I remember when consultants were consultants. You could always recognise one of these bastions of industry, impeccably presented, standing tall and proud, every meticulous activity executed with considerable aplomb, and generally to be found in the midst of a crowd of people dumbstruck by their wisdom and majesty.
So you can imagine my shock and dismay at seeing these much loved pillars of society having to lower themselves on bended knee and confess to the very clients who placed them on the pedestals on which they perch, that “it would appear that the original assumptions upon which our engagement was based have been subsequently invalidated which will require a review of the current trajectory and a potential shift in thinking to enable us to achieve the outcomes that were originally targetted, or potentially an adjustment of said outcomes to align with any changes to the vision that we may deem necessary” or other such protracted statements that would make a chou chou proud.
In plain English……..
“I was wrong, please forgive me”
This is no longer a rare occurrence – this confession culture seems to be catching on. Even today I heard a conversation about the weekly status reporting – ‘can’t we just report green for one week?’. what followed was a knowing glance between two people, a pause, both pairs of eyes lowered to the ground and the conclusion? “OK, OK we better just tell them there’s a problem and report amber” followed by a collective sigh of resignation.
So how are clients dealing with this breed of self-flagellating consultant who come to them with all their woes / deficiencies / misjudgements on a plate begging for forgiveness and the chance to repent and make amends? A little part of me thinks that they are secretly disappointed that the wind has been taken out of their sails with the opportunity for a public flogging being rudely ripped from their hands.
Another part of me would like to think that they find it a refreshing change – that working with someone who can recognise that something is wrong, admit to it and come up with a plan on how to fix it before its too late has got to be good thing. You’ve got to trust someone who’s so open with you right?
So it follows that maybe its OK for a client to tell this person that the organisation may have a few issues of its own – that maybe some issues in the firm may have contributed to the problem or maybe even as an individual they could have done some things better.
OK, OK – thats a bit much but it does sounds like the beginning of a beautiful relationship huh?
Of course we must remember that our raison d’etre is to keep our clients happy so we should at least occasionally indulge them and provide opportunities for the odd flogging to motivate the team and reinforce their position as the champion of change and order – all in the name of tradition, naturally
The Nice Consultant 