How do I reign in a cavalier consultant. In product design and data modeling meetings he constantly argues with employees about the business unit and constantly forecasts what he believe our customers want. How can I get him to stick to what he was hired to do (design products) and out of the product management side? Thanks!

-- Richard Juknavorian (richard.juknavorian@imckesson.com), October 13, 2000

Answers

If you have a consultant who constantly goes out of scope, put him on fixed price contract. If he continues to go out of scope after that, well then what are you worrying about, you'll be getting advice for free, if its fixed price what do you care, so long as he completes the terms of the job he was contracted for.

It all comes down to how well you nailed down the terms of his assignment. If he's getting per diem rates, he will use every consultant trick in the book to suck money out of your company. I should know, we have walked away from assignments rather than be in the same room as sucking sound of "dracula consultants". (Yes large companies do hire them in packs as well!).

Look, never mind how cavalier your one is, consultants even suck on other consultants ie sitting in on sessions while also billing the client as necessary "learning time" that benefits...well you fill in the dots.

So remember to trace back to where their food chain starts. You might offer a dictat that you believe cured the problem, but never underestimate Dracula Consultants. Just when you think you have controlled them, they find a different door to come in from.

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), October 13, 2000.

Why must you keep this person on anyway? It sounds like he is creating more problems than he is solving.

It seems that you have hired this person for his expertise in a certain area. If you are unable to handle his 'outbursts', maybe you should use a facilitator in the future sessions in which you feel there is a likely chance that he will cause problems again. Such a facilitator can be internal to the company or external. He or she should be well briefed in the problem and you should jointly agree a strategy to deal with this "cavalier consultant".

In brief, you cannot afford the morale of your people to be affected by a rogue consultant. With regard to his forecasts of customer behaviour, the least I would do is ask him to substantiate his opinions with real data, e.g. cutomer focus gruops feedback. Why should he know any better than your frontline personnel?

Good luck!

-- Joh (jchargreaves@pobox.com), October 16, 2000.

Or... consider this. Does the consultant have aspirations of working with you in a greater or different capacity? Does he have the product management skills you need in a product manager? Take a second and think about whether he'd fit better as a full-time employee (he might be trying to show he'd like to work with your organization, but not as a consultant), whether he'd make a better product manager than a product design consultant, and whether his cavalier attitude is really just a contrary position to the conventional wisdom where you work.

I don't have all the context to know what the arguments might be like... but take his insight and think about it seriously for a moment. And take this suggestion with a grain of salt.

Heath

-- Heath Row (heath@fastcompany.com), October 16, 2000.

I agree with the comment of define the scope of your consultant's project very carefully if he or she is going too far and meddling too much in stuff you don't feel he or she should be involved in.

It seems that the behavior that is most disrupting things is the fact that this person is wasting time in meetings having long discussions about issues that you as the client have already settled. First, get a handle on the meetings. If this person is wasting time with collateral issues, name that behavior and provide the solution. (i.e. "I think you have some good ideas, and at some point I'd like to hear more about them, but we really need to move this along and work on the task at hand.")

Next, take this person aside and let him or her know that while thier ideas may be interesting, they are not part o the scope of work. If he or she is committed to selling your company on these ideas, tell the person to write up a proposal for the work on his dime as business development, but you don't have the cash or the time to spend on it now. Blame it on the budget if you have to, but be frank about it.

The folks providing answers here are right -- if this person really does have good ideas that could help you, don't fail to take advantage of them just because he or she is being annoying. Also, be kind -- let him or her know that you appreciate the committment to quality and the enthusiasm and the creative thinking. Help the person find an outlet for it that is less disruptive and less expensive.

Good luck.

-- Liz Georges (istra26@yahoo.com), October 17, 2000.