ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on clarifying ideas, building skills, examining practical and theoretical problems. It provides space to reflect upon what the participants bring personally to consultation and systemic thinking. The chapter discusses the value of clarifying any time constraints or deadlines for the work and the exact nature of payment for various aspects of the work, such as administrative support. One helpful idea from the early general systems theory is the notion of homeostasis. That is, any system maintains a steady-state of change and stability in relation to the outside environment. Change is usually more meaningful and long-lasting if sufficient time is spent understanding the values from the past which must be preserved as people move forward, in this sense, the consultant must be not only an "agent of change" but an "agent of stability" or, clumsily put, an "agent for the balance between change and stability".
