Do you know about smokejumpers? They’re brave, self-sufficient firefighters who parachute into remote areas wearing eighty pounds of gear and ready to fight a forest fire. If the jump goes well, they land safely. After extinguishing the fire, they may have a ten-mile hike out. It’s not a job for the faint of heart, slow of mind, or weak of back.

Have you considered that you may be a smokejumper? Think about it: Many of you join software projects midstream because sometimes a project needs additional contributors – some add brains, others brawn. Sometimes mentors are needed to improve project performance. Sometimes management needs an outsider’s view of the project status.

No matter why you join a project after it begins, you will encounter challenges. To be successful you must:

• Determine your role
• Build trust
• Learn the territory
• Gather information
• Do your job
• Declare victory

Determine Your Role

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.” – Laurence J. Peter

Smokejumpers work on well-defined teams. Everyone has a job to do and knows how to do it. Before jumping into a project you should determine your role. Ask:

• What specifically is my sponsor asking me to do?
• How can I demonstrate to my sponsor that I have been successful?
• What will my relationship be with others on the project?

Knowing what my sponsor wants keeps me focused. Difficulties arise when the sponsor has trouble explaining the problem. He knows the project is late and he wants better quality, but he can’t say exactly why the project is late or what’s creating sub-standard quality. Generally, the greater the pain (lateness, poor quality), the less articulate about the problem the sponsor becomes. When this happens, I like to use the SMART acronym Johanna Rothman describes in “Release Criteria: Is This Software Done?” (STQE magazine, March/April, 2002). SMART reminds me to get a problem definition that is: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and trackable.

Next, I need to know what “done” means. Knowing how I’m going to demonstrate “done” gives me information on what to track so I can provide my sponsor the information needed to prove the fire is out. A good question to ask is “What will you see, hear, and feel when this problem is solved?”

I often use a simple reporting format when I check in with the people for whom I’m working. I describe what we’ve done since our last discussion, what we’re currently working on, and any barriers to progress we’re encountering.

Last, but not least, I need to know who I will be working with and in what capacity. Based on what I’m being asked to do (brawn, brains, mentor, or project review), I’m going to relate to the team in different ways. I may be a coworker, a coach, or an investigator. Knowing which role I’ll be in guides me as I work on getting a demonstrable “done.”

Currently, I’m working with a client whose staff has been trying to solve a problem for a month. In our kick-off meeting, we established that my job was to get the project “done,” and they don’t care how. On this project, “done” means all the applications have been switched to the new server and tested and the old server decommissioned. I’m going to function primarily in the brains/brawn role, as a coworker helping solve the problem. Along the way, however, I’m going to be asked, “Why couldn’t the team solve the problem?” which will put me in an investigator/reporter role.

Build Trust

“The first thing to build is trust.” – Brad Appleton

Smokejumpers work in integrated teams to put out small fires before they spread or to provide additional manpower on larger blazes. As a project smokejumper, it’s likely you’ll be joining a pre-existing team. So when your boots hit the ground and your chute is secure, you’ll need to hook up with the team. Your success in working with this team will depend on how well you understand them and how much they trust you.

Building trust is a relatively straightforward activity. If you say you’re going to do something, do it. If you say you’re not going to do something, don’t. The team – and its management – will be looking for discrepancies between your words and your actions. Building trust is an action-based activity. When I hear “Trust me!” from someone I do not know well, that is a red flag that throws me into the “Put up or shut up” mode. So make commitments and meet them.

Keeping activities, information, and decisions visible helps build trust. It’s not always possible to achieve immediate success (however minor it may be). Keeping things in the open helps allay fears, enhances communication, and enables better decisions. On one of my jumps, a team member heard me discussing a spreadsheet I was using to keep track of assets, current status, and needed changes. He asked for a copy of the spreadsheet and later returned it to me with the names and phone numbers of the key people I should coordinate with at each plant. By sharing the information I had, I received more.

Asking questions opens the door for team members to share what they know about the fire. Listening to and understanding their answers creates rapport and builds trust. This also helps you learn the territory and gather information.

Learn the Territory

“You gotta know the territory.” – Meredith Willson in “Rock Island” from The Music Man

“I know the territory.” – Meat Loaf in “I’d Do Anything For Love” from Bat Out of Hell II

Smokejumpers work in an ever-changing environment where understanding the territory can be the difference between putting out the fire and not making it out alive. Their territory includes fuel types, wind direction, and the topography where they’re working. Changes in any of these can change the possible outcomes quickly.

Project smokejumpers also work in highly dynamic environments. Personality differences fuel the project flames. Some team members may be more equal than others. Who’s really in charge? Even though someone can’t help me, can he hurt my ability to succeed? Changes in any of these can quickly change the possible outcomes.

In all my years of jumping, I never have landed in a situation that lacked energy. Most situations follow the pattern of a jump I did a couple of years ago. For reasons no one could determine, a stable, proven process suddenly started generating a 25 percent defect rate. The Big Boss flew in from the home office to handle the situation personally. On Saturday, I got the call to jump. When I arrived Monday morning, I surveyed the situation, listened to the management screams and the worker apologies and decided it was a good time to be calm. I took a deep breath and started asking questions.

In her book Communication Gaps and How to Close Them, Naomi Karten lists my three favorite questions:

1. How did you happen to come here?
2. What do you expect will happen here?
3. What do you hope to accomplish here?

She also says, “Notice that the first question elicits information about events from the past; the second, the present; and the third, the future. All three questions provide a starting point to help you determine what’s important to the person or group with whom you’re trying to communicate.” These questions represent starting points for learning the territory.

