The Tell–Sell–Test–Consult–Co-create model

A boss has five main ways of getting something done: Telling, Selling, Testing, Consulting, and Co-creating.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, written by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross and Bryan J. Smith, first appeared in print in 1994. The chapter contributed by Bryan Smith is titled Building Shared Vision, and it features the Tell–Sell–Test–Consult–Co-create model shown in the graphic below.

Elaborated version

Although no credit is given, the model is clearly inspired by Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt’s classic 1958 Harvard Business Review article, How to Choose a Leadership Pattern.

The five ways

Telling

What the boss does: Give an instruction.

“This is the plan. Get going.”

Selling

What the boss does: Seeks buy-in.

“This is the plan, and this is how you will benefit …”

Testing

What the boss does: Invites response.

“This is the plan. Tell me what you think about it and we will consider incorporating your ideas.”

Consulting

What the boss does: Requests assistance.

“Please help me create the plan.”

Telling or Selling will be required when enacting decisions made as a result of Testing and Consulting work.

Co-creating

What the boss does: Collaborates.

“We’ve got a blank sheet of paper. Let’s create the plan together.”

This is likely to be the most effective approach to adopt when designing a change intervention.

“In the old hierarchical model you could just tell people what the vision was. That won’t work now. We have to create a platform that is meaningful for each person. Leaders can’t do it alone. They must do it in collaboration with their leadership team, and if they’re doing it really well, with the entire organization. The vision has to be collaboratively created and open in its architecture so people can connect with it.”

Doug Conant, former President and CEO, Campbell Soup, in an interview with Jess Lyn Stoner | view source.

Further reading

External websites

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies for Building a Learning Organization, by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross and Bryan Smith

How to Choose a Leadership Pattern, by Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt, in Harvard Business Review, March–April 1958 issue

How to delegate | Shreyas Doshi introduces his Radical Delegation Framework | Video, 2:29

Downloads

Creating Collaborative Gatherings Using Large Group Interventions (pdf) by Jack Martin Leith

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The three Now-to-New action modes: creating alone, creating together and helping others create

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