When I was first interviewed by panel members of Requisite Business Solutions, I was enticed and pleasantly surprised by what I observed and experienced. Kurt Lewin’s words would be appropriate to describe the rationale behind my excitement:
“There is nothing so practical as a good theory" and “Learning is more effective when it is an active rather than a passive process.”
Requisite Business Solutions has been privileged to have been guided throughout the establishment, development and growth phases of the company’s development, with its roots firmly in both the theory, as well as the practical side of management thinking. Due to the nature and degree of client participation and interface required of the new era consulting organisation, Requisite Business Solutions is a typical blue print of Peter Senge’s learning organisation, in particular as observed with the relationships that we form with our clients. We jointly develop solutions to solve client specific business needs, requisite for their unique situation. We are thus positioned strongly towards enabling theoretical frameworks through practical solution development. The value of solutions are enhanced to a great degree, if the theoretical underpinning is sound and well/ (thoughtfully?) applied.
This book embroiders on the theoretical constructs and develops methodology frameworks to support practical implementation for ‘every day’ utilisation within the business organisation. However, the value of these practical frameworks lies precisely in their close linkages with core theoretical frameworks that guided their development. Requisite Business Solutions’s methodology frameworks are founded in a combination of contemporary business theory and social sciences, to produce a unique perspective on individual and business complexity, which has resulted in internationally applicable and contextually relevant tools and products.
With the above context stated, I want to furthermore position the role of the consultant to explain the deeper rationale behind this book. In this regard, I want to borrow from Peter Block, consultant, speaker and founder of two consulting firms. According to Peter Block, consultants are fulfilling two primarily roles with their clients, namely as philosopher and therapist. These roles are metaphors for every consulting project as a human encounter, even if the content is highly technical. As a therapist, it is the consultant’s mission to educate the client. The goal of each consulting project is to help the client solve the problem the next time around. There is also a philosophical underpinning to the role of a consultant. In Peter Block’s words (2001, p. xvii):
“The philosophy of consulting brings a stronger foundation to our understanding of our work. If we wish to be clear about purpose, then we cannot be limited by thinking only of our particular, personal purpose or of the goals of an individual project or institution. It calls for us to see the universal drama that is unfolding and speaking to us and our clients through the particulars of our own situation” and
“Just because we begin to think philosophically does not mean that we veer away from the concrete and the practical. It means that the concrete and practical become luminescent and more profound. It is the experience of deepening and taking our work more seriously and assigning it greater consequence than simply solving today’s problem. Work is not just one darn thing after another; it is one darn thing threading its way through all others”
It is our aim to share our theoretical frameworks and practical methodologies to truly empower our clients, enabling them to continuously grow and have insight in their condition as human beings, with themselves and with one another. RBS’s mission states: “To empower our clients and their stakeholders, through the provision of sustainable value adding solutions, enhancing organisational and people wellness.”