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The Good Guys
Probably the hardest thing I have to do as a consultant is deal with hard-working, well-meaning people who just don't take the time to keep their skills updated. We've all been there -- too much workload, the boss always emphasizing cutting the trees and never enough time to sharpen the saw. In the world of black-and-white either they trust you enough to do your job or not. But in the real world, things aren't so clean cut.
The best case scenario is when people have trouble that they've all acknowledged and you're there to help them fix it. It's nobody's fault; just make the widgets start coming off the production line again, okay? Those are fun. Everybody is pulling together and with a smart team you can work wonders.
The middle ground is when there are a lot of problems, just nobody can agree on what they are. This is fun because you can have three meetings the same day and get three different views of what is going on. Sometimes from the same people! Larger organizations typically fall into this pattern, as everybody has a slightly different idea of the status of the organization (or the project). The goal is consensus building and cost justification. Either you're there for a good reason or not, and sometimes it's your job to figure that out for people. (Which in itself is a strange situation to be in, no?)
But the fun jobs, the main course for consultant, the piece de resistance is the jobs where one bunch wants something fixed and the rest of them don't even want you around. These are the jobs that separate the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff, and the chickens from the colonel. Some of these consulting jobs I think were reject episodes for "Mission Impossible", because even with a rubber face and a radio-controlled Lamborghini you ain't saving the ambassador's kid anytime soon.
What to do in this situation? You have two choices: fight or hide. I usually try to do both, preferably at the same time. To fight, you need to start building a case (and a sponsor) for some kind of re-alignment. The thing to remember here is that it's their decision: we're just around to show them the ropes. Hiding means staying low and keeping off the radar. How do you do both? Well, there are certain people that constitute "the radar" at any organization: the people who are looking to shoot you down in flames. The trick is to do everything possible to stay away from these people. If you can't, then act like one of those airline agents when the flight is delayed -- nothing but smiles and politeness.
Does any of this work? Heck. Beats me. It's worked for me in the past (with a lot more detail than I've gone into here. There are a lot of skills you must sharpen to execute any strategy.) But every new consulting job is a new world. That's why I love it so much. Remember that everybody in an organization has a point of view and a belief system, and it usually makes total sense to them. I've never worked with anyone in 20 years that I thought was actively trying to hurt the organization. Getting everybody to share their views in an ego-free zone is the hard part. if you remember that we're all the good guys, it makes your job a little easier.
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