Bringing A Consultant's Approach to Your Job.

My sister is an engineer--her first boss asked her what she was supposed to make. His answer? Money. She was supposed to improve processes, iron out kinks, do work, and make money for the company. I have harder time seeing the direct line between what I do and the bottom line, but have been looking for process steps that are redundant, inane or superfluous. Sometimes process steps are just in place to manage around the personality of an organization. Isn’t this a waste?

The average loaded cost of an employee in my company is $119 an hour. I wonder--am I earning my keep?

The norm in my organization is to bring in a consultant to manage projects. It took me a while to understand why this was a good investment, especially when we have sent more than 100 people to project management training in the last couple years. The return on the investment in a consultant is perspective. They can come in and ask why certain process steps are place. They don't know which topics are sacred cows. Sometimes I think a consultant is more persuasive than an employee because the project sponsor has to approve their cost every week. I have to approve my employees' time, but don't see the associated loaded cost on the screen when I'm approving through their hours. Getting invoiced for $1,500 for ten hours of time (plus expenses) may bring a different sense of urgency to a project sponsor's day, and might make them pay more attention to the recommendations.

Here's how you can bring the value of consultant without invoicing your boss every week--lose the blinders and change your perspective. Map out a process and find the steps that don't make sense from an outsider's perspective. Bore one of your friends with a 45-second description of something you're working on. If they shoot you a WTF-look while you’re describing your project you know you have found something that needs to be reexamined.

Caveats, caveats. Here are the reasons you are not better than a consultant: You did not go to B School; You did not work for a big 3 firm; You do not have the breath of industry knowledge to bring a project on track. Maybe the biggest caveat is that they don't have long term skin-in-the-game. There are some areas where smart employees fear to tread, and it might be too dangerous for you to call out your VP on some boner decision.

Divorce the organizational history or the personnel history from the problem--would you do things differently if you could redeploy some ROAD (Retired On Active Duty) warriors? You're cheaper than a consultant, and you might even get some positive attention from up the food chain. You might even get some new business cards printed: "Internal Consultant." Just make sure it's true.