Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research

2013, Vol. 65, No. 2, 164 175

2013 American Psychological Association

1065-9293/13/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0033610

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SUCCESSFULLY RESTRUCTURING AN
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM: A CASE
STUDY IN CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Stewart E. Cooper

Amy Owen Nieberding

Valparaiso University

S&C Electric Company, Chicago,

Illinois

Robert A. Wanek
YMCA, Valparaiso, Indiana

This case study describes a consultation with the executive leadership team during a period
of change in the organization when roles and responsibilities at the top of the organization
were restructured. The consultation involved the application of two organizational consultation methods: Scheins process consultation (Schein, 1998, 1999, 2006) and a change
management framework. An unusual feature of this case study is its inclusion of the primary
clients (third authors) commentary and analysis of the case. Four stages of consultation
entry, diagnosis, intervention, and disengagementserve as a framework from which the
perspectives of the two consultants, and then the client, reflect on the consultation processes
and outcomes.
Keywords: addressing resistance to change, restructuring organizations, executive
onboarding
Lowman and Kilburg (2011) identified contributions that case studies can make to the field of
consulting psychology. They posited that the purpose of case studies was to demonstrate how
theories or research apply to the professional practice of the discipline (Lowman & Kilburg, 2011,
p. 2). They added, the case study can be very useful in explicating idiographic aspects of practice
not usually addressed by theory in the nomothetic sense (Lowman & Kilburg, p. 2). This article
documents one such case study, detailing how two evidence-supported consultation theories were
applied to help expand and restructure the executive leadership team of a nonprofit organization.
This case study focuses on the consultants integrated application of change management
principles with organization design methodologies. Additionally, a special feature of this case study
was its inclusion of a perspective often neglected by consulting psychology, i.e., the view of the
consultation from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the organization (P. Winum, personal
communication, February 11, 2012). Specifically, this case study includes the perspectives of the
primary clients CEO, both as a cocreator of the consultation and a coauthor of this article.

Stewart E. Cooper, Counseling Services, Valparaiso University; Amy Owen Nieberding, Talent Management,
S&C Electric Company, Chicago, Illinois; and Robert A. Wanek, YMCA, Valparaiso, Indiana.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Stewart E. Cooper, VU Counseling
Services, 1602 LaPorte Avenue, Valparaiso, IN 46383. E-mail: stewart.cooper@valpo.edu

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An important task for external consultants, whether they are entering into a new client engagement
or continuing with a long-standing client relationship, is to understand the life cycle phase of the
organization (e.g., start-up, rapid growth, sustaining, decline, or turn-around; MacCarthaigh & Roness,
2012) and what implications that has. The nonprofit organization in this case study, e.g., was in a period
of rapid growth. Organizational risks associated with periods of rapid growth include a decline in the
customer experience and operational and cost inefficiencies (Cummings & Worley, 2009). Following
rapid growth, the executive-level roles of the organization often need to be redesigned to accommodate
the organizations increased scale and complexity. In this consultation, the first consultant, who had
previously consulted with the leadership team, confirmed this need through a survey assessing the clients
orientation toward being a learning organization, one that sought to make changes based on reflection on
feedback (Garvin, Edmonson, & Francesca, 2008). Many of the patterns identified through the survey
results were ones that are common to an organization that has outgrown its current leadership structure.
They included: communication problems, work-overload, process inefficiencies, stress, and interpersonal
conflict. Despite the apparent needs, however, in our experience leadership rarely welcomes such
restructuring of its roles. Nonetheless, by understanding this organizations life cycle and its implications,
the coconsulting psychologists were able to integrate organizational redesign change management
strategies (Cummings & Worley, 2009). These change processes also addressed key stakeholder
resistances by eliciting dialogue on goals, points of process agreement and disagreement, and finally
commitment to action.

Two Organizational Consultation Methods

In this section we detail the application of the two organizational consultation methods that we
integrated to meet the specific needs of the organization: specifically, Scheins process consultation
(PC) (Schein, 1998, 1999, 2006) and a change management framework (Cummings & Worley,
2009). The following section discussed these methods and how they are applied in the case study.

