ABSTRACT
This chapter offers consultation practices to create a context for talking about endings, to help consultees become observers to their own relationships to ending and to bring forth preferred stories of endings that enable consultees to value and take forward their skills, abilities and learning. In consultation, the chapter describes different discourses of ending that practitioners draw upon from their personal, professional and wider social political contexts to approach transition and ending in organisations. Different discourses about ending inform the sorts of questions a consultant might ask to explore termination with consultees. Inviting consultees to generate their 'preferred story' about a forthcoming change can help develop explanations that people want told and that will enable, rather than disable, their service or organisation. Documents like the certificates Clare presented are enduring; by bearing witness to achievements and acknowledging abilities, they enhance the positive stories consultees can tell of themselves.
