The Consulting Relationship: A Matter of Trust

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

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My mother used to have a saying: “There’s no point in having a dog and barking yourself.” The meaning is fairly obvious, but it’s a lesson that many organizations tend to forget when it comes to consultants. They actively seek out consulting assistance for a specific initiative that they have to run, pay a premium for the combination of skills and experience that the consultant brings, and then attempt to restrict the freedom that the consultant has to operate with--potentially even imposing requirements in the way that they do their work.

I have seen scenarios where an RFP specifically asked respondents to describe their project execution approach with points in the RFP scoring awarded to that criteria. Then when the winning bidder was awarded the contract, one of the terms was that the winning bidder had to use the project execution methodology that the purchasing organization ordinarily used! This may be an extreme example, but many consulting engagements see frustrated consultants because they are not allowed to do what they feel is needed to maximize the chances of success. In this article, I want to look at how these scenarios can be avoided.

Be comfortable before committing
I have a feeling that some of this is going to sound like relationship advice, but one of the most important elements of a consulting relationship is making sure …

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