The First Law of Consulting: In spite of what your client may tell you, there's always a problem. The Second Law of Consulting: No matter how it looks at first, it's always a people problem. The Third Law of Consulting: Never forget they're paying you by the hour, not by the solution. — : 151-158
One way around the problem is to agree that the client is competent, and then ask if there are any areas that need improvement. Few people are willing to admit that they're sick, but most of us are willing to admit that we could use improvement. Unless we're really sick. — : 169-171
Never promise more than ten percent improvement. — : 174-175
If you happen to achieve more than ten percent improvement, make sure it isn't noticed. — : 179-181
Whatever the client is doing, advise something else. — : 195-196
At the very least, the people problem is either lack of imagination or lack of perspective. — : 196-197
The Credit Rule In short, managers may not be buying solutions, but alibis to give their management. A corollary of The Third Law of Consulting is The Credit Rule: You'll never accomplish anything if you care who gets the credit. — : 210-214
Whether these consultants actually do accomplish anything is an unanswerable question. Whichever way it was answered, it would leave the consultant out of a job, so effective consultants make sure it is never asked. Unfortunately, so do ineffective consultants. The difference, however, is that when an effective consultant is present, the client solves problems. — : 217-220
When the clients don't show their appreciation, pretend that they're stunned by your performance—but never forget that it's your fantasy, not theirs. — : 233-235
If they didn't hire you, don't solve their problem. — : 247-248
As compensation for losing the intimacy of dishwashing, the consultant gains the satisfaction of a much wider effect on the world's gunk, grease, and grime. In the time it would take to wash a hundred mugs, I can advise two other people on how to do the job in my absence. What I lose in quality, I gain in quantity. As a dishwashing trainer, I intensify the quality/quantity tradeoff, because training is merely a cheaper form of consulting. Instead of giving one client my undivided attention, I design a workshop that can handle fifteen or twenty. Each participant gets a little less, but the cost goes down, so the market for my message expands. Sure, a couple will miss some essential point, and may leave their dishes actually grungier than before. But isn't it worth it to spread the word? As a dishwashing lecturer, I can spread my consulting advice even further, reaching several hundred avid clients at one time. True, some of them may be sleeping with their eyes open, and a few might even think I said to rub peanut butter on, rather than off. But shouldn't I think of the greater good for the greater number? But why stop there? Through the twin miracles of the printing press and internet, I can reach hundreds of thousands of clients with my sterling advice. If my book on dishwashing is a bestseller, I might even reach millions! And earn millions! — : 265-277
The wider you spread it, the thinner it gets. — : 286-287
Influence or affluence; take your choice. — : 290-291
The Psychology of Computer Programming. — : 295-295
Most of the time, for most of the world, no matter how hard people work at it, nothing of any significance happens. — : 334-337
After Rutabagas, Then What? — : 384-385
Once you eliminate your number one problem, number two gets a promotion. — : 399-400
If you can't accept failure, you'll never succeed as a consultant. — : 420-422
Some people do succeed as consultants, so it must be possible to deal with failure. — : 423-424
Once you eliminate your number one problem, YOU promote number two. — : 430-431
People who can solve problems do lead better lives. But people who can ignore problems, when they choose to, live the best lives. If you can't do both, stay out of consulting. — : 436-438
Helping myself is even harder than helping others. — : 452-453
Don't be rational; be reasonable. — : 473-474
The business of life is too important to be taken seriously. — : 491-493
As with all now/later tradeoffs, there is the problem of balancing certainty now versus uncertainty in the future. If I knew for sure what I would need later, there would be no tradeoff problem. — : 597-599
"I'm aware that something I said doesn't agree with you. I don't want to ignore that, but we all have business to attend to in this meeting. Can you and I discuss this over lunch, or do you think it will interfere with the business of the meeting if we don't resolve it first?" — : 603-606
In effect, I was presenting the time tradeoff as a problem for all in the meeting to solve, which ran the risk of using even more time now. I tend to do that because I've learned that people underestimate future time when it's something that might be unpleasant, like dealing with an angry person. "Maybe it will go away" is the attitude, and, of course, sometimes it does. But on the average, it seems to pay to invest a little more time now at least to find out how much time it will take later. By making the time tradeoff explicit and by indicating a willingness to contribute time now, I make it clear that it is a problem of limited time, not a problem of limited respect for the other person. — : 606-611
When working on training policies, I find the same tradeoff. People want training that makes them better adapted to the present task, rather than training that makes them more adaptable to future tasks. Perhaps their experience has told them that training that claims to be future-oriented is merely a different sort of specialized training, rather than training in adaptability. If you can't relate your training to anything, it's tempting to claim that it's training for everything. Perhaps it is a problem of risk: We just don't know what the future will bring. — : 625-630
