This is tangential to the post at best, but I just wanted to say the equivalent of #notallconsultants. I very much agree about the McKinseys of the world, but there is also a world of more technically-focused consulting, which is where I am. What I’ve learned is that:
1) The specialty of a good consultant isn’t business or management, it’s transfer of learning.
2) Most large organizations are extremely bad at internal transfer of learning. Even ones that try very hard, like having well-built internal knowledge sharing systems and full-time librarians.
3) Most teams at most companies have no idea what the full extent of their own organizations’ capabilities are, and don’t have the clout to leverage those capabilities even when they do know.
4) Most teams, even at large companies with big budgets, are understaffed relative to what they’re asked to do.
5) No one has enough time to consistently help others learn what they know when it’s needed, especially if it’s not their department’s or their role’s main job. Having someone generally smart that you hire for a project, where they’re responsive and dedicated to the task, is sometimes worth more than getting an hour here and there, scattered over months, from someone with a lot more domain expertise.
This is tangential to the post at best, but I just wanted to say the equivalent of #notallconsultants. I very much agree about the McKinseys of the world, but there is also a world of more technically-focused consulting, which is where I am. What I’ve learned is that:
1) The specialty of a good consultant isn’t business or management, it’s transfer of learning.
2) Most large organizations are extremely bad at internal transfer of learning. Even ones that try very hard, like having well-built internal knowledge sharing systems and full-time librarians.
3) Most teams at most companies have no idea what the full extent of their own organizations’ capabilities are, and don’t have the clout to leverage those capabilities even when they do know.
4) Most teams, even at large companies with big budgets, are understaffed relative to what they’re asked to do.
5) No one has enough time to consistently help others learn what they know when it’s needed, especially if it’s not their department’s or their role’s main job. Having someone generally smart that you hire for a project, where they’re responsive and dedicated to the task, is sometimes worth more than getting an hour here and there, scattered over months, from someone with a lot more domain expertise.