Comments on: Some Consulting Wisdom I Picked Up

By: Deborah Smith

Deborah Smith — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:51:00 +0000

Hmm it looks like your blog ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any recommendations for novice blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it. Russian Food

By: ralph

ralph — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:52:44 +0000

As to the last, yes: In my experience, most meetings are for concluding business in public that has already been agreed to in private by the appropriate parties. A good meeting is designed to clarify what everyone agrees as part of a public ritual. There are other good meetings, such as those in which the agreement is about what is wrong or lacking. The result of my view, then, is that Chad is basically right as rain: in poorly designed meetings (the usual ones for consultants), try to be constructive and polite and non-confrontational and then meet the appropriate people individually. Once youv’e got straight with them, bring them all back into a meeting to restate what everyone thinks is best and attribute the success of that agreement to them. :-)

By: Chad Myers

Chad Myers — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:06:26 +0000

@Robin:

In my experience, most meetings had nothing to do with getting things done, they were excuses to show off, score political points, bash/blame someone else, etc. So getting to brass tacks in most meetings was pointless and dangerous. You can usually tell when you’re in one of these meetings because there is more than 3-4 people in it (usually 10+).

The meetings were the real decisions happen are usually one-on-one with your manager or in a meeting with just technical people (your team + manager).

Even then, sometimes, the meeting isn’t about what it’s supposed to be about, so navigate carefully.

By: Robin Hanson

Robin Hanson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:26:04 +0000

So why bother to have a meeting with more than one person if you can’t talk about anything useful there?

By: db

db — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:18:21 +0000

As a former tax preparer I agree with the last item stated by jlockwood (pay yourself and save the rest) except I would say “Pay the government, then pay yourself and save the rest”. When my husband and I were consultants I insisted that the first 30% collected (at a minimum) went into a savings account to pay our taxes. My husband was horrified by the amount that we sent in each year when we did our taxes, but at least we had set it aside. I saw many a contractor who did not have money saved to pay their taxes and they got into trouble with the IRS that they could not get out of.

By: jlockwood

jlockwood — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:24:05 +0000

@Chad

This is a wonderful blog entry! I’ve been consulting for about 3 years now and have learned many of these rules through trial and error. The most important one were learned before moving over to consulting, which I think has been key to success. In fact, many of these rules should also be practiced by full timers.

#7 seems to have stirred up a bit of controversy, but think about it guys, when has publicly embarrassing team members of managers ever paid off? The spirit behind #7 is “don’t get in pissing matches during meetings”. If a proposed solution is rejected during a meeting, let it go. AFTER the meeting determine why the proposal was rejected, adapt the proposal to address any concerns, sell the merits of the proposal to key stakeholders (or obstacles), then present it again (this time with some backing).

#1 has been difficult for me, but I’m learning and I agree with it completely. Consulting can be ridiculously frustrating. If you can’t keep your emotions out of the picture then find some fulltime position. Getting angry with the client does no one any good. You’ll never create your little utopia on a contract, you simply find what works for the client, do your absolute best, compromise fundamentalist attitudes, then move on to the next gig. If you do well they’ll call you back for more work in the future.

There is only one thing that I would add. Before I took the bold leap into the wild world of consulting Michael Feathers gave me what was probably the best advice to date (it regards personal finance). He told me to be carful not to change my lifestyle when I start seeing the bigger paychecks that consulting offers, but so pay myself when the checks come in and put the rest away. Contracts (especially subcontracts) can disappear at any time, often for reasons completely unrelated to performance. The “six month savings rule” applies especially to the contractor. If you don’t have the discipline to save stick with full time positions…you’ll find yourself hungry when the market dips.

By: dennis

dennis — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 05:38:54 +0000

I agree with #7. Many times, its hard to convince your users upfront, especially when there are many people in the same meeting. But they are much more receptive when you go to them and explain things 1-on-1. Keep doing it enough times and you’ll eventually get them to accept your inputs on how some issues should be handled or to ask for added resources (manpower, time schedule, money, etc). Its even possible to have that requirement dropped if you push the right buttons.

Just sharing my thoughts and kudos on the very informative post!

By: Troy DeMonbreun

Troy DeMonbreun — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:09:43 +0000

Excellent list!

I only take issue with the literal statement of #7, but I think I now understand the meaning behind your statement.

Keep up the great posts!

By: Tom Opgenorth

Tom Opgenorth — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:31:13 +0000

Good list. I’d add another very important point:

#0: Humility. Clients typically don’t want a consultant coming in and making them feel small/stupid/insignificant.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:40:26 +0000

The problem with #7 is that other people will think you are implementing it one way and will become confused if you do it another. I generally just find a graceful way to agree and disagree (and do it my way).