The use of history in organizational consultancy interventions

This paper, drawing data from a long term consultancy (10 years) the author is involved with, will analyse the place history (as collection of stories) has in the life cycle of value-led organisations. It will engage with the issue of if and how much an organisation's future is locked-in by historical events and how consultant and client can work with it. It will also discuss how organisational consultancy can become a more history orientated discipline. It will be argued that including history in the consultants' domains can contribute to increase choices in actionable knowledge for the mindful consultant. The chapter refers to a case of an Italian social enterprise for whom thinking and planning for the future has meant addressing the past.