By working with a client for an extended period of time, it's possible to establish trust by recommending only low-risk alternatives. This strategy is another now/then tradeoff: small results now for the possibility of bigger results later. But later, the consultant will be better adapted to the situation, and thus less likely to provide a truly big idea. These consulting tradeoffs may explain something I've observed in myself and other consultants: Consultants tend to be most effective on the third problem you give them. — : 654-660
"You said, 'That's a real problem. I can help you with it, ... and this is how much it will cost.' So you passed The Orange Juice Test." — : 716-717
We can do it—and this is how much it will cost. — : 725-726
If the system has a long history of practice in curing itself, then the consultant should lean toward the "do no harm" approach. — : 783-784
Deal gently with systems that should be able to cure themselves. — : 793-794
Repeatedly curing a system that can cure itself will eventually create a system that can't. — : 808-810
Every prescription has two parts: the medicine and the method of ensuring correct use. — : 819-821
If what they've been doing hasn't solved the problem, tell them to do something else. — : 832-834
Make sure they pay you enough so they'll do what you say. Another way to state this is The most important act in consulting is setting the right fee. — : 843-846
Know-how pays much less than know-when. — : 854-855
In Wonderland, whenever Alice found something topsy-turvy, she tended to blame herself, as any proper young lady has been taught to do. But in the wonderland of computers, where so much goes topsy-turvy, programmers need a less threatening strategy. That's why they adore Levine. Levine couldn't sew a straight seam, but rather than try to fix it, or learn to do better, he adopted The Bolden Rule: If you can't fix it, feature it. — : 881-887
The purpose of consulting is not to make me look smart, but it's not to make me look dumb either. Consulting is not a test for the consultant, it's a service to the client. — : 933-935
If you can't feature it, fake it. — : 982-983
Should consultants ever use The Gilded Rule? Should you do unto others before they do unto you? Whenever I'm tempted to do so, I think of Abraham Lincoln. Although a politician, Abe was famous for his honesty, which was characterized by his favorite riddle: "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?" After his guests had variously guessed one or five, Lincoln would proclaim, "No. The answer is four. Calling it a leg doesn't make it a leg." — : 1005-1009
gilded language used to describe the problems. Clients who use euphemisms are hiding something—even from themselves. For example, most of the time, cost-benefit analysis means cost analysis, and no attention is paid to benefits. In plain language, this means "we're going to list every expense we can possibly associate with this plan, to make sure it's smothered." — : 1015-1018
If something's faked, it must need fixing. — : 1022-1023
In short, the consultant studies history because, as the economist Kenneth Boulding says, Things are the way they are because they got that way. — : 1168-1170
The chances of solving a problem decline the closer you get to finding out who was the cause of the problem. — : 1184-1186
Keep it simple and not too detailed; you're a consultant, not a district attorney. — : 1189-1191
Study for understanding, not for criticism. — : 1195-1196
The people who know the history are your best source of information. Rather than shut them up with criticism, try opening them up: Look for what you like in the present situation, and comment on it. The bad will come to the fore soon enough. If you don't mention it, other people surely will. Even the perpetrators themselves. Mrs. Oldenhauser knows how bad her white bread is today. After all, she's had her own history to study all these years. Just as your clients have. Just as you have. Haven't you? — : 1199-1205
We may run out of energy, or air, or water, or food, but we'll never run out of reasons. — : 1279-1281
Most of us buy the label, not the merchandise. Linguists and philosophers put this in a different way: The name of a thing is not the thing. — : 1334-1337
When you point a finger at someone, notice where the other three fingers are pointing. — : 1382-1384
Clients always know how to solve their problems, and always tell the solution in the first five minutes. — : 1393-1395
That's why The Level Law holds: Effective problem-solvers may have many problems, but rarely have a single, dominant problem. — : 1442-1445
It's one of the ironies of our business that consultants rarely get asked for help by the people who need help the most. That sometimes makes it tempting to jump in without being asked when you happen to be in the neighborhood. Don't! When the request is missing, chances are you can't help. — : 1485-1488
Find out what you usually miss and design a tool to ensure that you don't miss it again. — : 1514-1516
Pose the question "What am I missing?" to as many people as you can find. — : 1519-1519
A laundry list reminds you of the different items that you might have forgotten, but that just might need cleaning up. A checklist is similar, but says these are items that must be present. The list of ideas you're now reading is a laundry list, not a checklist. You don't have to do every one of these things, but you might want to consider them. — : 1550-1554
Sometimes farfetched is only shortsighted. — : 1630-1631
If you can't think of three things that might go wrong with your plans, then there's something wrong with your thinking. — : 1640-1642
Words are often useful, but it always pays to listen to the music (especially your own internal music). — : 1729-1731
The Main Maxim, with the pun on "main" intended: What you don't know may not hurt you, but what you don't remember always does. — : 1812-1815
If you know your audience, it's easy to set triggers. — : 1836-1837
