LONDON -- I am having alternately excellent and horrible experiences.  And I can sympathise with the people that I am working for: It's hard to work with consultants.  There is no preparatory course.  Consultants make it hard.  They speak a strange language.  They talk too fast!

But here are a few simple ideas for how to get the most of your consultancy experience:

• Don't forget that you are the client -- you get to make the decisions.
• Be sure to make some.
• Make them in a timely manner and stick to them.
• Tell the consultants which ones you want them to make.
• Talk about money.
• Agree a fee up front.
• Make sure the consultant has told you the real cost.  The real fee.
• Don't change the brief without expecting a change in cost.
• Yes, it can go down too.
• Do your arguing before you get us into the room.
• It's hard to charge for watching you fight.
• And we don't like watching, really.
• You need to give us a clear leader who will have the final say.  Otherwise we'll all lose.
• Make sure you are asking us to do things that we can do.
• Don't give the wrong kind of work to the wrong kind of consultancy.
• Many of us will take it.
• Demand regular updates -- on budget, on deliverables, on progress.
• Read them.
• Comment on them.

That's it.

It's not that hard.  For some reason we don't tell you this stuff.

/df

P.S. Sign the contract & pay the bills!