Reply #1: I've done it. (been a consultant) [View All]

First let me say that some consultants are full of shit. Reading six sigma crap and learning all the cool new corporate-speak terminology does not make one special. If you ever hear a consultant talking about shifting paradigms or leveraging anything, please bitch slap them.

But someone who provides an objective review from an outside POV of an organization can be so helpful. And some group, most likely some form middle management, will be pointed out as the main group responsible for all the inefficiencies, morale issues, all the bad stuff, really. As you said, it's usually pretty obvious who's screwing up and how they're doing it.

But here's the problem: it somehow winds up that the very ones responsible for the problems are usually the ones asked to implement the changes and create the action plans suggested by the consultants. So the consultants do a great review, there's lots of buy-in, and the ABSOLUTELY JACK SHIT HAPPENS. I've seen it happen way to many times. Some people just don't want change.

So my suggestion is that if the ideas presented by the consultants are really beneficial, ride some ass to make sure changes happen.