The Main Maxim cautions me: What you don't know may not hurt you, but what you don't remember always does. — : 1896-1899
The Titanic Effect admonishes me: The thought that disaster is impossible often leads to an unthinkable disaster. — : 1899-1902
The White Bread Warning puts me on the alert: If you use the same recipe, you get the same bread. — : 1905-1907
One of the books advised me that the next time I pigged out, I should think the following thoughts: 1. Remember that a lapse does not have to mean a relapse. 2. Resist negative thoughts. 3. Ask yourself what happened; then plan your strategy for next time. 4. Return to controlled eating immediately. 5. Talk to someone supportive. 6. Remember that you are making lifelong changes. You are not on a diet. Look at the progress you've made, and go to it. — : 1934-1943
A note to yourself makes a good trigger if you can attach it to an event that's related to the behavior you want to catch. I recently got a fortune cookie reading "Resist impulses to change your plans." That's good advice for me, but I need it more when I'm about to accept a client's dinner invitation than when I'm in a Chinese restaurant. So I clipped the note to my appointment calendar, where it gives me a chance of staying out of serious trouble. — : 1950-1954
As an amateur smoking consultant, I've managed to help dozens of people reduce their daily consumption just by having them write down the time when they take a cigarette. These people enjoyed smoking, and didn't want to give it up, but they knew they didn't enjoy every single cigarette and needed a trigger to remind them that they might be taking a cigarette unconsciously. I generally advise them to get a special cigarette case in which they can keep a tally card for writing the times. After keeping the tally for a week, they have not only reduced their smoking, but are enjoying it more when they do smoke. They've also transferred the trigger to the case itself and can dispense with keeping the tally. We've used the tally card with similar success on many other habitual problems. To alter the habit of interrupting other people, I advise clients to keep a record of the time of each interruption and whom they are interrupting. To reduce the tendency to waste time on the telephone, I have them keep a list of whom they spoke to, what time they started, and what time they finished. In each of these cases, there's no requirement to do anything about the habit, except to gather information. Some people find that the habit isn't as bad as they feared: Their trouble wasn't the habit, but how they felt about it. — : 1955-1966
One reason was that the trigger came too late, because once he actually saw the food, Sid had a much more difficult time applying his knowledge. For a trigger to be effective, the timing must be perfect: Too late means you're already committed to the troublesome action, while too early means you may forget again betwixt the cup and the lip. (Another reason might have been the derogatory nature of calling Sid "fatso." Virtually any reminder would have sufficed. "Hello again," would have been quite adequate.) — : 1973-1978
try to make my clients understand that their system is likely to be jiggled by my presence. If they find that prospect too frightening, then my consulting probably won't be effective, and so I usually turn down the job. — : 2181
of meeting. If I can improve a client's meeting-effectiveness, my consulting task is simplified, and the client retains the benefits long after I've gone. The Hidden Agenda is one of the techniques I use to train people to "see" inside others. I use the following technique. Before a meeting begins, I give each participant a sheet of paper on which is written a secret personal assignment for that meeting. Here are some examples of such secret assignments: • Try to see to it that every decision the meeting takes is written down and displayed so all can view it. • Make sure that every person gets a chance to talk on every topic. • Do not let any single person or clique dominate the meeting. • Pretend that you have not prepared for this meeting, and try to conceal that fact from everyone else throughout the entire meeting. • If at all possible, see that the meeting comes to decision X without letting yourself be identified with that decision. The typical secret assignment describes something that people normally do in meetings, with some assignments having a positive effect, some negative, and some neutral. By playing the role explicitly, the actor learns to "see" behavior that was previously invisible, or to see alternative interpretations for behavior that was previously visible. This new vision inevitably affects a person's future understanding of meetings. Two secret assignments I frequently use are these: • Pretend you have another meeting to attend following this one. You very much want to attend that meeting, so do everything you can to make this meeting end as quickly as possible. • Pretend you have another meeting to attend following this one. You very much want to miss that meeting, which you can do if this one runs overtime. Do everything you can to make this meeting last as long as possible. By using both of these secret assignments in the same meeting, I make it possible for everyone to see how the conflict works out. At the end of the meeting, I post a list of the secret assignments, and ask the observers to guess who had which. Without fail, the person assigned the "quick meeting" agenda is misidentified as the "prolonged meeting" person! — : 2263
the best way to speed a meeting's progress is simply to keep quiet. — : 2290
