If individuals are easy prey for such quagmires, organizations seem to encourage second-order versions, where individual adaptations tangle together, producing genuinely Gordian results. The popular term ‘dysfunctional’ might aptly describe every individual, every organization now, but I prefer the more normalizing term ‘differently functioning.’

The bare-assed consultant holds one exceptional belief, that his clients are not broken, never adequately characterized as dysfunctional, but supremely adaptive and fully capable of choosing, then choosing again; in otherwords, they’re each ‘normal.’

Some, for certain, suffer from their normality. A few exhibit particularly extreme cases of ‘the normals,’ as we each sometimes do. What most often passes for dysfunctional in the language of organizational development professionals qualifies as no more than temporary stuckness, which, I’m delighted to report, qualifies as a perfectly normal, entirely human experience. The very best way to get unstuck involves getting good and stuck first.

Our language easily sabotages our mobility. We live as verbs, describe our experiences with nouns, then find ourselves stuck in static, lingusitic casts of mobility. We claim to be when we’re becoming. We say we are when we’re not quite yet. We claim to have been when we were never more than passing through. Like baby birds, we are fully capable of imprinting on our explanations while losing the fluid sense of experience. We never were hopping from branch to secure branch, but flying in between.

Inducing stuckness seems simple. Escaping it, even easier. Both require no more than a small shift of perspective. For stuckness, I simply replace my ‘I’ for another. For mobility, I just reconnect with with my ‘I’ again. Where does that missing ‘I’ come from when another’s taken its place? For me, My Muse intrudes. For others, some smart-assed, bare-assed consultant asks The Miracle Question: What do you want?

It requires a Muse or some shamelessly bare-assed consultant to properly ask The Miracle Question, because nothing annoys better, nothing more fully pisses off the severely normal. Anyone diligently chasing any normal should find perplexing any invitation to connect with personal preference.

We regain mobility by invitation only. No command could accomplish it; no clever instructional video required. Normal is touchy and feely. We adapt by feeling our way through.

©2012 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: Bare-assed Consulting