The responses to the questions indicate how safe the person feels. Short, simple answers may be a tip that the person isn’t feeling safe. Perhaps there’s a blaming corporate culture and whoever’s holding the blame when the music stops gets fired. It could be personality conflict on the team. Unresolved conflicting management agendas can cause a “CYA” environment. If the environment isn’t safe for the employees, it’s not going to be safe for the smokejumper, either.

The key to success and survival hinges on the smokejumper’s ability to ferret out information about why the person doesn’t feel safe. If I haven’t created a trusting relationship, I won’t get the information I need to learn the territory. I talk to as many people as possible, which allows me to draw a more accurate map to help me navigate the territory.

Do the answers’ content and delivery style agree with each other? I remember one project manager yelling at me about how well he had done on a previous project and how this project wouldn’t fail. I wondered why he chose to do this project differently, but decided to keep

my mouth shut. He was partially correct. The project didn’t fail, but he and his company (the management team) were terminated six weeks later. It took us another year of development to complete the estimated twelve week project.

Gather Information

“As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Smokejumpers receive information about the fire before they board the airplane. How big is the fire? What are the weather conditions? Which way is the fire headed? Are there obstacles to overcome? Where are the safe zones? As soon as they land, their first action is to verify the information and determine if anything has changed. Project smokejumpers start gathering information during the first conversation with the client. What’s the nature of the problem? How long has it been going on? What already has been tried to solve the problem? You need to gather information about the technical fire you’ve been asked to put out.

I once jumped to solve a “three systems quit working” problem. After listening to the problem description, I thought about the symptoms and several possible cause/effect scenarios came to mind based on other successful jumps. I continued to ask questions, and one by one

ruled out the possibilities. When I jumped, all I knew for sure was a problem existed. (For the curious, the software quit working because someone created separate IP subnets, and the computers couldn’t talk to each other because the inexpensive routers couldn’t bridge the subnets.)

Project smokejumpers compare this information against their past experiences. What appears to be the same? Is something new or novel? This provides the project smokejumper with an initial problem assessment. This is both good and bad.

The difficulty with this initial assessment comes when it leads us to ignore new data. Since we have an idea of what the problem is, we may believe we have the answer. As Lee Copeland points out in “Believing Is Seeing” (Better Software magazine, December 2006), the Bruner-Postman experiment shows that our experience can blind us to reality. Keeping an open mind and being willing to change conclusions go against our own biology, but both are necessary when you’re jumping into complex situations.

Try to find both positive support and negative indicators for the problem you’re trying to solve. In my career as an emergency medical technician, I was taught to evaluate data and revise my understanding using the following checklist:

• I expect to see something, and I do.
• I don’t expect to see something, and I don’t.
• I expect to see something, but I don’t.
• I don’t expect to see something, but I do.

We can use this new data to modify our problem assessment. This forces a rethink and possible restructuring of our problem assessment. It takes time but opens the door to a better assessment and solution. The other choice is to ignore the information or modify it to fit our problem assessment. This doesn’t require rethinking and restructuring our assessment. It also opens the door for high-impact learning when the information we ignore comes back to burn us.

The technical problem could be something as simple as finding that the computers are on different subnets and thus cannot communicate. Maybe it’s helping the team come to grips with the “process du jour.” Perhaps the team’s engineering practices need modification to achieve the project goals. Whatever the technical problem may be, expect that it will be difficult to solve. If the problem had been easy, the team most likely would have solved it already.

Do Your Job

“For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” – Attributed to H.L. Mencken

Smokejumpers use different tactics to extinguish fires. If the fire is small enough, they may directly confront it. For other fires, they may use an indirect approach of control lines and backfires to deprive the main fire of fuel. When the fire really gets going, they may have to wait for something to change – the type of fuel, the weather, the topography – before they resume fighting the fire.

As a project smokejumper, how you attack the problem is affected by your role in the project, your ability to build trust, your understanding of the territory, and the information you’ve gathered together with the problem’s complexity.

A brain/brawn role and a straightforward problem generally lead to direct action. This is how I dealt with a “software quit working” jump. I sat down at the computer and started checking settings, properties, and configurations. When I discovered two network cards, I started investigating more, and voila! There were the two non-mappable subnets.

Mentoring or complex problems often require indirect approaches. I once spent three months helping a hardware team as it worked to get a hardened mobile router into beta production. Since management complained about not knowing where the team stood, I created a burn-up chart in the engineering space so everyone could see what remained to be accomplished and when we anticipated that it would be completed. The semiweekly status meetings asked the basic Scrum questions: What have you done since our last meeting? What are you going to work on? What problems are you having? I made sure I had the necessary equipment, so if there was a question, I could go in and work with the team. We made the target date with a few days to spare.

Each style of doing things has natural consequences. If I decide to take control and work directly, I’ll miss an opportunity to let others learn through experience. If I let others learn through experience, what happens to putting the fire out? I like to use the following questions to help me understand the implications of my (mentally proposed) actions:

• What will happen if I do?
• What will happen if I don’t?
• What won’t happen if I do?
• What won’t happen if I don’t?

The process of understanding your role through doing your job goes on the entire time you’re fighting the fire. It’s a continuous refinement process as the project smokejumper learns more about the technical problem, the team, and the interactions between them. And it’s not a linear sequence. Other than starting with determining your role, the rest of the activities happen randomly, simultaneously, and continuously.

Declare Victory

“The Lone Ranger Fantasy: 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.” – Gerald M. Weinberg

After they ensure the fire is out, smokejumpers head back to base, clean up, and repack their gear, getting ready for the next jump.

Prior to heading out, project smokejumpers need agreement from their sponsors that the fire is out. This task combines defining a specific goal at the jump’s start and keeping progress visible. If you don’t know what you’re shooting for and when you need to hit it, you’re probably going to miss the target. Hitting the target gets you praised and paid.

