‘Light a Candle, Cast a Shadow’: Learning from Experience in the Consulting Role

Contrary to popular belief, consulting is the world's oldest profession. The first consultant was the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. Amidst a scene of unprecedented peace and tranquillity, the Serpent, with the encouragement of top management, took it upon himself to assume an advisory role with Eve. When Eve followed his advice and picked the low-hanging fruit, the consequences were grave and long-lasting. So in addition to what some have called Original Sin, we now have the concept of Original Advice. We still feel the chill of this ancestral shadow cast over our work. (Block, 2000, p. 307)

Behind these comments, addressed to organisational consultants, are a wide range of unflattering preconceptions and problematic anxieties around the role, both for the consultant and her clients. When I first began work of a consulting type, I soon became aware of this ‘ancestral shadow’. It was embodied in the various ‘humorous’ stereotypes around consultants ‘taking your watch and telling you the time’, and seemed deeply embedded in the work. ‘Light a candle, cast a shadow’ goes an old saying, its implication being that when we choose to illuminate an area previously in darkness, shadows follow as an automatic consequence just as much as brightness does. Frequently ‘throwing a little light’ on the presenting problem is the underlying request from a client when they first engage with a consultant. But in my experience, what is feared in this encounter by consultant and client, although hardly ever spoken by either, is the shadow which is always cast as a result, and which can either throw into relief dark places in the client organisation, within the client themselves, or within the consultant.

My first role as a consultant was as an internal consultant within an