Chapter 12: Using Causal Loop Diagrams to Deal with Complex Issues: Mastering an Instrument for Systemic and Interactive Change

The most persistent stereotype of management consultants is probably that they are experts who have all the answers. Their added value appears to be that they know what clients don’t know—and they can suggest “best practices” so clients don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Such a role makes historical sense, given that the consultancy sector was largely created by engineers, accountants, and psychologists, all using the expert model. But there are more reasons for its persistence. For clients, idealizing consultants’ expertise or approaches reduces their anxieties in taking on challenges. For consultants, hyping their services has a commercial pay off and may boost their ego. They do this by way of glossy presentations, reference lists, and benchmarks, but also more subtly by name-dropping and verbal agility. Decades of advocacy for other consultancy roles and contingency thinking, however, underlines that there are downsides to the expert model (e.g., Schein, 1999). The more ambiguous problems are, the less consultants are able to provide the answers beforehand. There are no “magical solutions,” even though the pressure to provide them is strongest when dealing with ambiguity.