Declaring victory creates the opening to review your contributions to the project. Project smokejumpers often make technical contributions on a project. These are generally obvious, and most people would agree to them. Often more important are the less-obvious personal contributions. No one but the smokejumper may ever know the many little bumps, nudges, and guidance provided during the jump.

I’ve just finished working with a sponsor who a week ago said, “Again, today, the reports did not get sent out. I guess all of our work was for nothing.” I reminded him that the problem involved two different systems, we had only corrected one, and that things would get better when we solved the problem with the second system. Today I heard the happiness in his voice as the second system came on line.

The Smokejumper’s Life

“You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.” – Robert Heinlein

The smokejumper’s life consists of:

1. Qualify for smokejumping
2. Train
3. Go to the fire
4. Put out the fire
5. Go to 2

Over years of jumping, the training will change as the jumper becomes more practiced at current skills and learns new skills. Smokejumpers use all their skills, all the time. Being able to call on their training when they need to can mean the difference between an extinguished fire and an unhappy outcome.

Project smokejumpers follow the same pattern. Somehow, somewhere, you start solving problems, and then someone asks you to jump in to help them.

Project smokejumpers need to train continuously. Your technical skills may get you started, but it’s your people skills that help you solve the problem and keep it solved. In addition to reading magazines and books, I recommend attending experiential conferences or training courses where you’ll be able to learn new skills and practice them in a supportive environment.

Jumping isn’t for everyone. Over the years I’ve missed birthdays and anniversaries. I once left a weeklong vacation after only two days to make a jump. Fortunately, my family loves me. It occasionally gets tense, so a sense of humor works to my advantage. Being an adrenalin junkie helps too. And it’s all worth it when a client says:

“You know, Don, a couple years ago I watched you ‘join a team’ and help them work together better, when your charter was actually to get something shipped. You weren’t there to ‘fix them.’ But, you ended up helping that team and another team be better together.”

That still gives me goose bumps.

This article was originally published in Better Software, September 2007

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This article was originally published in Diamond Harvard Business Review, May 2003.

- I?m so busy, I barely have time to think. I don?t have enough money to hire on someone full time, but I?d like to get off the merry go-round.

- I wish I had more business.

- How can I take on jobs with more challenge?

- I?m lonely. I don?t want to keep working alone.

Consultants have problems like these all the time: living through the feast/famine cycle, inadequate knowledge to take on new work, and loneliness. If you?re suffering through any of these problems it?s time to consider changing how you collaborate with others.

Collaboration can take many forms:

• Refer other consultants
• Write with another consultant
• Present with another consultant
• Refer a consultant for a fee
• Work with one other consultant
• Create a consulting partnership

Review the collaboration steps and see where you can improve your collaboration to create an even more healthy consulting business.

Refer other consultants
Make a practice of referring other consultants to perform work you no longer perform. When I started my business, I taught test and development techniques to technical staff. I now focus my business on project management and people management, so I refer the testing and development work to other consultants.

Refer work you no longer perform, even if you?re desperate for money. A colleague, Fred, had this story:

“I had a slow period, and at the end of three months, I was worried about making the next mortgage payment. I took a contract to develop a system like some I?d developed as an employee. My first mistake was taking a full-time contract. Without making time to market, I couldn?t find new clients. My second mistake was taking development money instead of management consulting money. This client refused to hire me later at my management consulting rates because I?d performed development work.

What I didn?t realize was that I could have suggested a good contractor or offered to manage the project for them. If I?d done that, the client would have seen me as a management consultant. As a management consultant, they wouldn?t have expected me on site for a full workweek. I would have performed the consulting I enjoyed, not the development work I did to put food on the table. I wish I?d thought of more alternatives.

I don?t work for that company anymore, because they don?t believe I?m a management consultant. I can?t seem to break them of their initial impressions. I don?t use them as a reference. When the current management leaves, I might be able to consult to them, but for now, I cut off a client by taking work at a lower level.”

Fred violated most of Weinberg?s 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. Never let a single client have more than one-fourth of your business.

Fred had more alternatives to taking on the development work. He could have:

• Recommended a fellow consultant to the client for no money
• Suggested that he take over the project and run it for a fee
• Coached the people performing the work
• Referred the work to someone who wanted the work and received a finder?s fee

If Fred had suggested another consultant for the work, he would not have made any money just then. However, he would not have been too busy to market; he would have had time to obtain more exposure; and he would not have allowed this one client to have all of his time.

Referrals help you build your network. Clients respect you more when you define which work you will perform and which work you won?t perform. When you are helpful with clients and refer them to others, you are consulting?just not for money now. The money will come later.
Consultants give advice. Some advice we give for ?free,? such as when we speak or write publicly, or when we refer. But when you offer limited free advice, such as referring other consultants, you make life easier for your clients. They will remember and ask you to consult for money later.

Fred learned this painful lesson, and during the next slowdown, he contacted everyone in his network. He talked to some of his best clients, asking them about their business, suggesting books and papers to read. He noticed when local associations put on programs that were of interest to his best ten clients even when other consultants were speaking, and let them know about them. He became a resource, and after only two months of “free” advice, Fred landed his largest consulting engagement yet. His client said, “You know our business and our problems. We know you have our best interests at heart. We want you to help us solve these problems. With your connections, we know you?ll do a good job.”

Referrals help your clients see that you have an active and substantial network. A consultant with a large network is an asset to a client. Referrals create immediate business for others. The people to whom you refer work will remember you and refer other work to you, increasing your network and reputation.

