One swallow does not make a summer

In other words one good or positive event does not mean that everything is all right. We can develop this further to suggest that one instance or action does not mean that a broad generalizable truth can be inferred.

A fight kicking off in my local pub doesn't mean it is a trouble spot - maybe if it happens a second or third time then I might begin to worry that it has gone downhill. A puncture on my car doesn’t mean that my local roads are full of nails and a lucky £10 win on the lottery doesn’t mean that I will win lots of lotteries from now on.

If we accept this premise then why because of one stupid persons action in parliament is there a risk that a rich aspect of our democracy may be withdrawn. Yesterday's pie throwing incident at Mr Murdoch may well result in some major changes to the way that inquiries are handled. As David Allen Green wrote in the New Statesman, this will result in ever tighter security around Parliament, further widening the gulf between rulers and ruled, making life just a bit more unpleasant for those who like living in a liberal democracy. This was also seen in parliament when the purple powder thrown at the Prime Minister a few years ago resulted in a glass screen across the visitors section, Thus creating a barrier between the MPs and their constituents.

I highlight this point because it can be very easy as a coach, consultant or trainer to be given a client contract that is actually a bad choice on their part. The client may well have observed one minor problem in the office and inferred that there is a major issue without ever getting beneath the surface to clarify what the shadow issues might. 

So often I will meet a client for the first time and they give me the solution of ‘I need you to run a training course on xxx’. If I push back and ask why then the response may be ' because yyy happened last week'. But only after pushing further and deeper does it turn out that this action only happened once in the past five years and even then it was driven by some other random and rare activity that is unlikely to ever happen again. 

This idea of systemic challenging is introduced in the 7Cs model using the Client and Clarify stages of the framework. These argue that we must ascertain if there is a real problem and if the problem is a simple fixable issue or if it is a deep and systemic problem to be resolved.

One man throwing a pie at Mr Murdoch does not mean that all committee meetings will have similar problems. The supposed urgent and important issue that your client is pushing you to resolve yesterday may not need such drastic action. 

As a coach, consultant ad trainer I always need to be aware of the ‘Law of unintended consequences’. Any solutions I help deliver will have consequential outcomes for years to come. And most of which I will never be aware of. Hence I need to think carefully before agreeing to deploy any changes at the client’s request.

For more information see 7Cs of Consulting and 7Cs of Coaching