Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We hire consultants to consult, i.e., advise us on things which they know better than us. That is the end.

We often confuse things. There is so much to do and consider, it is no wonder that we do. One common area of confusion is the consultant(s).

We need to know something, but we don’t. We don’t have the time to become expert in that thing. We hire a consultant. That person knows more about the thing than we do. They advise or consult us on the thing.

That should be the end, but we often trip and continue down the road with the consultant.

Ignorant Me: I need advice on my workforce.

Consultant: I know about that.

Ignorant Me: What should I do?

Consultant: (after a pause of study) You should train your workforce more.

Ignorant Me: Hmmm. I don’t know how to do that.

Consultant: I do. Hire me to train your workforce.

Ignorant Me: Thank you, but that would be a conflict of interest, you understand. You recommending that I hire you to do something and me hiring you to do it and all that. Can you recommend someone else? I hired you to consult, not to do.

Let us pause here as the above statement from Ignorant Me is what I should say. The trouble is, it is so easy for…

Ignorant Me: Why thank you. This is great. I don’t have to do anything else.

Of course it is easy to keep the consultant on hand and have them do what they recommended. Still, let’s be an adult here and step back. This is not a case of going to the tire shop and asking the tire salesman if I need new tires (that the tire salesman sells and installs). This is bigger than a set of tires that I already knew I needed.

Keep the initial goal in mind. I hired a consultant to consult. Thank you. Move on as desired.