Discretion counts when it comes to referrals: a large network by-and-of-itself isn?t always an asset ? anyone can say they have a ?large network.? What matters is knowing when and how to use it to add value to the client rather than adding value to you.

Write with another consultant
Once you?ve created your reputation, try writing with another consultant to explore a subject in different ways. Once you?ve explored the subject, you?ll know how you?d like to work with this person again.

I wrote an article with Karl Wiegers about project retrospectives . Karl and I have completely different writing styles, so it was both pleasurable and frustrating to write together. Pleasurable for seeing how the article became a combination of both of us. Frustrating because we don?t approach writing the same way.

However, the benefits of writing the article with Karl were:

1. We learned how each other writes. If we ever choose to write together again, we?ll both know to write better faster.
2. Each of us brings a different readership. By sharing my readership with Karl, and with him sharing his readership with me, we each gain an entrée to a different potential client base.
3. Each of us had specific perspectives on the topic. During the writing, we each learned from the other, to provide better retrospective services to our clients. If we ever chose to facilitate a retrospective together, we could provide a rich environment for the client.

I?ve written with other consultants. I?m in the midst of writing a book with Esther Derby about making the transition to management. Our writing collaboration has resulted in a more thorough exploration of the subject matter and in better consulting for our clients.

Present with another consultant
I enjoy speaking even more than I enjoy writing, so I?ve chosen to collaborate with Esther, Naomi Karten, and Elisabeth Hendrickson on speaking and workshops.

Collaborating with Naomi helped me bring more humor into my speaking. Naomi combines humor effectively with her message (in both the presentation and handouts), so I was able to learn how to observe her lightheartedness and adapt her style to my speaking and workshops.

When Elisabeth and I decided to collaborate on a workshop, we chose a subject (communicating with management) that we?d each written about and presented before our collaboration. Because we each had significant knowledge and experience about the topic, we were able to incorporate interactive activities in the workshop. The attendees loved the workshops.

When Esther and I developed and presented our first public “Making the Transition to Management” workshop, we learned how we each develop material and how to integrated our different speaking styles. Our attendees tell us that they appreciate our different perspectives and styles. They learn something different from each of us. Esther and I have presented many presentations and conference tutorials together. Since we trust each other and know how to work together, we?re comfortable and can be spontaneous with each other and the audience.

I learned these lessons from my collaborations with Esther, Naomi, and Elisabeth:

1. The other consultant has a valuable perspective I can choose to share with the audience. I can acknowledge it and explain when that viewpoint is useful when I?m presenting with the other consultant or at another time.
2. Presenting with others requires more presentation design, role clarification (who does what when), and practice. It?s worth it. The audience loves seeing multiple perspectives on the same topic.
3. I learned alternative techniques to explain concepts and integrate humor into my presentations. Since presentations are part performance and part education, I?m a better presenter for it.
4. Each consultant can reach more people together than they can separately. Especially if you?re considering presenting public workshops, you can more easily acquire the minimum number of participants when you speak with another consultant.
5. Working with new people keeps me fresh, and nothing works better than positive energy in front of an audience.

I learned a different lesson from presenting with another consultant, Jerry Weinberg. At the first AYE conference, my co-presenter was ill. Jerry filled in and gave me the support I needed to create an outstanding experience for the participants. Our presentation was different from the original planned presentation, and it was just as good. I gained more self-confidence from that presentation, and have since asked Jerry to review other presentation designs.

When you choose to write or present with another consultant, choose someone who complements your expertise. Discuss how you?ll develop the material and who?s responsible for what (initial editing, article submission, presentation submission, and so on). Then have fun!

Refer a consultant for a fee
There are ways to make money while you work with other consultants. One technique is to refer business to another consultant and charge a finder?s fee, a referral fee.

When you recommend people, you recommend for free. The client is free to take your advice, and the other consultant is free to reject the engagement. You have no obligation to the consultant or to the client, aside from wanting to see the client happy with your recommendation.
When you refer for a fee, you?ve defined an engagement between you, the client, and the consultant. You?re not employing the consultant, but you make money every time that consultant works for that client, depending on how you?ve arranged the agreement.

It?s possible to have a successful consulting referral business. I?m listed with a local Boston-area consulting referral group, the Consulting Exchange, www.cx.com. Geoffrey Day, the owner, does not charge the client for the referral. Instead, Geoffrey takes a percentage of the fee for the specific referral. When the initial engagement is complete, Geoffrey takes a smaller fee for ongoing business for up to three years.

Geoffrey has set up his business congruently, taking the client, the consultant, and his needs into account. His fees are fair. His fees from ongoing work from the initial engagement have an end-date. Geoff realizes that the more consultants he has in his network, the more money he can make with his referrals. If he tries to gouge his consultants, or have them work forever for a substantial fee, he will win the contract and lose the business. Geoff has chosen to make money over the long term, by developing ongoing relationships with consultants and clients, treating each fairly.

Day does something else that few do: consultants set their own rates, working directly for the client. And he works only on specific projects, making sure that the consultant retains flexibility for existing clients and that crucial marketing time. This attracts a better type consultant and eliminates many problems common with agency type referrals.

The CX and organizations like it can also help you enhance your own business. While we all have active networks, it is common to run into a situation where you don?t know the right person. Maybe you are in a new city, working in an industry where you haven?t a lot of contacts, or just not happy with your immediate network.

If you choose to set up referrals for your business, make sure you?ve considered your short-term and long-term profits. A consultant who was referred by another referral company had this experience:

“I?ve been on contract to this client for over a year. They still need me, but I?m not being paid enough. The referral company increased the rate they bill the client, but the referral company took my entire raise. I can?t keep working for these idiots. If I quit, I can?t go back and work for the client, or even talk to them for two years. Because I?ve been working full-time, I haven?t been marketing. I can?t keep working like this?it?s slavery.”

