Thomas Kerscher Capacity Building Specialist

Officials from development agencies, consultants and clients should be aware of basic consulting models, in order to be able to make the right choice of model in a given situation. The following sections present three distinct consulting models: the expertise model, the doctor-patient model, and the process consulting model.^[1] These models rest on very different assumptions and have potentially very different consequences. Development agency staff and consultants engaging in a capacity development effort cannot use more than one model at a time. Consequently, the decision on which model to choose in a give situation must be conscious and based on reality (see Chapter 6 on possible distortions in the decision making process).

The Expertise Model

The expertise model of consulting assumes that the client organisation purchases from the consultant some capacity related information or service which it is unable to provide for itself. The client organisation defines the need and concludes that the organisation has neither the resources nor the time to fulfil that need (see section 3.2 on assessing the ability to develop capacity). The likelihood that this model will work depends on the following assumptions: 

1. The client organisation has correctly diagnosed its capacity needs;
2. The organisation has correctly communicated these needs;
3. The client has correctly assessed the capabilities of the development agency or consultant to provide the information and services;
4. The client has thought through the consequences of implementing the capacity development actions which the development agency or consultant might be recommending;
5. There is knowledge “out there” that can be brought into the organisation and will be of use for the client.

All of these assumptions need to be fulfilled to make this model successfully develop capacity. This explains the low rate of implementation of recommendations developed following this model. The model involves further risks in that the client gives away power. Once the assignment has been given to the consultant, the client becomes dependent on whatever the consultant comes up with. Much of the difficulties facing capacity development programmes at the implementation stage may stem from this original conscious or unconscious discomfort. The status differential, which this model involves, is not to be talked away with however much development agencies stress their commitment to working in “partnership” with their clients. In this model, the development agency staff or consultant is also tempted to sell whatever she knows and is good at. When development agency staff or consultants are asked to deliver “policy advice”, they regularly refer to this model of consultation. 

The Doctor-Patient Model

In this model, the organisation decides to bring in a consultant to check them over, i.e. to discover areas in the organisation that might not be functioning as they should. The organisation does not achieve its set objectives (e.g. implement a certain policy) or meet customer expectations, but the organisation may not know how to diagnose what is causing the problem. This model puts even more power in the hands of the development agency and its consultants, i.e. the power to diagnose the problem, and to prescribe the cure. In this model, the report, the presentation of findings and the recommendations take on special importance in identifying what the consultant does. The degree to which this model works depends on the following assumptions: 

1. The client organisation has correctly identified which parts of the organisation are in need of capacity development;
2. The client organisation and its members are inclined to reveal accurate information;
3. The client organisation accepts and believes the diagnosis and accepts the prescription delivered by the consultant;
4. The consequences of the diagnostic process are accurately understood and accepted;
5. The client is able to make the changes that are recommended.

The doctor-patient model is fraught with difficulties, despite its popularity. The most likely reactions of clients toward such reports or recommendations are that they are accepted with a smile only to be shelved later, that they are rejected maintaining that the consultant did not understand the situation, or that similar attempts have been tried before but failed. The development agency or consultant will then likely conclude that the client organisation doesn’t know what it wants, that it doesn’t want to face the truth, resists change or doesn’t really want to be helped.

The Process Consultation Model

In the process consultation model, the development agency or consultant immediately involve the client in a period of joint diagnosis, reflecting the assumption that initially neither party knows enough to define the expertise required in the specific situation. The importance of joint inquiry derives from the assumption that the development agency staff or consultant can seldom learn enough about any given organisation to know what a better course of action would be. However, the consultant may help the client organisation and its managers to become good diagnosticians themselves and to know how to manage organisational processes better.

Capacity can be seen as the level of ability of an organisation to become conscious of how it goes about its business. The author believes that capacity development initiatives should always start in the process consultation mode. Only after the consultant and client have jointly analysed the situation are they in position to determine if the expertise provided by the consultant will be relevant and helpful.

The main assumptions of the process consulting model can be summarised as follows:

1. Only the client organisation owns the problem (which results in a lack of capacity); however, the client system may need assistance in diagnosing the problem;
2. The client organisation often does not know what kind of assistance to seek; clients’ need help in finding out what type of help to seek;
3. Most clients have a positive intention to improve things, but need assistance in finding out what to improve and how;
4. Most organisations can be more effective if their managers learn to diagnose the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses and to formulate adequate responses;
5. Only the client organisation knows what will ultimately work for it; recommendations from outsiders will build up resistance which will render them ineffective;
6. Alternatives can be presented from outside, but the decision making about them must remain in the hands of the client organisation;
7. Assistance aims at transferring knowledge about diagnosing problems and devising appropriate interventions.

The process consulting model is thus a preventive model – in contrast to the expertise and doctor-patient models. The expertise and doctor-patient models aim at fixing the problem. The process consulting model intends to increase the client systems capacity to fix (similar) problems in the future. In the process consulting mode, the role of the development agency or consultants is to ensure at all times that the initiative for diagnosing problems and developing solutions remains with the client system.

The expertise model only works when both the problem and the solution are clear. The doctor-patient model is appropriate when the problem is clear, but not the solution. In most situations, however, there is not sufficient information at the outset of a capacity development programme to define the problem, and an appropriate course of action. Capacity development should therefore always start in the process consulting mode.

The adoption of this approach would require most development organisations to change procedures for writing contract specifications and terms of reference when tendering a capacity development programme.