Consultation Services

As a cornerstone of their research intervention mission, CSOC associates offer comprehensive organizational analysis and change. These consultation services are offered to public, not-for-profit, and private organizations. Associates engage in a psychoanalytically informed four phase methodology for understanding and advancing change. This method includes a contracting and scope of work phase, an organizational study and diagnosis phase, an intervention or action phase, and follow-up.  Intervention strategies are shaped by what is learned and confirmed in the organizational study. These interventions might include collaborative strategic planning, process consultation, executive coaching, and conflict management.

What makes CSOC interventions different from ordinary consultations?  

• CSOC is primarily a center for research intervention and the study of organizational change. It is housed at the University of Missouri-Columbia as one of several centers within the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs. Its associates engage in research and scholarship so they have access to the latest thinking on processes for successful organizational change. CSOC is a non-profit agency within the University and offers an affordable fee structure for potential clients. CSOC is selective about its consultation projects. In the spirit of action research, consultation is an opportunity for learning, testing, and developing the CSOC methodology for organizational change.

• Central to the CSOC approach is its four-phase method and the value of organizational immersion and diagnosis. Associates observe organizational processes, administer structured interviews, and collect a variety of factual, historical, and narrative data. These data are analyzed qualitatively and an organizational story is eventually articulated. Confirmation of the narrative depiction of the client organization becomes a crucial step in fostering organizational change. For more information about the CSOC method, view the PDF.

• CSOC associates view organizations as perceptual and experiential systems. When seen from this perspective organizational learning and reflectivity are essential. Clients start thinking more systemically and strategically. Organizational leaders learn to listen deeply. Participants engage more often in reflective processes of problem setting and problem solving.

• CSOC associates work with executive clients who are open to learning from and listening to their organizational members. In contrast to many consulting firms, CSOC contracts with executive clients who are fully engaged in the reflective processes of consultation and who want an independent study of their leadership and organizational culture.
  

• City of Columbia, Missouri Police Department
• State of Missouri Lottery
• National Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC)
• San Diego Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (SDPSI)
• Human Development Corporation of the St. Louis Greater Metropolitan Area
• State of Missouri, Department of Social Services
• State Farm Mutual Insurance Companies
• University of Florida
• University of Houston
• Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG)
• INSEAD and HEC Executive Program in Coaching and Consulting for Change, France
• General Electric (GE)
• Kimberly Clark
• 3M
• Association of Schools of Allied Health Professionals
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)