This consultant made an innocent mistake?signing up with an unethical referral company. If you choose to refer consultants and make money from their client work, here are some guidelines for success:

• Be fair to everyone. Don?t be greedy. Set up your fees so that you encourage each client and consultant to work with you over the long term.
• Charge a small enough amount that the consultant will want to continue working with the client, and not drop the client if a more lucrative engagement comes along. If you?re underpaying the consultant, they have no incentive to complete the work, especially on a long-term contract.
• Place a limit on the time a consultant can work with the client and still owe you a referral fee. You may have made the initial introduction, but after a few years, the client and consultant have maintained the business relationship without you.
• If you bill the client, pay the consultant on time even if the client hasn?t paid. If the consultant bills the client, make sure you see a copy of the invoice so you know that you?re being paid according to your agreement.
• Build this into the legal agreement: Make sure that when it?s time to change the fee, everyone has to agree to the fee change.
• Make sure a lawyer looks at the agreement and that the agreement is fair to all.

In my business, I choose not to make referrals for a fee. I leave that to the professionals whose strategic direction for their companies is referrals, like Geoffrey Day.

Work with one other consultant
Instead of referring for a fee, I prefer to either recommend other consultants to the client without charging a referral fee, or to accept the consulting engagement myself and collaborate with another consultant.
When you work with another consultant, make sure you avoid these traps:

1. Taking care of another consultant.
2. Creating a master/slave relationship with the other consultant.
3. Ignoring early signs that your styles don?t mesh.

John?s client wanted John to teach more students than John could teach in a workshop. John explained that the client could either have two workshops or one workshop with two instructors. The two-instructor workshop would cost the client a premium over the cost of two workshops. The client agreed, and John asked a colleague, Jack, to co-teach. Jack asked for half the entire workshop fee. John agreed ? a big mistake. John had completed the initial marketing and selling work?without which Jack would not have known about the project. Additionally, John provided extra services to the client (organizing the workshop, making all the handouts, and billing the client) and to Jack (initial workshop draft, already-proven exercises, billing the client and payment to Jack). By the time John was done taking care of Jack and the client, John was exhausted. John was resentful of Jack, because John had taken care of everyone except John.

Unless you and the other consultant come to the negotiation with equal investment and abilities, don?t split the fee 50-50. If you?re the consultant managing the client, the billing, and the intellectual property, you deserve more than half the fee. Don?t leave yourself out of the list of people to take care of.

On the other hand, you needn?t create a master/slave relationship with a consultant. Early in my career, I agreed to perform an assessment with another consultant as a subcontractor. The primary consultant was concerned with my work, the time it took, and the results. He was even more concerned when the client appreciated my part of the assessment more than his. I had discovered the key piece of information in one week. The primary spent four months and had not discovered the key necessary for the client?s success.

The client asked us to help implement the changes based on my report. Even though I requested a change in fee, the primary consultant was unwilling to increase my fee. The primary paid me after he was paid. Since the client paid late, I was in the position of reporting to someone who didn?t understand the problem, paid me inadequately, and paid late. I finally decided to end my relationship with the primary consultant.
Fortunately, I did not have an agreement with the primary prohibiting me from working for the client. I explained to the client that I was not continuing to work for the primary, that they could choose to hire me by myself, they chose to.

I learned these lessons from that engagement:

• Negotiate each phase of the engagement separately. It made sense to have one fee for the assessment and for me to adhere to the primary?s style of reporting. It did not make sense to continue the same fee arrangements and reporting into both the client and the primary contractor when I was working independently after the assessment.
• If one consultant is billing the client, make sure the client understands how quickly they have to pay. In addition, set expectations for subcontractor payment.
• Make sure all parties believe the arrangements are fair. The client was unhappy about having to pay money for pieces of an assessment that were not useful. The primary was unhappy because his work was seen as second-rate. I was unhappy because my fees were too low for the ongoing work and I had to wait for the primary to bill the client.
• I hadn?t recognized the early indications that the primary consultant on the assessment was a controlling personality. If I?d paid closer attention to the pre-engagement activities, I would have recognized the signs, and managed our collaboration differently.

To create a successful collaboration, discuss the fee arrangements early, and decide how you?ll leverage each other?s network.

Discuss fee arrangements early
To create a successful collaboration, discuss who is responsible for which pieces of the engagement before you start the engagement.

Weiss has a formula for revenue sharing that divides the sale, development, and the delivery of the project into thirds, and assigns relative proportions to each piece. Here?s how one consultant and I used that for one $10,000 engagement:

Sally made the original contact with the client and sold the engagement, so she deserves the total sale component. I developed the material, with substantial review from Sally. We decided to split the development, assigning 75% of the work to me. Then, I delivered the material to the client alone. If either of us receives follow-up work from this engagement alone, we own the follow-up work.

We could have split the money down the middle, and for this engagement, that would have been close. However, we?re business people. We don?t want to take care of each other, or take advantage of each other. We?re more likely to work together again because the relationship is built on a solid business foundation.

Leverage each person?s network
In this example, Sally?s network provided me the introduction to a new set of potential clients. My material offers Sally the chance to sell different kinds of consulting to her clients. Sally recognized I could provide a particular value to her clients, so she brought me in to perform a specific task. We both win?Sally learns how to perform another piece of the consulting, and I have access to new clients. In this case, Sally?s network is as much of an asset to me as the consulting work is to her.
When you create a congruent relationship with the client, the original consultant, and the additional consultant, everyone wins. If you ignore one piece of the relationship, it?s not sustainable, and will dissolve to everyone?s detriment.