Scheins Process Consultation

Schein (1998) defined PC as the creation of a relationship that permits the client to perceive,
understand, and act on process events that occur in the clients internal environment in order to
improve the situation as defined by the client (Schein, 1998, p. 20). Dougherty (2009) observed that
the process model of consultation works best when the client has problem-solving abilities and is
willing to collaboratively work out solutions without giving the problem to the consultant for
diagnosis. The concept of the consultant acting as a trusted advisor (Ashraf, 2011) helps describe
what we believe is required for successful PC.
Block (2011) focused on the use of PC when a group is in conflict. Techniques that consultants
use with this approach include observation, assessment of interpersonal relationships, paraphrasing,
and asking clarifying questions (Block, 2011).
In this case study, we used PC methods to assist the CEO and two senior leaders to envision,
and then to detail, the roles of two other new leaders. One would serve on the executive cabinet
team, and the other would be a member or the organizational leadership team. The addition of these
two new positions was needed to accommodate the organizations increased size and complexity.
Additionally, changes in scope and responsibility to three existing senior team positions were
needed. These changes were significant because they would shift functional responsibilities from the
preexisting senior staff to a newly created Chief Operating Officer (COO), while assigning new
duties to the two incumbents. In addition to improving executive staff efficiency, this new and
expanded leadership structure freed up the CEO for more strategic and customer-focused activities,
allowing the organization to successfully continue on a path of rapid growth.

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Change Management Framework

A change management framework also needs to manage resistance to change (Daft, 2009; Roberts,
2007). The key notion in this consulting competency is helping to assure the alignment among the
interdependent and reciprocally influencing organizational elements in the context of the strategic
goals of the organization. The key elements of managing resistance to change may include
alterations in (a) strategy, (b) structure, (c) work design, (d) human resources (HR) practices, and
(e) management and informational systems (Cummings & Worley, 2009).
In this consultation, we attempted to create an organic rather than a mechanistic design. The
design focused on helping the organization have a strategy that was innovative; a structure that was
flat, lean, and flexible; work design that included enriched jobs and self-managed teams; human
resources involvement in selecting and supporting good talent; and management and information
systems with high employee involvement, as well as open, inclusive, and distributed information
(Cummings & Worley, 2009).

Description of the Case Study

A change management orientation and PC were the foundations for this consultation. This section
presents the case study from the framework of the generic four stages of consultation entry,
diagnosis, implementation, and disengagement. This particular framework was used to provide a
straightforward, common view from which both the CEO and the consultants could speak about the
consultation project. Each stage will be defined, the process of choosing and applying the organizational consultation methods discussed, and the outcomes identified. We note, however, that the
process was reiterative, typically recycling to earlier stages throughout the consultation.

Entry
The entry stage of this consultation consisted of four interrelated phases: (a) exploring organizational needs, (b) contracting, (c) physically entering the system, and (d) psychologically entering the
system (Dougherty, 2009). These four phases usually take place simultaneously, but because a
number of previous consultations had already occurred with the organizational leadership team,
most of the physical and psychological entry into the system had already taken place. Understanding
the organization, historically and currently, and the previous consultations that had taken place was
needed to best understand this entry phase as it unfolded in this consultation.
The CEO of the organization who requested the consultation had strongly emphasized the need
for his and his staffs professional development throughout his career. Emerging from this value, he
engaged the first consultant who had on several occasions brought in other consultants to work on
various individual, team, and organizational consultations throughout the past decade, including the
consultation underlying this case study. The first consultant introduced the second consultant to the
organization when the former requested informal feedback and commentary on a summary of recent
findings from an organizational communications survey.
The client organization was a not-for-profit organization focused on enhancing the physical,
mental, and spiritual health of members of the community and surrounding area. Specifically, the
organization was a YMCA (the Y). As such, it was part of the largest such organization of its type
in the world and had a highly organized national body of support and structure.
The particular the Y presented in this case study had a long history. It was founded on a college
campus in 1896, disbanded at the onset of the First World War, and chartered in 1945 with its first
building structure in 1952. The Y grew with the community over the next 50 years to 5,600 members
in 2002, when its board initiated a strategic plan that included the assembly of a community task
force to research facilities to serve contemporary community needs, including accessibility for
diverse groups, relocation to the geographic center of the community, and special attention to design
and services to retain health seekers. In 2006, the Y began the process of building a new physical
facility, simultaneously engaging in efforts to design, raise funds, and build a new Y. The results

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RESTRUCTURING AN EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM

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exceeded expectations. Just 2 years following the opening of a state-of-the-art building, membership
numbers exceeded 16,000, with more than 2,000 daily visits.
The first consultant (SC) had previously provided a number of team-building and coaching
consultations to this organization. These various consultations had taken place every 1 to 2 years
spread out over the past decade. The initial set of these consultations had focused on team building
and individual development. The Y then spent several years planning and then building its new
facility. Membership tripled in the first year after the new facility was inaugurated, without a
corresponding growth in the leadership team. The focus of the consultations shifted to organizational-level interventions. These took place immediately before the construction, immediately after,
and then again after 2 years. The first of these organizational level consultations used a grounded
theory approach to helping the CEO collect and process data. It used coaching sessions and focused
on patterns of perspectives that were or were not working in the structure, communications, and
work processes of the CEOs leadership team. These observations and patterns were shared with the
entire team.
By the first quarter of 2011, it became evident that the existing management team could no
longer shoulder the operational growth of the new Y. The CEO had a directive from the Ys Board
of Directors to research and to present a management restructuring plan. He again challenged the
first consultant to provide guidance to the current management team. The CEO also recruited trusted
HR and development professionals to help build his plan. Building on the first consultants findings,
the CEO proposed to promote two key internal individuals and to recruit two new professionals to
round out both his overall and his inner executive organizational leadership teams. At this point the
first consultant suggested bringing in a second consultant to assist with organizational design and
change management aspects of the next phase of the consultation. The development of a formal
contract was deferred until the end of the diagnosis stage.
The PC used during this entry stage focused on helping the CEO gain clarity about the
organizational goals of making changes in the leadership teams and of the needs and challenges
associated with developing processes to achieve these. The main PC tools used in this work were
asking clarifying questions, paraphrasing the responses to those questions, and identifying potential
conflict areas. The main change management areas addressed were the organizations strategy and
structure.

Diagnosis
The diagnosis stage used consisted of four phases: (a) gathering information, (b) defining the
problem, (c) setting goals, and (d) generating possible options (Dougherty, 2009). As is typical of
such efforts, this diagnosis was not a linear process. These four phases did not unfold independently.
To initiate the diagnosis stage, the consultants met with the CEO for a 2-hr face-to-face meeting.
The purpose of this meeting was to introduce him for the first time to the second consultant and to
further discuss the needs of the organization. Subsequent conference calls were conducted to discuss
needs, determine goals, and delineate options for meeting those goals.
An important focus during the consultation was to provide the CEO opportunity to reflect on his
leadership style and what he would need to do to engage staff in the transition to the new
organizational structure. During the previous 7 years of his leadership at this organization, he had
used a very personal leadership style. He had been highly accessible, engaging employees at all
levels of the organization and helping to facilitate their ownership of a common mission and vision.
He also had demonstrated a special talent for helping individual employees look beyond their current
job duties to find opportunities for personal career growth and development.
Through a process of consultation-based dialogue with the consultants, the CEO identified three
senior staff positions that would be critical to the transition into the new organizational structure
required to advance the organization. These would constitute a new executive cabinet team. As a
first step, the CEO needed to help the two individuals who were current employees work through
the personal impact of the new organizational structure on each of them. He began by outlining the
business case for change (Cummings & Worley, 2009). He focused on the changes in the external

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environment that necessitated specific actions so that the organization could adapt and compete. This
involved a focus on the structure and work design aspects of change management.
Next, he moved into a more personal dialogue, engaging each of these two senior leadership
staff members in candid discussions. Both of these individuals would begin reporting to the new
COO and no longer to the CEO. The new organizational structure also involved an alteration of the
scopes of their respective jobs scope. Clearly, it was important the CEO anticipate how each of these
two senior level staff members would experience these changes. Would they interpret these changes
as being a setback in their careers or an opportunity for them to assume more meaningful
responsibilities? During this phase, the CEO effectively leveraged his relationship with each and
personally communicated what he saw as their current capabilities, learning opportunities, and
future potential in the revised structure.
At this point, we created a formal contract for the consultation. The contract called for an
integrated use of Scheins PC model (Schein, 1998, 1999, 2006) and a change management
framework (Daft, 2009; Roberts, 2007). These two interventions were selected as the focus of the
consultation to expand and restructure the organizations leadership team. Specifically, the intermediate goal of this part of the consultation was to expand and restructure the executive cabinet team
and to onboard its new member.
The ultimate objectives of the consultation were to facilitate and guide the communication
and work processes and interactions among the entire leadership team. Additionally, the CEO and
consultants predicted only minimal-to-moderate resistance to change in both the restructuring and
its implementation, as well as in the specific steps of the candidate selection process. The executive
cabinet and organizational leadership teams functioned well overall, so it was anticipated these two
groups would largely cooperate and support the structural changes. Consequently, a human process
approach, as opposed to a technostructural, human resource management, or strategic change
approach, was more appropriate (Cummings & Worley, 2009). For further details on the steps and
persons involved the consultation, as well as the deliverables, and timelines, see the Appendix.

