I found it a most ridiculous task. The instructor of my introduction to counseling course in 1988 asked us to write a book report. "Make sure the book has nothing to do with advice," he said.
I was incredulous. "My first class in counseling, and he's asking us to do a fifth grade job?" I wanted to learn everything about counseling, especially in a first course, and a book report wasn't on my expected list of important things to do.
Years later I realized that it was a brilliant stroke by the professor and I believe it could be a portal to the future of the consulting profession in 2020. With a strong interest in creativity, I now recognize the impetus for the job. The instructor wanted us beginners to know things outside of counseling. Learn about Portuguese history, quilting, or the development of vacuum cleaners.
The task concerned creativity and, in retrospect, aimed to help us in our training as consultants in our creative “form”. Creativity means being a “T-shaped” person, a term that comes from a well-known design company called IDEO. The T-shaped idea implies that a person knows a lot about a certain discipline and has a broad knowledge in other areas. It is not about being an expert in just one area represented by the vertical line in T, but also being able to draw from other arenas as represented by the horizontal line.
In her 2009 book What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A crash course to create your place in the world, Tina Seelig referred to the importance of developing T-shaped thinkers in the leadership of Stanford Technology Ventures program. The goal was straightforward: the students would have an extensive knowledge base in one discipline, perhaps science or technology, along with innovation and entrepreneurship in this case.
It is the combination skills that can be of central importance for creativity. Incidentally, it is these skills that represent the C (combination) in the frequently cited SCAMPER acronym for creativity. Linking ideas from advice with web design, political science or chemistry can lead to innovative solutions in any number of roles that advisors play, including as advisors, crisis workers or group leaders.
In her book, Seelig also remarked: "Life offers everyone many opportunities to experiment and combine our skills and passions in new and surprising ways." T-shaped thinkers can use other parts of their knowledge base in this recombination process to formulate more creative solutions to challenges.
Radical Cooperation
However, the T metaphor is not just about individual advisors. It is also about our consulting profession and, in my opinion, how it can be strengthened in the coming years. Yes, integrated care is crucial for counseling, but I believe that the interprofessional partnership goes beyond this model.
"We believe in radical cooperation." The last two words caught my eye when I said, "We're glad you're here!" Brochure during a recent visit to the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University. This internationally recognized institute, also known as "d.school", offers students from various disciplines – including engineering, law, business and medicine – the opportunity to deepen their creative skills and acquire design skills to solve complex dilemmas.
The same brochure raised thought-provoking questions, one of which fits the notion of "radical collaboration" and the future of the consulting profession: choose two different professions and list ways of working together to tackle a real challenge answer world. If consultants were selected as one of the professions, imagine the possible life-changing ideas that could arise from working with oceanographers, mathematicians or cybersecurity specialists. Imagine how social justice, advocacy and consultation could be integrated. Imagine how such an adventure could lead to even more creative T-shaped training advisors and professional advisors.
Working with the search terms "interprofessional" and "consultant" seems to be limited, although the topic has been discussed in the literature for at least 30 years. Elizabeth Mellin, Brandon Hunt and Lindsey Nichols conducted a questionnaire-based survey among consultants in 2011, which included a discussion of interprofessional collaboration. In a study from 2016, Christianne Fowler and Kaprea Hoquee (née Johnson) described a one-day standardized patient experience among students in counseling, nursing and dental hygiene programs. In a study published last year, Kaprea Johnson interviewed counseling students as well as students in the fields of dental hygiene, nursing and physiotherapy and came to the conclusion that counseling students are just as receptive to interprofessional training as students in health programs.
Examples of interprofessional interaction can be found in related areas of mental health. Last year, the American Psychological Association announced that it would work with medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and other areas to oversee organizational accreditation for interprofessional education. According to the article announcing this latest development, the move was seen as an advantage for the field, particularly in terms of the amount and caliber of training opportunities. A second instance is Robert Morris University's Access to Interprofessional Mental Health Education program, some of which aims to train psychiatric nurses to provide care as part of an interprofessional team.
Identity is central to our consulting profession, and T-encouraged initiatives with other areas can improve us overall, expand our collaboration with other areas, and increase our visibility in other areas. The training provisions could be changed to include areas outside of counseling. Imagine consulting conferences with people from other areas such as pharmacy, dentistry, media work, medicine, IT and the design industry. Presentations by consultants in cooperation with dieticians, architects and television producers could deepen our knowledge base and promote further interdisciplinary cooperation.
Programmatic standards could be adjusted to encourage (or possibly even require) student counseling to take at least one elective outside of the department. You could learn about the future of health care in a medical curriculum, in a criminological program about corrective reforms in other countries, or in an engineering course on sustainability.
T-shaped efforts at the professional level would deepen our collective cultural competence and contribute to our collective mindfulness. Kio Stark dedicated a book from 2016 to talking to strangers, and her message is in line with the current direction for which the advice is committed. "When you interact with a stranger," she wrote, "you are not in your own mind, you are not on autopilot from here to there. You are present at the moment. And being present means feeling alive."
The development of interdisciplinary tentacles can support our future. T-shaped consultants and a T-shaped profession can expand our area of application, bring in innovative ideas, emphasize well-being and deepen the visibility of the advice.
Consulting is a holistic, collaborative approach. Let's expand the letter T to promote creative consultants and ultimately an innovative consultancy.
Tomorrow's letter is T. Now let's all read a few books.
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John McCarthy is a professor in the Department of Counseling at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Contact him at [email protected].
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