ABSTRACT
Consultants have learned that organizations have certain tasks to perform, and that patterns of behaviour and beliefs about the organization develop around the performance of these tasks. They often find that organizations are faced with various conflicts whenever changes are imminent. Such conflicts usually centre around beliefs and relationships in the organization which people feel they must preserve at all costs. The chapter also presents an overview of this book. The book is one of a series describing applications of systemic thinking. It is, rather, a definition of Development Consultation and a description of ideas from the field that have influenced our thinking, plus an account of some contexts when, where and how we have used Development Consultation. The book presents underlying theoretical concepts that support this work.