Implementation
The implementation stage consisted of four phases: (a) choosing the intervention, (b) formulating a
plan, (c) implementing the plan, and (d) evaluating the plan (Dougherty, 2009). The contract
provided detail on the first two of these. We made adjustments throughout the consultation based on
the information that emerged during the interactions with the executive cabinet team. The two
consultants used the PC model first to assist the CEO and subsequently his two newly promoted
AVPs in mapping out and negotiating the organizational change processes needed to expand and
restructure the organizational leadership team. A primary mechanism by which the PC took place
involved weekly calls between the clients and the consultants. Concurrently, and founded on change
management tools, the second consultant developed visual models that established time frames and
tasks necessary for the clients and the consultants to accomplish the organizational change. These
visual models typically served as the foundation for these discussions. At times, a significant part
of these weekly conversations focused on processing the experiences of the CEO, and, to a lesser
degree, the perspectives of his two newly promoted AVPs.
Once these conversations were completed, an important next step was to provide senior
leadership staff members the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise and support of the future
vision. A very tangible way to do this was through collaboration with the CEO on the design and
documentation of key jobs requirements in the future organization. This was important because the
staff had a more detailed understanding of the current work, which was complemented by the CEOs
more visionary and future-oriented perspective. Creating position descriptions provided opportunity
for shared learning.
The consultants gathered input from the CEO and senior staff to draft detailed position
descriptions for the future organization. Once there was agreement on theses and the requirements
for the positions, the staff members had the necessary information to start the recruiting process for
the newly created roles. The consultants engaged in weekly conference discussions with the CEO
and key staff during the interviewing and selection process to fill these positions. Discussions

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RESTRUCTURING AN EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM

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between the CEO and key staff members expanded beyond the type of skills they wanted to hire into
the organization to the sort of candidates who would be a good cultural fit. The latter would be
important both in terms of organizational culture and the cultural context of the community. These
aspects of the consultation were effective for supporting a sound recruiting process, but the most
critical factor was the dialogue in which each participant shared his or her personal reactions to each
of the candidates. This allowed all participants to reflect on what might be influencing these
reactions and also helped the team more consciously select for cultural fit. As a result of this process,
collective decisions were made with confidence, and the two outstanding candidates who accepted
job offers quickly began to contribute to the organization in significant ways.
The consultants also created a communications plan and written material for the CEO to share
the future vision and organization changes with the broader team. This was founded on the HR
practice component of change management. The PC approach was used repeatedly to support the
central leadership team in moving the change process forward.
A final segment of the consultation involved onboarding the new COO. This was accomplished
through an initial 2-hr meeting between the new COO and both consultants, a 3-hr leadership team
meeting, and two individual coaching sessions between the COO and the first consultant. The
framework and tool set used in this consultation derived from the onboarding literature (Bradt &
Vonnegut, 2009; Saks, Uggerslev, & Fassina, 2007; Stein, 2010). These processes identified areas
of strength and possible derailment factors that had been identified during the interview process. The
group session had a secondary goal of helping the leadership team focus on onboarding in general.
This knowledge, in turn, could enable the team to assist with the onboarding of the two anticipated
new organizational leader hires who would be hired in the coming months.
Individual and organizational resistance to change is typical. The importance of stakeholder
buy-in is emphasized in change management literature. This case study illustrates how the quality
of relationship between the organizations leadership teams, its staff members, and the organizations CEO is fundamental to obtaining buy-in. The clients and consultants were fortunate that the
quality of these relationships was positive and strong within this organization. Based on the PC, the
consultants encouraged the CEO to maintain close dialogue with two key staff members as they
worked through the personal impact of change. In terms of four sources of possible resistance
identified by Parsons and Meyers (1984), the view of the consultants as outsiders and the rejection
of anything new as non-normative were the two that manifested during group conversations with the
executive cabinet team during the earlier phases of this consultation.
Additionally, the consultants experienced the CEO as being particularly skilled in evaluating
and pursuing his own personal growth as a leader and supporting others in doing the same. This
contributed to the executive cabinet and organizational leadership teams being able to move beyond
a focus on gains and losses among the members of the organizational cabinet team to a focus on
organizational growth and leadership structure transformation.

