Still following the money (but looking for the train of thought....)

Perhaps I overstate the case. No one really ignores the numbers in a business. In fact lots of business people don't merely attend to them; they anthropomorphize, reify (which means, to regard something abstract as a material thing and in so doing distort its very nature) or even deify them. The numbers become more important than the economic engine of which they are a by-product. Keep in mind that the numbers are as much outcome variables as they are input variables. Yes, you input (invest) money, but that is merely the most easily quantifiable investment. The most important "things" you invest in a business (time, passion, energy, ideas) are much harder to measure.

Those with backgrounds in finance might assert that it's best to "manage by the numbers." This world view could best be described as a form of wishful thinking wherein one assumes it is possible to wield power and control over life's vicissitudes if one is only smart/disciplined enough to figure out and enact the formula. Of course, mad and reckless spending, investing, and saving are ill-advised--who doesn't know that?

But I digress. In the field of organizational development, we have a different problem. In contrast to finance types, many of my pals in the OD field believe it's all about relationships, group process, or other economics-free theoretical models wherein the recommended 'treatments' ultimately devolve to a Baba Ram-Dassian "be here now" experience of life, coupled with National Training Labs (NTL) group process methods and a slew of self-awareness techniques that assume once a person "owns up" to whatever their hangups are, the truth will set them free.....except, for the most part, it doesn't--especially in a corporate setting where it is more likely to get you fired.

Follow the Money, continued.........

Except there was one small thing: I could not get a job doing this kind of work to save my life. I was 28 but I looked 21, and I had no work experience outside of the mental health profession (nonetheless, some of my early clients prepared me very well for later ones--see note below). However, I could get corporate work doing that which I had done in my many moments of anxiety/boredom: playing with numbers. I was hired as "consumer research manager" in a large bank, and given my generally high level of anxiety/boredom, I was pretty good at it. Within three years I was a division head, managing the whole market research function and calculating away with reckless abandon. I still wanted to do organizational consulting, but in the mean time rather enjoyed crunching numbers.

Fast forward to 1994: I finally do get a job at a firm where the focus is on organizational consulting......And discover, in doing the work, that ignoring the numbers in a business is a bit like trying to help a family have better relationships while ignoring the economic engine upon which they depend. How silly.

The "Follow the Money" approach to organizational consulting

Prompted by the gentle goading of my friend/colleague Meg, I will attempt to briefly describe what this is all about. I know I've been avoiding the subject, even though it's incredibly interesting to me, because I imagine it will be a challenge to present in a way that makes sense. Yet, in the spirit of my original courageous endeavor to wash one fork, here goes.

When I was in college, all I wanted was to be a therapist. I thought human emotions were completely fascinating and hoped to have some one day myself. I had no interest in organizations or finance or anything of the like--although when anxious I did like to balance my checkbook, then hand-calculate regression equations to estimate what my bank balance might be in a week or a month (no comments on this are solicited or will be considered!). Then, as I neared the end of a lengthy and expensive stint in graduate school, it dawned on me that I would need to support myself and that I preferred to do so in style. Given that newly minted social science Ph.D's do not usually receive lucrative job offers, I decided to go to business school....Sort of. I attended a program at Wharton that was, in effect, a combination finishing school/boot camp for Ph.D's and ABD's in non-business fields who wanted to get jobs in the business world. By this time, I had shifted my fondest hopes and aspirations to doing organizational consulting--in other words, corporate therapy.

A propos de quelque chose ou rien:

Early warning signs that a career in consulting was in the cards for me:

1. Since I was a small child, I have been genuinely motivated both to achieve conventional success (good grades, good schools, good jobs, etc.) and to express my equally powerful subversive/creative tendencies.

2. I came of age (no, not that kind of coming of age) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 1971, a city under siege. Other than being marginally-to-quite terrified at all times, I had fun water-skiing on the Tonle Sap river, learning to speak French, and squabbling with my equally adolescent brothers. Banality amidst mayhem became quite comfortable for me then, and my view of what constitutes a crisis was forever calibrated downwards.

3. My first job after graduating from college was on the all-male locked unit of an inpatient psychiatric hospital. After the initial shock, which was considerable, I found it quite interesting.

4. When I was nineteen years old, I travelled with a friend to Timbuctou, Mali a) because it was in the 'neighborhood;' b) because it seemed worth doing; and c) because everyone said it couldn't be done. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, if not the most sanitary.

5. I wrote my doctoral dissertation in ten days (didn't want to miss a 'client' deadline). Note to all present or future doctoral students: I do not recommend this approach.

................seems pretty consistent.