Another slice of Mr Kipling

When a person chooses me to work with them through an immediate or emerging challenge I start out by seeking to better understand the person's perceptions as to the nature, size and complexity of the issues confronting them.

The person may report that the challenge relates to the business within which they work or within  their family or within the neighbourhood in which they live and play.  

From my experience the root of a problem that someone is seeking to remedy is never quite as simple as first presented.  So I bring in ''six honest serving men'' to help me better understand from the person and other relevant individuals and parties a range of perceptions to help me build up a picture to enable me to get the most objective view I can as to reality of the situation as I see it.

My fact find,  investigation, research - call it what you will - uses the advice and guidance provided in the opening stanza of Rudyard Kipling's poem 'The Elephant's Child':-

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew)

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,

I send them east and west;

But after they have worked for me,

I give them all a rest.



In other words I  ask of each party a series of open questions starting as appropriate with 'what, why, when, how, where and who'.

On capturing the responses to the 'Six honest serving-men', interrogating my own intuition and seeking further clarification in order to close the gaps in my own understanding I consider that I am better able to support my colleague, family member or neighbour to identify for themselves what needs to be done, by when, and identify anyone else they consider essential (or desirable) from whom to secure assistance.

The next step is to formulate a plan of activities, assign accountability's and put in place monitoring and evaluation arrangements to check that the essentials are getting done when they should be and that the activities are having the required impact.