Disengagement
The process of disengaging from a consultation often consists of four phases: (a) evaluating the
consultation process, (b) planning postconsultation matters, (c) reducing involvement and following
up, and (d) termination of the consultation (Dougherty, 2009). Because this consultation emerged
from the context of previous work and the client and consultants anticipated future collaborations,
only the first two of these phases were germane. Process evaluation with both the CEO and his
executive cabinet team had been used throughout the entry, diagnosis, and implementation stages.
Qualitative summaries of the restructurings success were obtained from one-on-one meetings
between the first consultant and each of the members of the organizational leadership team.
Additionally, the consultants receiving feedback from the newly hired COO after the initial
component of his onboarding had taken place was an important aspect of his development. To
further assist the onboarding process, organizational leadership team group meeting evaluation
component of the onboarding intervention was collected with a summary fed back to the entire team.
The CEO and the first consultant committed to have periodic conversations to discuss further effects

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of the organizational changes that had been made and to plan for the next consultation needed for
the organization.

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The CEOs (First Person) Perspective

I (RAW) became the fifth CEO of the Y in 2001. I came from a diverse work background, serving
YMCAs in various leadership roles for 20 years in suburban and urban communities in the Midwest.
From a leadership perspective, I was committed to recruiting a diverse team and supported their
individual and collaborative growth areas, at times utilizing professional consultants to engage
senior staff in team building, assessment, coaching, and other forms of consultation. I realized that
my efforts to improve resolving dysfunctional team issues required new approaches. I was intrigued
by the consulting psychology-based proposals outlined by the first consultant. This was clearly a
new direction that required a long-term commitment to succeed, in which the first consultant (often
with another Division 13 member as a co-consultant) worked to offer cutting edge evaluation tools,
using lectures, team interaction, individual coaching, and 360-degree feedbacks with the CEO. Over
time, my staff demonstrated new levels of psychological safety, ultimately describing their collective leadership as a high-functioning team. As a trusted advisor, the first consultant and other
consultants that he has brought in have assisted me and the leadership team for close to a decade.
In the following, I, as the principal client, will comment on the four stages of the case study.

Entry
The process started in the summer of 2010 with management surveys and a one-on-one follow-up
by the first consultant with me to identify gaps in management communications and support,
primarily evaluating desired outcomes of earlier staff restructuring. My staff indicated that the
restructuring did not fully address the management support needs of our growing operation, a
message that was carried by me into a subsequent meeting with the first consultant.
After the board directed me to present a management restructuring plan by spring, I engaged in
one-on-one follow-up meetings with the organizational leadership team members during the first
quarter of 2011 to consistently test questions on preferred leadership structure. These questions were
developed with the first consultant based on summer 2010 results. The feedback from the staff
identified the need to beef up operational and developmental structures and leadership, to create
a support group to address high-level decisions, and to communicate major organizational moves to
the greater team of department heads.

Diagnosis
I verified the opportunity to research and to present a new leadership structure by March 2011
through dialogue with the Y executive cabinet. In preparation for this presentation, I gathered
research on best practices for organizational structures, enlisting the advice of the Y of the United
States of America (YUSA) consultants on human resources and financial development. Organizational management scenarios were reviewed in a meeting with the consultants. Profiles of existing
leadership staff were given consideration for the advancement and reporting of particular individuals
to enhance organizational effectiveness and efficiency.
Ultimately, I tested two scenarios with my new executive cabinet team that resulted in approval
of a modified model. The model identified a group vice president structure, promoting internal
candidates to oversee the regulatory environment and philanthropic advancement. A third (executive
cabinet) vice president, the COO, would be recruited from outside the organization to focus on
strengthening program, membership, facilities, and marketing departments. The position would be
interviewed by the CEO and promoted VPs. Advancement would be restructured to recruit a
Director of Annual Giving to focus on funding through increased Y member donations, the
Changing Lives campaign, and financial assistance to the community. This new position was
justified financially, with 50% of the incumbents salary to be raised by increasing revenues the first
year, followed by this hires total salary in ensuing years.