Create a consulting partnership
If you?ve worked with a consultant on a contract or two and enjoy it, maybe it?s time to create a partnership. Avoid employing anyone who?s not a partner?non-partners are overhead that you provide for, not someone who adds value to the business. Partners bring complementary strengths and an additional client base to the business.

If you?re considering a partnership, use this checklist to make sure the partnership is appropriate:

• You trust this person with any of your clients
• You trust this person with your intellectual property
• This person has already succeeded independently performing the work they?ll do as a consultant
• If you?re already consultants, the other person has already succeeded as a consultant
• You have the same goals, including financial goals, for your business
• Together, you are worth more to a client than you are apart

The principals, Donna Johnson and Judi Brodman, formed a partnership, Logos International, about ten years ago to perform research for a government contract. Donna and Judi had each worked independently as consultants before they formed a partnership, and had worked together in limited engagements. They found that they could offer more as a partnership than each could alone. The partnership benefited them in these ways:

• They enjoyed having another person available to discuss ideas
• They could create other products based on their original work together
• They were able to bring their current clients more value
• They were able to bid on larger projects because they had more depth to their company

Donna and Judi were already successful consultants when they chose to create a legal entity to work together on projects for their clients and enjoy their partnership of equals.

I know of two other long-term successful partnerships. Both partnerships started when the people who?d performed the work inside companies chose to continue working outside their original employers.

One partnership, Process Enhancement Partners, Inc., started with two principals who had not been consultants originally, and added two more principals after a couple of years. The original principals realized that one of the two people did not have the same goals. The consultant with different goals left the partnership.

The other partnership, Process Group, periodically reviews their business ? to make sure their individual and group activities continue push their strategic goals. They considered taking on employees to grow their business, and then decided against it. Adding employees would grow the company, but would not help them meet their individual goals of being able to provide services themselves to their clients.

Each of these partnerships has people with different strengths. Each partnership developed and continues because the principals have common business goals and a common work ethic.

When you create a partnership, decide if and the conditions under which each of you can take on work alone and how you?re going to dissolve the partnership, like a prenuptial agreement. If nothing else, one of you may want to retire. If so, what does that mean to the partnership?

Summary
Collaborating with other consultants helps you increase your expertise as well as your client base. Referrals help you maintain and grow your network. Writing and speaking helps you access other potential clients, as well as increasing your expertise.

When you refer others for a fee, or work with another consultant, remember to clarify who?s responsible for what, the compensation each of you receives, and when the arrangement is complete. When you?re ready consider a partnership arrangement to continue to capitalize on what each of you can bring to the client and the business.

None of us works entirely alone. Consider which options you want when, and your collaboration will provide you and your clients excellent service.

Acknowledgements
I thank the following people for their helpful review: Geoffrey Day, Esther Derby, Elisabeth Hendrickson, Naomi Karten, Jerry Weinberg.

References

Weinberg, G. M. (1985).
The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully.
New York, Dorset House.

Weiss, A. (1998).
Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional’s Guide
to Growing a Practice.
New York, McGraw Hill.

Wiegers, K. a. J. R. (2001).
Looking Back, Looking Ahead.
Software Development. Feb 2001.

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My friend Brad, a Los Angeles cop, mentioned that he regularly sold traffic tickets.

“But it’s not what you think,” Brad smiled. “I work at night and go to school
during the day. If I have to appear in court, I miss classes. ‘Selling the ticket’ is
convincing drivers that they really were speeding, so they won’t take the matter to
court.”

“That’s a side of police work I never considered,” I said. “You have to be a good
salesman.”

“It’s not that hard,” Brad explained. “You see, I give dozens of tickets every week,
but most of the speeders only get one in a year. I get lots more practice than they
do.”

Negotiations between speeders and police can never be equal, because speeders are
amateur negotiators while cops are professionals. By the time you had enough
experience at speeding to become a professional, you’d be in jail.

Negotiations between contractors and agencies can never be equal, because
contractors are amateur negotiators while agencies are professionals. By the time
you had enough experience at contracting to become a professional, you’d be dead.

Unfortunately, you need to negotiate every new contract:

“There will always be issues and disputes between contractors and agencies. The
key, and perhaps the best that can be hoped for, is to understand the other side a
little better

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The introduction of the new $20 bill has me thinking about the Bureau of Printing and Engraving today. They’re one client I ever had who couldn?t use the slow-payment excuse that they’re short of cash, since they print the stuff. One of the most irksome parts of being an independent contractor is the client who doesn’t pay, or at least seems like they won’t pay in time for you to pay your own bills.

First of all, this is not a new problem, so it’s important not to take it personally. Taking it personally only gets you annoyed and out of your best thinking mode. True, some clients believe that contractors don’t need to think creatively: “Just keep your ideas to yourself and get back to coding,” they say, but they’re wrong. Creative thinking is your best ally when it comes to getting your fair share of the cash.

There are, of course, traditional ways of enticing your clients to pay you on time. My father was in the auto painting business, and I recall how careful he was to pay his paint bills on time in order to earn his “2% discount for payment in less than 30 days.” Knowing that this discount strategy worked well to motivate my father, I once tried it on a slow-paying client.

This multi-billion-dollar company had typically taken 4-5 months to pay my tiny bills. I started adding that “2% discount” clause to my bills, and sure enough, it motivated them to change their behavior. They still paid in 4-5 months, but they now deducted 2% from every bill.

I learned several lessons from this experience. The first lesson is that large clients have payment patterns that no rinky-dink contractor is going to change. I call this Gilb’s Law, because I once asked Tom Gilb about a recruiting firm in Europe that wanted me to do some work with them. I’d had some trouble getting payments overseas, so I asked him about their payment practices. “Oh,” he said, “they always pay. Eventually.”