Your consulting style will reflect an increasingly complex understanding of your task and will have the following characteristics: • Your task is to influence people, but only at their request. • You strive to make people less dependent on you, rather than more dependent. • You try to obey The Law of the Jiggle: The less you actually intervene, the better you feel about your work. • If your clients want help in solving problems, you are able to say no. • If you say yes but fail, you can live with that. If you succeed, the least satisfying approach is when you solve the problem for them. • More satisfying is to help them solve their problems in such a way that they will be more likely to solve the next problem without help. • Most satisfying is to help them learn how to prevent problems in the first place. • You can be satisfied with your accomplishments, even if clients don't give you credit. • Your ideal form of influence is first to help people see their world more clearly, and then to let them decide what to do next. • Your methods of working are always open for display and discussion with your clients. • Your primary tool is merely being the person you are, so your most powerful method of helping other people is to help yourself. — : 2321
I'm a small person with big clients. And so are many other consultants, which explains why so many of them get pickled. Anthropologists go native. Psychiatrists go crazy. People who worked in the Bell System, once the world's largest company, used to say that they became "Bell-shaped," a condition that befell external consultants as well as internal staffers. — : 2428
Roamer's Rule: Struggling to stay at home can make you a wanderer. — : 2471
Romer's Rule The principle was clear enough: The best way to lose something is to struggle to keep it. — : 2503
Romer's Rule says that the biggest and longest lasting changes usually originate in attempts to preserve the very thing that ultimately changes most. — : 2526
The Corporal MacAndrews of the world are exceptional, and most people, like Prescott, are too weak to resist the blandishments of cost-accounting logic. — : 2597
According to legend, Henry Ford was once interviewed by Congress on the question of how to prevent river pollution caused by industrial plants. Ford pooh-poohed all the complex legislation that Congress was considering, proposing instead a single law that would "end river pollution once and for all." Congress didn't pass the law, but its two parts are worth remembering: 1. People can take any amount of water from any stream to use for any purpose desired. 2. People must return an equal amount of water upstream from the point from which they took it. In other words, people can do what they want with water, as long as they themselves have to live with the consequences. — : 2606
Consultants seeking to preserve quality should first verify that the people responsible for quality are, in fact, downstream from that quality. — : 2620
Insensitive bureaucrats are generally found in places where they never use the services they are supposed to provide, such as welfare and unemployment offices. Hard-hearted surgeons often soften the first time they undergo real surgery themselves. — : 2622
The Weinberg Test asks, Would you place your own life in the hands of this system? — : 2663
The essential element of The Weinberg Test is the requirement that the claimant risk something personal, rather than simply blabber some empty abstractions. As consultants, we're trying to apply Ford's Fundamental Feedback Formula to ourselves, at least conceptually. In street language, The Weinberg Test is called "putting your money where your mouth is." — : 2675
the end of an illusion." So that was Rhonda's First Revelation about change through crisis: It may look like a crisis, but it's only the end of an illusion. — : 2940
When you create an illusion, to prevent or soften change, the change becomes more likely—and harder to take. — : 2986
Any time you're afraid to say no to your client, you lose your effectiveness as a consultant. You also lose the client's respect, which increases the chance that you'll eventually lose the business. — : 3391
"To be able to say yes to yourself as a consultant, be able to say no to any of your clients." — : 3394
Here, then, is a review of the first nine laws of marketing: 1. A consultant can exist in one of two states: State I (idle) or State B (busy). 2. The best way to get clients is to have clients. 3. Spend at least one day a week getting exposure. 4. Clients are more important to you than you can ever be to them. 5. Never let a single client have more than one-fourth of your business. 6. The best marketing tool is a satisfied client. 7. Give away your best ideas. 8. It tastes better when you add your own egg. 9. Spend at least one-fourth of your time doing nothing. — : 3503
Nobody but you cares about the reason you let another person down. — : 3783
First, I have worked on my listening skills, both verbal and nonverbal. Second, whenever possible, I work with a partner so at least one of us can pay full attention to the listening problem. And third, I always contract in advance for a follow-up interview in which the client is expected to give me information about my performance. — : 3810
The trick of earning trust is to avoid all tricks. — : 3824
case. I can agree that "if that is the case, I can see why you feel that way," — : 3849
In disagreeing with clients, however, I must make it clear that I trust their integrity, even though I must reserve judgment on their ability to get the facts straight. I can get facts wrong myself, so it's reasonable to expect that other people can, too. Most people can accept the idea that even though they are sure of some fact, you, as a consultant and an outsider, need to find out for yourself. If they strongly resist this perfectly reasonable idea, then their resistance itself is an important fact that you should examine before going further. Why? Because they might be lying? But isn't that mistrusting their integrity? — : 3852
There's no better way to lose trust than to show you can only be trusted when nothing important is at stake. — : 3916
This principle applies just as well to perfectly honest acts: A service once given is a service promised for the future. — : 3920
Get it in writing, but depend on trust. — : 3951