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My role was to direct the recruitment process and communicate the change at all levels. My plan
was to focus on a greater percentage of my time on financial development, thus increasing
networking efforts on a capital debt reduction campaign called Promises Kept.

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Implementation
Upon the recommendations of the consultants, I asked the second consultant in this intervention to
create position profiles based on job descriptions, key deliverables, and desired attributes. The job
postings were tied to these profiles, and the two consultants set up conference calls with the two VPs
and me to review candidates and interview strategies. My executive cabinet team members and I
agreed on whittling down the number of applicants to five to eight phone interviews, followed by
two to four face-to-face interviews.
The consultants further developed the position profile document, tying interview questions to a
scale to ensure an objective outcome. Questions were then added from the YUSA leadership
competency model. Following the phone interviews, the executive cabinet team discussed the
rationale for final interview candidates from which a side-by-side chart was developed to identify
gaps for further questions.
Following face-to-face interviews, another conference call with the consultants provided support for our preferred candidate and identified areas for further development in an onboarding
exercise. Feedback from the new COO reinforced the benefit of the onboarding exercise in better
understanding our work culture, employee profiles, and team-building opportunities. With the COO
position secured, we then focused on the Director of Annual Giving position, for which the same
process was followed.

Disengagement
I joined with the onboarding session, complementing the orientation and assimilation processes
facilitated by the consultants with negotiated 90-day goals and regular meetings to evaluate
progress. Of importance was how the history of engaging our consulting partners (over the past
decade) assisted in managing personalities during this delicate time, providing opportunities for
early wins for our new employees, based on earlier team-building models and knowledge of how
staff perform under stress.
Our team has changed significantly in the past quarter. Turnover of two key leaders coupled
with two new hires necessitates future team-building strategies to maintain our high-functioning
group. The consultants played an important role in advising on communications strategies for
launching the organizational restructuring plan, on job interview status, and on process for
reassigning departments to new leadership. With the consultants facilitation, we benefitted
from extensive dialogue and strategy sessions to fully diagnose the challenges that we faced in
restructuring the leadership team and making new hires, to identify roadblocks to achieving
these goals, and to build consensus on future directions. This work was a great confidence
builder.

Key Learnings
Seven themes specific to this particular consultation, but true for most organizational consultation
projects, emerged as the two consultants and the primary client reflected on the goals and outcomes
they had mutually set and accomplished. They are discussed here in no particular order, though some
clearly precede others.
The first theme was the importance of taking the time needed to create a clear consultation
contract. Careful contracting is particularly needed when working on organizational level interventions. The consultants incorporated the seven elements from the American Psychological Associations Ethics Code Standard 3.11(a) to enhance the likelihood of the project being successful. This
ethical standard provides that psychologists delivering services to or through organizations provide
information beforehand to clients and when appropriate those directly affected by the services about