In short, their consistent pattern was reliable, but slow. The second thing I learned was that I can use the client’s consistency to my advantage. Knowing that they typically paid 6 months late, I inflated my normal billing rate by an amount equal to 6 months of interest on that rate. If they wanted to compete with my bank for my CDs, that was fine with me (but I did add a tiny bit more because they didn’t offer Federal Deposit Insurance).

This strategy has worked well for me ever since. The most important part is that I no longer get annoyed with my clients for playing financial games with my money. It’s never a good idea to get annoyed with your clients, so it’s never a good idea for someone like me to feel that I’m a victim of my client’s lack of adaptability. After all, if I’d wanted to be a helpless victim of a large corporation, I could have been their employee?and gotten health insurance to pay for my psychiatric bills.

A few clients actually understand their own slow-pay patterns and have worked out solutions that I have adopted as my own. (As Tom Lehrer says, “if you steal from one person, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.”) I gave a short course once at a large government agency, and I was picked up at Washington National airport by Chuck, my contact at the agency. As we drove to the agency, Chuck asked if I was in a hurry to get paid. “How much of a hurry?” I asked. (That’s another good consulting technique?answer difficult questions with other questions.)

“Well,” he answered, “we seem to have a difficult time processing this kind of payment in less than eight months.”

“In that case,” I said, “I’m in a hurry.”

“I thought you might be,” said Chuck. “But don’t worry, we can pay you in cash.”

This wasn’t the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, so I was rather surprised that they could actually do cash business. I told Chuck of my doubts, but he reassured me. “In fact,” he said, “we’ll get you paid in advance, just in case there’s any hangup.”

And, sure enough, when we arrived at the agency, he took me directly to a barred window marked “Cashier.” The little guy behind the window lacked a green eyeshade, but otherwise looked just like the teller in a bank about to be robbed in a Clint Eastwood Western. He didn’t even blink when Chuck slipped him a hand-written voucher for $2,500. He asked me for some identification, then a signature, after which he counted 25 hundred-dollar bills into my hand. I was then led to the classroom where I gave a stunning class, never once being distracted by worries that I might not be paid.

I’ve now added “cash in advance” to my repertoire of payment possibilities. It’s especially useful in cases of doubt or complication, such as working overseas. There can be drawbacks?every solution creates new problems, as every consultant knows. Once, after an extended tour of Japan, my sponsor had me in for a tea ceremony, during which he handed me an envelope wrapped with a red ribbon and containing, I presumed, my fee for the visit?in cash, as our contract had stipulated. I thought it would be discourteous to count it in front of him, but as I was about to slip it into my inside pocket, my translator suggested it would be rude not to count it.

Knowing that cultures differ, I opened the envelope and counted over $10,000 in crisp new American money. The amount was correct, but counting it raised my anxiety about carrying so much cash. I wanted to take it to a bank and convert it to some sort of non-negotiable instrument, but I was told, regretfully, that it was “Honor Old People Day,” so the banks were closed. That night, I slept with the money under my pillow (and not too well).

The next morning I had to leave for the airport before the banks opened, so I had to carry the cash with me all the way home. I learned, also, that when you carry more than $10,000 cash into the USA, you have to have a friendly discussion with the customs agents?a discussion in which you must convince them that you’re neither a counterfeiter nor a drug dealer. I also discovered that it wasn’t even that easy to deposit that much cash in my own bank?once again, lots of rather personal questions.

In other words, cash has some disadvantages of its own, in addition to the disadvantages of money in general. Disadvantages of money? Yes, life is never as simple as we contractors think it should be. Indeed, the worst accounts receivable situation I have had to solve?the one that took all my creativity and more?was when, Lily Gilding Limited (LGL), one of my best clients paid the same bill twice .

The bill was $4,240. (It would have been $4,000, but I had added the interest for their 4-month pay cycle.) The first check arrived right on schedule?that is, four months late. Unfortunately, even before I had time to spend all of it, a second check arrived?same invoice number, same amount, same date.

LGL was a good client, so it wouldn’t have been good business to try to pretend that we didn’t get the second check. We called their Accounts Payable Department right away to tell them of their double payment, but they said, “No, you must have made a mistake. We couldn’t possibly have paid you twice. We have controls . You’d better have the manager of your Accounts Receivable Department check your records.”

I smiled, thinking of how Lois would feel being called the “manager of the Accounts Receivable Department,” but I kept my mouth shut. A/P departments can only talk to A/R departments, not to the do-everything-person-named-Lois in a small consulting firm. Lois checked everything again, and I double-checked Lois’s records. Same result. LGL had definitely paid twice.

After about twenty calls back and forth, I became convinced that LGL could never admit to such a mistake. I then brought the matter to the attention of my contact person, Nel, and she made a few phone calls on my behalf. Next time I was consulting at LGL, Nel told me, “I’ve tried everything I can think of. My advice to you is just to keep the money.”

“But I can’t do that,” I protested. Mostly I was thinking that LGL might someday discover their error and think I was dishonest. It’s always harder take being thought of as dishonest when you really are dishonest.

“No, really,” Nel said. “Even if you could finally get us to take it back, it would cost us more than $4,240 to get it cleared up. Believe me, this is the best solution for both of us.”

Well, she was right, of course, but Lois is one of those honest Nebraska farm women who simply couldn’t keep money that didn’t belong to her. She simply wouldn’t accept any solution that involved us keeping their money, so I turned the problem over to her?having exhausted my own creativity. And, as usually happens when I have the courage to admit I can’t solve a problem, Lois found a way.

