Have you ever had an experience where your Company has paid big dollars for a consultant in a specialist field to come in and help, and you have observed them sitting in the corner looking very busy behind their computer, but you’ve never really seen them contributing much? Or perhaps they have been commissioned to solve a particularly complex problem, and after a significant amount of time and money, they depart the scene leaving nothing but a badly written report with a few unedited Excel charts that really doesn’t get to the nub of the issue?
If it wasn’t such a serious matter for genuinely capable consultants who repeatedly add significant value to their clients organisations, I would at first think this situation is funny. Indeed, what a genius, the person who is engaged on big money and doesn’t really contribute much.
But in this post, I want to discuss some of the broader problems caused by ‘consultants’ who claim to capability that they may believe they have, but in actual fact they don’t really measure up. Often these people have less than 5 years direct experience in their niche field, but they know enough to get “certified” in a given tool or by a broad industry body. Importantly, their tertiary education qualifications in their field usually don’t measure up. A graduate certificate for example typically consists of just 4 academic subjects which are by definition at the introductory level in the field. Unless the person has more than a decade of direct applied experience, graduate certificates and diplomas don’t signify truly expert training and therefore don’t really cut the mustard for consultancy in our view.
So why do organisations have trouble seeing past the affable and nice person before them claiming to be an “expert in the field” when one or more of their credentials fall short of the mark? There are of course many reasons, and many of them rooted in human psychology, and many of them get work via their ‘friends’. I think it is important that we help organisations to sort the wheat from the chaff regarding the selection of consultants. Falling for anything less than someone who adds commensurate value to your bottom line doesn’t help you, doesn’t help the consulting field and only helps the under performing consultant in the short-term, as it is unlikely they will be asked back. So is this a self-correcting problem? To a degree it probably is, but it causes damage on the way to sorting itself out.
So if you want to maximise the probability of choosing a consultant who will contribute more to your business than they cost, here are some things to check:
Certification: “Certification” in tools or a field DO NOT equal an automatic assurance of a good outcome for your organisation. Certifications are generally good for consultants to have and we generally encourage them, but they can be very misleading unless they also come with other well-developed professional ingredients. A consultant maybe certified in a particular tool, meaning their knowledge and proficiency with the tool has been assessed. This is not a bad thing, but it takes many other professional qualities to employ that tool to provide the best outcome for your business. A fool with a tool (even a certified fool), is still a fool. Make sure they back up their certifications with the following…
Education: Consultants should have at least an Honours Degree but preferably a specialist Masters Degree or PhD. These degrees by their definition signify a specialist in their field who has had to acquire a sufficient amount of deep knowledge and demonstrate that knowledge in an academic construct. Do you think a consultant can really be a niche professional with specialist knowledge with only an introductory education in the field, like a graduate certificate or diploma? I don’t. Then at the other end of spectrum, beware the boffin. Knowing the theory is a mandatory thing as a consultant, but also look at their experience in the application of theory. For me, this is where the rubber hits the road. Ask yourself, “what about this person tells me that they can do more than think and use jargon, can they “get hard stuff done” and “do it in a smart and efficient way”? Beware the theoretically impressive, but largely ineffective boffin. Someone colloquially defined as being able to find the square root of a Vegemite jar, but they can’t take off the lid. Knowledge is useless unless it is able to be effectively applied to deliver real outcomes that add measurable value.
Experience: Make sure a consultant presenting their “certified” status and their education can back these things up with more than 10 or more years of applied specialised experience in the field. Demonstrating 20 years as a cab driver then 5 years as an IT specialist doesn’t mean 25 years in the IT field. Experience should preferably be recognised and independently verifiable. Testimonials can be good for this, but bear in mind, these are usually requested by friends of the consultant. Look for evidence of previous accolades or special recognition for applied technical excellence in previous employment, or other independently derived recognition of their ability.
So if they are certified, have greater than 10 years experience, good testimonials and there is evidence of previous technical accolades, what next?
A lot of organisations put a lot of stock in certifications and designations bestowed on members of various industry bodies. In many cases, this perfectly valid as the standards and requirements for certification are such that they almost guarantee the certified party is an expert in the specific area. But many fields who offer certification status, while looking like they set the bar pretty high, in actual fact make it quite easy to gain a certification without the certified party really being that competent.
The moral of this story is to look for the consultant with a specialized post-graduate degree, evidence of independent recognition of technical ability, more than 10 yrs successful specialist experience, credible certifications and memberships of industry bodies. Importantly, listen to your little voice. Just be careful you’re not about to throw good money after a “certified” low performer who is out of their technical depth. In the long run, we will all benefit.
