Consultancy 101

Forgive the lack of humility writing about consultancy when I have only been at it six months or so but some people have said they'd like me to write more about my experiences and already a number of revelations, at least to me, have become apparent:

1. It is not about me doing what I did at the BBC for clients. For one thing it wasn't me who did social computing at the BBC - it was thousands of people. It happened because of the coming together of many, many factors - most of them outside of my control. What I bring is the stories - the wins, the losses, the fights, the insights and the moments when everything came together. Passing this on to clients is what I aspire to being good at.

2. My history didn't stop when I left the BBC. I have learned more in the last six months than in the last year about people, organisations and what are the blocks and enablers when it comes to the business use of social computing.

3. It is not certainly not about technology. It is about a shift in expectations of work and our roles as individuals. Yes I can help with which tools do what and can even be used as a blunt instrument which which to beat your IT department but if you put in £250 of software or £250,000 that is not your issue.

4. This stuff is not organisation specific. People use the fact that the BBC was a communications organisation to excuse themselves by saying "It was easy for you but we could never do that here".

Firstly it wasn't the "communicators" in the BBC who took to this stuff to begin with. It was people in support roles - researchers, technical people, administrators and so on. Secondly, and more importantly, it was people who had a need to talk to other people and who found that things got easier by doing so.

Every organisation, no matter how regulated or profit motivated employs people and those people need to trust and communicate with each other to get things done. This stuff puts those abilities on steroids.

5. Lastly "top down" and "bottom up" are misleading when talking about this. I have been lucky enough to talk to people from all walks of organisational life in the past six months from rigidly hierarchical orgaanisations to loose networks of autonomous professionals and from chief execs to new entrants. It is immensely reassuring to me that they all find the same things appealing. The ability to be heard, to be listened to and to be effective. I believe we can help them to do that.

Comments

[Jon Husband]

spot on .. your comments, not necessarily Weiss' aphorism.

[Dave Snowden]

Some great learning here Euan but I found the openin quote depressing (and not in line with what followed)
Two questions - why did you use it? Is there a source for it?

[Jon Husband]

I agree with David .. that's essentially what i meant, but for that damned Canadian politeness of mine !

You may not want many (or most) peoples' histories informing your future(s). What's that old saying .. "a few years experience or a point of view, repeated over and over and over again" ?

My guess re: the quote ... a smarmy half-smart alecked way of saying "I'm smart and experienced (at something) and you should want me (and pay me) to tell you about it."

[Euan]

My aren't you two touchy!

To be honest I took "history" at a very low level to mean stuff I have learned along the way both at the BBC and subsequently and that this will inevitably inform what I pass on to others as a way of not having to re-invent the wheel and possibly speed things up.

I nearly asked people to excuse the cheesiness of the quote but decided to let it stand.

[Dave Snowden]

Not touchy - just been in and around consultants for a long time and the quote is one I would use to summarise all that is wrong in consultancy! So hand over the source - I want to use it!

[Jon Husband]

On the other side of my touchiness ;-), I'll grant that "my history" could be viewed generously as in some people acquire some relative degrees of wisdom and the capabilities for accessing and offering insights as an outcome of acquiring that history.

But in my experience that is a certain type of (releatively rarely encountered) consultant.

But then again, it's me making that arrogant-on-my-part judgment ;-)

[Jon Husband]

... such as your general points.

[Jon Husband]

Sorry ... for clarity's sake:

It's partly your history, along with your awarenss and skills, that help you make the useful points you have outlined in your post.

Some of what your history has given you may help you to help shape others' futures.

[Euan Semple]

OK I have removed the quote because I wasn't sure about it in the first place and it was clearly distracting attention from what people have otherwise considered an interesting post.

Dave I have always found it interesting that your frequently stated dislike of consultants seemed at odds with the fact that you have always, in my mind at least, been one yourself!

[Dave Snowden]

Its because I think consultancy a valuable profession that I get upset when the space is occupied by snakeoil salespersons and charletans.

[Euan]

That's OK then.

;-)

[Suw]

Actually, I found that quote to be much more positive than is being interpreted here. If I take my history - what I have learned - and turn it into 'your' future, then I interpret that as meaning I can teach 'you' something you didn't know and help shape the direction 'you' go in. (Obviously, I'm saying 'you', but this applies to none of the people commenting here.)

My bass teacher always used to talk to me about how people reacted when they discovered that there were lessons available to learn how to play popular music. Some people would get up in arms, and say that 'real' guitarists shouldn't go for lessons because they'd just learn to think the same way as the teacher and would never think any new and original thoughts or play anything new or original.

My bass teacher, the wonderful Rob Burns who wrote and played the bassline for the Blackadder theme amongst other things, had a different point of view. He said you could spend as long as you liked sitting down with a guitar, figuring out scales and modes and arpeggios from first principles. You can work out your own chords, and learn how all this stuff fits together on your own. But if you have lessons, you save yourself from a long, difficult and painful process. You benefit from your teacher's experience and can move more quickly on to learning more difficult stuff.

As for the way in which the student behaves, it's up to them to be responsible for their own thoughts, whether new and original or old and trite. A good teacher can encourage original works, but a good student will be original regardless of what the teacher does.

So the argument against having guitar lessons turns out to be spurious.

I see some spurious thinking here too. Are all consultants bad? Is spending time teaching people what I know of social software a waste of time? Am I being arrogant to think that my experience - my history - can help postively shape someone else's future?

Sorry, but I have to disagree with both Jon and Dave. I think you chose to interpret that quote in a negative manner. I choose to interpret it more positively. In the same way as other people's histories have shaped my future for the better, I hope to do the same when I sit down with people and talk to them about what I've learnt.

[Euan]

Thanks Suw. I am going to leave the quote off the main post because, as I said, I wasn't sure about it anyway, but for those who have now followed this thread and are wondering what the hell all the fuss was about here is is:

"Consultancy is about turning my history into your future" - Alan Weiss

[Aleks de Gromoboy]

Eaun: The BBC is not a communications organisation, it is a broadcaster. Culturally it is very very good at getting a message effectively to a number of people but, in contrast, it is poor at listening. That's why the lessons and stories from the BBC apply equally well to other organisations.

[Kevin]

And I would add, as former BBC employee myself only just, that the challenges of internal communication and colaboration at the BBC apply in many ways to any large, traditional organisation. The external view of the BBC as a monolithic organisation is a fiction as anyone who has worked there would attest. It's actually a lot of vertical silos that rarely if ever share resources or information. It's a very challenging environment to share expertise and resources. Euan is spot on with Point 3. The cultural challenges are more difficult to negotiate than the technical ones.