ABSTRACT
Previous chapters in this volume have dealt explicitly with the nature of methodology from a complex responsive processes perspective and, in Chapter 4, Bjørner Christensen explored the relationship between research and consulting, arguing that they are the same activity. This chapter, together with chapters 6 and 7, describe pieces of research consulting which take up the methodology described in previous chapters.
In Chapter 5, Mary O’Flynn, who is a consultant operating mainly in Ireland and the UK, explores her work as facilitator to a group of people working for an organization called the Phoenix Project. This Project consists of a number of services for those affected by drug abuse. One service of the Project, called Dave’s Place, took the form of a drop-in center which offered a non-judgmental support service for drug addicts. It was housed in an old building and the lease was about to expire, but no alternative accommodation had yet been identified. Another service of the Project, called Lulu’s Centre, provided services for the children of these drug addicts. This was housed in another building which also served as the office of the Director of the Phoenix Project. Regular staff meetings for the Phoenix staff, including the teams of both Dave’s Place and Lulu’s Centre, took place in the building occupied by the director and the Lulu Centre team. On those occasions, members of the Dave’s Place team, most of whom smoked, were able to use one of the counseling rooms of Lulu’s Centre as a smoking room. Members of the Lulu Centre team did not smoke. O’Flynn was asked to facilitate a day-long meeting of all the Phoenix staff and management at which the imminent closure of Dave’s Place was expected to be a key issue. As it turned out, the question of smoking also became a key issue, and O’Flynn explores the symbolic meaning this had for the organization.
