a rare bird...consult and teach/train

[Jerry Muelver]

Erik Hansen wrote:
> --- Dan Shafer <revolutionary.dan at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>   
>> It's a rare bird who can
>> both consult and teach/train
>>     
>
> why is that?
>   
As a consultant and teacher/trainer, I can answer that. Consulting 
requires hard, analytical focus on problem, process, and solution. The 
consultant's output is specific direction and procedures, typically 
communicated on the consultant's preferred level, with his or her 
preferred (paid-for, remember) methods. The objective is to deliver the 
message, to change the recipient's projected path.

Teaching and/or training requires a soft, empathic focus on others' 
skills and behaviors, along with a flexible ability to communicate on 
someone else's level and channel. The objective is to inspire the 
motivation to explore and integrate the message with the recipient's 
current path.

Communication is the eliciting of a response. Effective communication is 
the eliciting of a desired response. The consultant and the 
teacher/trainer gear their communication for different responses, and 
therefore develop and practice different methods.  It's a rare bird who 
can shift from one objective to the other smoothly, easily, without 
disrupting the progress of the "objective of the moment".

---- Jerry Muelver