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Right on as usual, Chip. Consultants indeed often fall prey to skipping to solutions, but so too do many others with whom we???re involved, including especially those charging us with consulting who already have decided what they think the answer should be.

I???ve found that very often consulting and other projects get off-base from the start, seldom with awareness thereof until much later if ever, because they are initiated with inadequate understanding of what the real problem, opportunity, or challenge is and what the real value (if any) is of addressing it.

When I point it out, my students generally are grateful to finally recognize how this has been limiting their success and how to apply more effective techniques to improve listening, learning, questioning, and thinking. However, I???ve also found that it remains difficult to convince the others that time should be spent on anything other than leaping to (their) presumed solutions.