals:

• Establish a collaborative relationship, spreading responsibility for results and modelling the kind of partnership they want their client to use.
• Solve problems so they stay solved, meaning the client builds the capability to address similar issues in the future.
• Ensure attention is given to both technical/business issues and the way people interact, because improving relationships is often key to solving even the most technical challenges.

Developing client commitment is pivotal at every phase. Since consultants lack direct authority to force decisions, their influence hinges on managers' willingness to follow through. This commitment stems partly from removing doubts or fears that block action and partly from involving managers in the discovery and solution-building process. The more they co-own the plan and see its value to their own objectives, the more likely they are to implement and sustain meaningful change.

Chapter 3: Being Right — Really

Consulting takes place simultaneously on two levels: the technical or business content and the affective, interpersonal relationship. Valuing both is essential. On the relational side, four elements always matter. First is responsibility, which should ideally be shared 50/50. Second is feelings, including a consultant's own reactions as important data. Third is trust, built by openly addressing any doubts the client may have. Finally, consultants have a right to their own wants, such as support and access, which they should make explicit rather than hide.

At its core, consulting is a relationship business. Methodologies and expertise matter, but they travel through the bond consultants build with clients. This means engaging with deeper issues, including paradox and tension. The desire to move quickly into how-tos and lists can undermine the vital questions of why, what's meaningful, and where a project is headed. Sticking with these tough questions and managing the friction that arises can lead to genuine insight and commitment—especially when both consultant and client share control.

To split responsibility effectively, consultants strive for a genuine partnership rather than taking on all the work. This collaboration avoids the pitfalls of "doing it all", which might be faster but leaves the client less committed. Each consultation becomes more likely to produce lasting results if the client is fully involved in discovery, analysis, and decision-making, rather than simply receiving a ready-made solution.

Below are 12 steps for staging client involvement, each an opportunity to reinforce 50/50 responsibility:

1. Define the Initial Problem: Ask the client to state the issue, and add your own views or deeper questions.
2. Decide Whether to Proceed: Treat going forward as a joint choice, ensuring conditions exist for success.
3. Select the Dimensions to Be Studied: Combine your expertise with the client's knowledge of the organisation.
4. Decide Who Will Be Involved: Form a mixed team rather than the consultant doing it solo.
5. Select the Method: Ask for the client's input on how to collect and interpret data.
6. Do Discovery: Have the client partner in interviews, group sessions, or site visits.