Over the years, we’ve observed six characteristics of consulting.  Mostly, they are well-intentioned.  Still, unless you take care, they can lead you to dangerous places.

Consultant Deliverables vs. Client Results:

Projects are designed around what the consultants will deliver.  The results the clients want are often nowhere to be seen.  This often leads to success in terms of deliverables, but failure in terms of results.

Workload vs. Readiness:

Project predictions are based on amount of work and number of staff  available.  This neglects two crucial components:  the client’s readiness for change and the employees’ skill set.

The Wow Factor:

Proposed solutions are often grandiose, complex and difficult to both manage and implement.  Solutions that are simple, low-key, incremental and easy to institutionalize are often ignored or overlooked.  Sometimes, however, the simplest steps are the most profound.

Safety in Contract Commitments:

The client, the consultant, or both, are let off the hook by contracts that the parties can hide behind. Contracts with real, well-defined partnership agreements and commitments from both sides are seen as risky.  Yet lack of daring often goes hand in hand with lackluster performance.

Staff Supplementation:

Consultants are used as a labor-intensive, costly staff replacement, instead of leveraging their skill and committing to knowledge transfer from the consultant to the client staff.

Human Factor Assumptions:

Consultants are presumed to have unlimited vitality and be available to clients whenever and wherever required at a moment’s notice.  This overlooks the fat that consultants are human and that consultants burn out.

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