The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook & Companion, 2nd Edition

Chapter 16Sneaking the Spirit In

John Schuster

The challenge of consulting is to bring the spiritual and the practical together as one whole, within one person—our self. The reminiscences John shares in this interview are an expression of this task. He is immensely practical, believes deeply in the value of economic success for the well-being of the soul, and yet is clear that he does the work for something more. He also comes to his work as a businessman, which means he is applying his beliefs to his work as well as his life. It gives his voice a ring of reality, revealing a tenacity to see things through and to do this with his full humanity.

A significant challenge for me as a consultant, and now a coach, over the years is how to create a forum—a structure of services and products with time and room for innovation and learning—within which I can do very good and, possibly, my best work. Consultants spend time learning and developing a “product,” a set of services and processes that people might buy and that answers a real need. Sometimes the perceived need is different from the real need, so we have to act like a virus (after COVID, maybe not the best metaphor, but at least we all get it now) and infiltrate the change-resistant organizational immune system. Once we get in, we start doing our more transformative or deeper and lasting work when the opportunities open up.

Something that has changed in the workplace over the years is that “spirit” in work is finally being recognized. ...