What a Successful Consultant can learn from the "Ritual Cat” Zen story?

When the spiritual teacher and his disciples began their evening meditation, the cat who lived in the monastery made such noise that it distracted them. So the teacher ordered that the cat be tied up during the evening practice.

Years later, when the teacher died, the cat continued to be tied up during the meditation session. And when the cat eventually died, another cat was brought to the monastery and tied up.

Centuries later, learned descendants of the spiritual teacher wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice.

What can we learn from this story? 

Consultants who ask this question of “Why do you have to do it this way”, and looking to establish a logical context and reason around it before looking at What and How it needs to be done create far more value to the customers and society in general. Period.

Several times I had been in situations where the users were unaware of the context in which a process was established or a decision was made. Often I have heard “This is how we had always done it” as an answer. In their present circumstances it made absolutely no sense. Still, they just followed it so religiously “Just like another cat that was brought to the monastery and tied up”.

So, successful consultants know the power of asking WHY appropriately.