A different philosophy
I do not see myself as a consultant. I see myself as someone who walks alongside.
The difference between a consultant and someone who walks alongside is not a matter of title. It is a matter of what you leave behind.
A consultant delivers a report. The organisation reads it, applies part of it, and six months later finds itself with the same questions and a smaller budget. That is not dishonest work: it is simply work that stops too early.
Someone who walks alongside stays until the organisation can carry on without them. It takes longer, it demands more, and it is the only way I know how to work.
Three convictions that govern every engagement
Technology has value only when it improves the daily work
A tool that dazzles in a demo and complicates the working day is a failure, whatever it cost. The question is never "is it powerful?" but "will the person using it eight hours a day work better?".
Governance has value only when it improves decisions
Policies nobody reads produce the appearance of compliance and nothing else. Good governance shows in one sign: teams make better decisions without having to ask.
Strategy has value only when everyone understands it
A strategy that needs forty slides to be explained will never be executed. If it does not fit in three clear sentences, it is not finished.
A successful engagement is not measured by the thickness of the report, but by what the organisation became able to do without me.
This philosophy has a commercial cost. It makes engagements shorter than they could be, and it rules out the kind of dependency that keeps many firms comfortable.
It also has an advantage I would not trade: the organisations I have worked with come back with a new problem, never the same one.
A question on this?
Describe the context in a few lines. I answer with a proposed angle, not a brochure.