Consulting models and failure modes

At the Edges No.3

I finally figured out why my freelance business didn't go well. It's nine years too late, but better late than never, I guess.

Consulting models

While driving to the gym, I was listening to Peter Block's book Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used. In it, he talks about three models of consulting:

1. Consultant as line worker. They want you to do the work.

2. Consultant as collaborator. They want you to work together on figuring out what to do.

3. Consultant as expert. They want you to tell them what to do.

Consultant failure modes

I realized when an engagement didn't go so well, it was one of two failure modes:

1. I thought I was the expert; they thought I was a line worker. Could you imagine going to Subway, ordering a meatball sub, and the sandwich artist looking at you and saying, "What's the real problem here?" There's a mismatch of expectations, and that conversation isn't going to go well. I realized this is what happened with a lot of my clients. I wanted to be an expert. I wanted to try to solve the big thorny problems, and they wanted a Coder. I ended up writing the code, but we had some awkward meetings, and I wasn't thrilled about it.

2. I was a line worker tasked with an ineffective plan. Who do you think they're going to blame? The internal stakeholder or the outside contractor? Sometimes, it even felt like I was hired strictly as a fall guy to work on a project that they didn't want to do, but deep down, they knew it wouldn’t pan out.

So why now?

So why am I listening to this book now? I haven't done contracting or consulting since 2016, when one of my clients hired me on for a full-time position(I guess that engagement went pretty well.)

The reason is that coaching and consulting aren't titles. They're skills. As I'm getting into engineering management. I see how these types of engagements show up internally, informally, all the time.

When the stakeholders want a report on potential courses of action and the tradeoffs between each, I’m consulting. When I'm helping my reports grow their engineering skills, I'm coaching.

I've realized that management isn't a single skill; It’s a collection of multiple skills. And right now, these are the skills I want to improve.