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(1) the nature and objectives of the services, (2) the intended recipients, (3) which of the individuals
are clients, (4) the relationship the psychologist will have with each person and the organization, (5)
the probable uses of services provided and information obtained, (6) who will have access to the
information, and (7) limits of confidentiality (American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 1066).
The second theme was the importance of obtaining and maintaining support for the goals and
processes of the consultation from those with power in the organization, the CEO in this case. For
example, one component of this consultation concerned moving through resistance to change. In this
situation, such support was essential, both to the consultants, the executive leadership cabinet, the
organizational leadership team, and ultimately, the entire client organization.
The third theme was the importance of obtaining buy-in from all the clients (stakeholders)
involved in this project. In many ways, this was the most central element of this project. Perhaps
more than any other factor, buy-in was essential to moving through organizational (in this case, the
leadership team) resistance to change. The view of the consultants as outsiders and the rejection of
anything new as non-normative were the two of the four sources of possible resistance identified by
Parsons and Meyers (1984) that manifested during this consultation.
The fourth lesson learned was the need for the consultants to develop deep trust with the two
key client groupsthe executive cabinet and the larger leadership team. The first consultant had
worked with all the central clients, whereas the second was introduced into these long-standing
relationships. As a result of previous consultations, the first consultant was viewed as a trusted
advisor, especially by the CEO. The second consultants consistency in carry-through, as well as her
expertise in change methodologies, was instrumental in the clients quickly building trust in her as
well.
The fifth key factor was the willingness to change the consultation focus as priorities and
situational consulting needs shifted. This played out on a macrolevel over the course of the past
decade, in which varied consultation projects were required by the organization. It also manifested
itself on a microlevel in the need to accommodate unexpected situations that arose during the
consultation. For example, a staff-level job offer had to be rescinded when new information about
the candidate surfaced. An incumbent staff members tendency to question the approach (as well as
the consultants) had to be managed before moving forward with the process and reinstating the
recruiting process for the role.
A sixth element critical to success is to find consultants that both fit the knowledge and skills
required by the consultation and where the work styles of the two consultants blend in a productive
manner. With this project, the first consultant did not possess the experience in selection of leaders
that the second consultant had, but had already established significant psychological and physical
entry into the organization. Additionally, the previous work of the first consultant with the
organization and the members of the leadership team contributed to better diagnosis and implementation planning. The complementary functional skills as well as working relationship of the two
consultants were of immense assistance in this consultation.
Of equal importance to skills competency is collaboration and cooperation competency. It may
have been helpful that the two consultants share personality type similarities, which included their
sharing a congruent style of planning and timely individual goal accomplishment. Additionally,
perhaps essential (or at least very helpful) to all consultation work involving two or more consultants
is a shared high importance of having productive mutual conflict resolution. In this context, concepts
from the Thomas-Kilmann Inventory (Schaubhut, 2007; Thomas & Kilmann, 1974) are useful.
Specifically, the TKI describes five conflict resolution styles competing, avoiding, collaborating,
compromising, and accommodatingthat can be mapped onto an uncooperative cooperative axis
as crossed by an assertive nonassertive axis. The presence of high levels of cooperation, collaboration, and compromise as manifested by the two consultants saying what each will do and doing
what they said increased the likelihood of success, especially when these qualities also were present
in the primary client.
The final lesson learned, one almost always critical to success in organizational consultations,
is the deliberate inclusion of reflective practices before, during, and after each consultation.
Specifically, the interactive discussions and processing of specifics of the entry, diagnosis, imple-

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173

mentation, and disengagement stages of the consultation project among the two consultants and with
their clients best integrates the science, practice, and artistry of consultation work.

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Concluding Perspectives
From an outcome perspective, this consultation was successful because the skills and tools the two
consultants collectively brought to the table fit the professional and personal strengths of the CEO,
his executive cabinet team, the organizational leadership team, and the organization. From a process
perspective, this consultation was successful because of the strength of the working alliance and the
real relationship between the clients and the consultants. Jointly, these contributed to consultants
being seen and being used as trusted advisors.
A productive outcome of the extensive use of PC in this leadership team change enhancement
was its promoting both the consultants and clients intentional use of reflective practices. According
to Schn, its originator, reflective practice is the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a
process of continuous learning and is a defining characteristic of professional practice (Schn,
1983). Bolton (2010) added that reflective practice involves paying critical attention to the practical
values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively. This leads to developmental insight. (p. XIX). We believe that such insight developed in the
course of this consultation.

References
American Psychological Associations (2010). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Washington DC: Author.
Ashraf, N. (2011). The trusted advisor. Strategic Communication Management, 15, 28 31.
Block, P. (2011). Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Pfeiffer.
Bolton, G. (2010). Reflective practice: Writing and professional development (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Bradt, G., & Vonnegut, M. (2009). Onboarding: How to get your new employees up to speed in half the time.
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781118256145
Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2009). Organizational development and change (9th ed.). Mason, OH:
South-Western Cengage Learning.
Daft, R. L. (2009). Organization theory and design (10th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Dougherty, A. M. (2009). Psychological consultation and collaboration in school and community settings.
Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Garvin, D. A., Edmondson, A. C., & Francesca, G. (2008). Is yours a learning organization? Harvard Business
Review, 86, 109 116.
Lowman, R. L., & Kilburg, R. R. (2011). Guidelines for case study submissions to Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice and Research. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 63, 15. doi:
10.1037/a0021242
MacCarthaigh, M., & Roness, P. G. (2012). Analyzing longitudinal continuity and change in public sector
organizations. International Journal of Public Administration, 35, 773782. doi:10.1080/
01900692.2012.715567
Parsons, R. D., & Meyers, J. (1984). Developing consultation skills. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Roberts, J. (2007). The modern firm: Organizational design for performance and growth. New York, NY:
Oxford University Press.
Saks, A. M., Uggerslev, K. L., & Fassina, N. E. (2007). Socialization tactics and newcomer adjustment: A
meta-analytic review and test of a model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70, 413446. doi:10.1016/
j.jvb.2006.12.004
Schaubhut, N. A. (2007). Technical brief for the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. Mountain View,
CA: CPP.
Schein, E. H. (1998). Process consultation. Vol. 1. Its role in organization development (2nd ed.). Addison
Wesley series on organization development. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.

