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The Great Reframe: Why Your “Soft” Approach Is Actually Advanced

Two major shifts are happening in the business world right now.

1. First, AI is rapidly taking over consulting work that can be systematised—applying frameworks, analysing data, and generating recommendations based on best practices.
2. Second, the problems organisations face are becoming more complex and unpredictable, requiring a different kind of thinking altogether.

A Perfect Opportunity

This creates a perfect storm for experienced professionals like you who have something AI can’t replicate: the wisdom to navigate uncertainty through relationship and deep pattern recognition.

Why This Matters for Your Solo Business

I've been exploring what researchers call 'engaged epistemology'—essentially, the study of how knowledge is really created in complex situations. As knowledge workers, our job used to be to process, master, and apply existing knowledge. But post-industrial work is fundamentally different. It's about learning in real-time, figuring out how to define and solve novel problems, then scaling up solutions that didn't exist before we started.

It also reinforces why AI can handle the "apply existing knowledge" part but struggles with the "figure out how to define new problems" part

Your Natural Advantages

If you're like many experienced professionals, you probably find yourself naturally approaching client work in a particular way.

You might:

• Want to understand the whole situation before offering recommendations
• Ask lots of questions and really listen to the answers
• Include multiple perspectives in your thinking process
• Feel comfortable starting an engagement without knowing exactly where you'll end up
• Care deeply about whether your recommendations will actually work in their specific context

If you’ve ever felt this approach is “less professional” than delivering confident frameworks, I want to reframe that completely. This approach isn’t ‘soft’—it’s a sophisticated method of navigation. I call it ‘wayfaring’.

Wayfaring vs. Wayfinding

Most consultants practice 'wayfinding'—they know the destination and apply proven methods to get there.

But what if you positioned yourself differently?

What if you offered 'wayfaring'—helping clients navigate uncertainty by reading the landscape as it emerges, adapting the approach based on what you discover together?

Your decades of experience have given you the pattern recognition and judgment to guide this kind of adaptive navigation—something that can't be systematised or automated.

• Wayfinding works when the territory is familiar.
• Wayfaring works when you’re dealing with unprecedented challenges.

Guess which one organisations need more of right now?

More Than Networking: The Power of Relationships

Wayfaring requires something that traditional consulting doesn't: the ability to create genuine partnership with your clients.

This is where what I call relational capital becomes crucial.

When I talk about relational capital, I don't mean networking. I mean your ability to create the conditions where people share what they really think, where hidden problems surface, and where creative solutions emerge. Through your work you've learned how to help people think together in ways they cannot think alone.

That's not a soft skill—it's the hardest skill to develop and the most valuable one in complex situations.

Your Experience is Your Edge

Your experience has also given you the ability to recognise patterns that others miss. You have a better sense of when a solution will create unexpected problems or when the stated problem isn’t the real problem. This allows you to help clients understand not just what to do, but when and how to do it in the messy reality of their organisation.

Where You Can Create Value

Instead of competing on frameworks and efficiency, you can offer something completely different:

• Learning Partnerships: Help leadership teams develop their capacity to think strategically about unprecedented challenges.
• Sense-Making Facilitation: Guide organisations through complex transitions where the path forward isn’t clear.
• Wisdom Integration: Help capture and apply the institutional knowledge of your most experienced people before it walks out the door.

These are partnership-based approaches that leverage your natural strengths and create ongoing value.

The Business Model Shift

This approach requires different pricing strategies. Instead of selling time or expertise, you’re selling transformation. Instead of competing on efficiency, you’re positioning around depth and sustainability. This is powerful for solo practitioners because it creates predictable revenue, deeper client relationships, and work that uses your accumulated wisdom.

Looking Ahead

The opportunity is real. AI is rapidly commoditising expertise, but it’s also creating an unprecedented demand for wisdom.

Your decades of experience have developed cognitive capabilities that are becoming more valuable, not less.

The question isn’t whether you can compete with younger, faster consultants. The question is whether you’re ready to explore, or offer something completely different that they simply can’t provide.

Cheers

Nigel Rawlins | Wisepreneurs
​Strategic Guide for Experience-Based Professionals​
​Host: Wisepreneurs Podcast (75+ expert conversations)Connect with me on LinkedIn for regular strategic insights https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/​

P.S. I explore these ideas in much greater detail in my latest website article. Read it here: “Beyond Expertise: Why Knowledge Work is Becoming Relational Work.” https://wisepreneurs.com.au/beyond-expertise-relational-work​