Research by Dr. Barry Schwartz (as he described at TED here) has shown that neither rules nor incentives are as powerful in motivating us to be our very best as is the desire to be virtuous, to do what is right by other people.

Dr. Schwartz talks about this as the practical wisdom each of us possesses, based on our own experience.  He further points out that the prescriptive mindset of rules and incentives is a mindset that fundamentally distrusts the judgment of others.

As consultants, the highest potential of each of our consulting engagements is that our clients excel at their work.  The path Dr. Schwartz describes – trusting our clients’ own wisdom – is a path that can inspire their “moral skill and moral will,” leading them to that high potential.

So is that how we currently operate as consultants – encouraging and inspiring and building upon our clients’ own wisdom? Or do we prescribe rules and checklists and shoulds?

Do we ask, “What do you want this function to accomplish? And then how might you accomplish that?” Or do we tell, “Here is a checklist for this function / the standards against which this function should be measured.”?

The prescriptive language of rules and incentives includes words such as these:

  • Have to / Must / Need to
  • Should
  • Convince / Persuade / talk them into / get them to do it
  • They refuse / won’t

For this month’s Tweet Chat, we will consider the following questions:

  • How does your experience match Dr. Schwartz’s research?
  • Are there circumstances when it is more effective to prescribe what a client should do and how they should do it? Or is it always more effective to encourage and inspire your clients’ own wisdom?
  • What approaches have you found effective for leveraging your clients’ own wisdom to create inspired results?
  • Given the short list of prescriptive words above, what are words that indicate / encourage a client’s potential for wisdom?
  • Are there barriers to inspiring / facilitating / leveraging a group’s wisdom?  If so, what are those barriers?  And how have you overcome them?

We look forward to an energizing discussion on Wednesday, September 16 at 1pm US Pacific time!