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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
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Schein, E. H. (1999). Process consultation revisited: Building the helping relationship. Reading, MA: Addison
Wesley.
Schein, E. H. (2006). Consultation and coaching revisited. In M. Goldsmith and L. S. Lyons (Eds.), Coaching
for leadership (2nd ed., pp. 1725). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
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Xicom.

Appendix
Contract for Consultation Services
This is a contract between the YMCA and the two consulting psychologists.1 This contract is entered
into on 2 May 2011, as follows: The purpose of this consultation is to design and implement an
integrated project roadmap to support implementation of the YMCA 2011 Management Resources
Plan.

16 May DeliverableSix Position Profiles

Review position descriptions for two new roles, Senior VP Director of Operations and Annual
Campaign Director and one new staff role, Executive Assistant to the CEO. Assistance in redefining
three current executive cabinet leadership roles: VP CFO; VP Director of Development; and
Operations Director
4 consulting hours (1/2 day):
Design a position profile template to capture details of key leadership roles in a consistent
and robust fashion
Consultants will receive role descriptions from client (May 9)
Analyze position descriptions to identify areas where additional information is needed to
complete the position profile template
Client will provide consultants with the names of job experts for the new and revised
positions and assist with scheduling 30- to 45-minute meetings
Meet with job experts and gather content necessary to complete the position profiles
Deliver completed position profiles for client review and approval

23 May DeliverableFour Coaching Sessions

Dialogue process: Change effects on current team
Consultants will provide consultation to YMCA staff affected by the expansion and changes in
the leadership structure
4 consulting hours (delivered by Individual hours)

13 June DeliverableDocumented Analysis of Final Candidate Slate

(Fit to Role)
Review resumes, select top candidate
Consultants will design process for review of final candidate slate and assist with documentation
of rationale for selection of final candidate
1

This contract is not intended to serve as a legally vetted model, but instead, is included to convey
additional details about this particular consultation process.

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175

4 consulting hours (1/2 day)

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Client will provide consultants with candidate resumes (prior to 13 June)

Facilitate a process to compare candidate background and capabilities to position requirements
Identify gaps/risks for each candidate
Consultants will assist with documentation of on-boarding requirements for selected candidates (actions to address gaps/risks)
Consultants will assist with the preparation of feedback for candidates not selected

12 July DeliverableCommunication Matrix

Prepare a communication matrix and messaging for organization launch. Consultants will support
the CEO and appropriate YMCA staff in preparation of a communication plan to announce the
restructured organization.
4 Consulting hours (1/2 day)
Identify key audiences (stakeholder groups)
Determine key messages and communication medium for each audience
Prepare and deliver materials within timeline requirements

12 July DeliverableSix Development Plans

Leadership Team Member Career Planning and Development
Consultants will work 1:1 to create a standard development plan (growth objectives, development actions/resources) for each of the leadership team members in the new organization. Development plans will be integrated into the standard YMCA employee development process
6 Consulting Hours
Employee Development is a self-directed process to identify needed skills, behaviors and
experiences necessary to perform ones current job and prepare for the future
Create strategies for improvement (build skill, substitute, workaround)
Identify formal development activities (training)
Identify informal development activities (networking)

15 August DeliverableDesign and Delivery of Executive Initial

On-Boarding Process
On-boarding process
Consultants will design and deliver the on-boarding process for the newly hired Senior Vice
President, Director of Operations. Intervention will include structured interview of all direct staff of
the new VP and a facilitated session for feedback and action planning
Review analysis from hiring process (gaps/risks)
Identify mechanisms to close capability gaps (coaching, training)
Structured interview of direct staff to the VP Director of Operations (expectations, concerns)
Half-day facilitated group session with new COO and team
12 consulting hours
Received March 12, 2012
Latest revision received June 3, 2013
Accepted June 5, 2013