Her solution may not always work for you, but since LGL was a good client, Lois simply deducted $4,240 from the next bill she sent them and called it a rebate. Apparently they were happy to receive a “rebate,” and we never heard another word from them. Another accounts receivable problem solved, and another happy client!

What?s the moral of all this? It reminds me that when you?re in business for yourself, your problems never end, and even that wonderful event – getting paid – can be one of your worst problems.

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The other day, I was trying to help a client (let me call them “StartupCompany”) mired in conflicts, exceptions, errors, anomalies, lapses, modifications and other deviations from the norm. These annoying exceptions were playing tricks with my blood pressure, so I had to be wired to a wearable blood pressure computer for twenty-four hours. As if StartupCompany didn’t have enough interruptions, now my wearable computer was inflating a blood pressure cuff at random intervals throughout the day.

Every time the cuff inflated, I petulantly asked myself: Why can’t they run a project like real people living run-of-the-mill, low-blood-pressure lives?

That night, I was using the Yellow Pages, and in the A categories in the Yellow Pages index, I chanced to notice a curious pattern. Here are the first few items:

Abortion Services and Alternatives. These were the first two entries in the index. I decided to skip them both, so as not to take sides in the pro-choice/pro-life conflict. I had enough conflicts within StartupCompany.

Abuse – Men, Women, Children. I decided to continue my scan of the index, and this was the next entry. The normal process of family living involves people loving and respecting each other, communicating well, and behaving appropriately according to societal norms. But when people start behaving inappropriately, they need Abuse Services. In StartupCompany, people normally respected one another, communicated well, and behaved appropriately according to societal norms. But they sometimes didn’t, and they lacked “abuse services” for coping.

Academies (including private schools and special education). When the formal education system doesn’t provide special knowledge or handle special cases, private academies and special education are called for. People within StartupCompany often needed to know things they hadn’t learned in the public schools, but StartupCompany had no provision for special education.

Accident Prevention. Accidents aren’t “supposed” to happen, StartupCompany had accidents. In order to improve, they needed processes to prevent accidents and to mitigate their consequences.

Accordions. Despite what some people think, accordions are perfectly normal, though not everybody learns to play them or appreciate them. Still, StartupCompany could have used some entertainment to lighten the mood once in a while.

Accountants. Accounting is also normal, but, if everything always went according to plan, we wouldn’t need to account for things so carefully. We have to protect our financial well-being from mistakes and misbehavior, and that’s what accountants do – and also what they should have been doing in StartupCompany.

Acetylene Welding. Some welding is normal, and some is for repairing things that are not supposed to break – but do anyway. StartupCompany lacked a “welding team” to handle lots of stuff that broke.

Acrylic Nails. Most normal people have fingernails, so why is there a nail business? Oh, yes, it’s the human interface, and StartupCompany had to cope with conflicting ideas of what made a system beautiful – but they had no special beauty experts to resolve the conflicts.

Acting Instruction. We all need to “put on an act” now and then when we’re caught by surprise. StartupCompany’s people certainly needed training in how to behave in improvisational situations, but there was no acting instruction.

Acupressure/Acupuncture. If we were all healthy all the time, we wouldn’t need medical services, and if “normal” Western medical services worked all the time, we wouldn’t need acupressure and acupuncture. So, there are not only abnormal services, but meta-abnormal services – the services when the normal abnormal services fail – certainly true in StartupCompany.

Addressing Service. Have you ever tried to maintain a mailing list? Almost all the work is not the mailing itself, but maintaining the addresses. It’s even worse for email, because email services haven’t yet evolved “normal” ways of dealing with changes. Gee, neither had StartupCompany.

Adjusters. Adjusters, of course, are an abnormal service from the get-go. Without accidents, we wouldn’t need insurance, and if things stayed on course, StartupCompany wouldn’t have needed risk analysis. But they did.

Adobe Materials and Contractors. Adobe materials may not be “normal” where you live, but here in New Mexico, adobe is a normal building method. StartupCompany, too, has its idiosyncratic processes that are not normal in other projects – and newcomers have to learn about them or pay the price. But StartupCompany had no special services to bring newcomers up to speed.

Adoption Services. Yes, sometimes people are not wanted by their parents, and StartupCompany certainly had some unwanted people. But, they lacked “adoption” services for moving unwanted people around.

Adult Supervisory Care. “Normal” adults can take care of themselves without supervision, and normal workers wouldn’t need much managing at all. But StartupCompany had two adults who could not take proper care of themselves, and the managers spent an inordinate amount of time on these two out of a hundred.

I stopped there, sobered by my reading. It was now clear to me that StartupCompany, being a startup, had an overly simplistic picture of what it takes to run a company. I needed an adjustor to adjust my blood pressure – I needed to see that my job as their consultant was to teach them that deviations are normal, and that they (and I) could do what real people do:

• stop whining and deal with them
• create systems to deal with them
• create systems to prevent them

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You’re entering a new situation, and you’re ready to gather the Big Picture of the other people involved. Whatever you do, don’t try the following process without first getting a Big Picture of yourself, as discussed in an earlier article. If you’re not personally centered, this whole process will sound hollow and even smarmy.

Which others’ Big Pictures? Well, who will the significant others be? Anybody I omit from this survey will potentially appear on stage at a critical juncture and spoil my best-laid plans. The people I usually have to consider are Dani, my wife and business partner; Sweetie and Ruby, my German Shepherd dogs and biggest supporters; Lois and Susie, my coworkers; other colleagues in my network, such as my PSL faculty colleagues; my customer, the one who’s going to pay my bills. In this column, however, I’ll focus on my clients, the ones I’m going to work with on this assignment.

I’ll look for the answers to the three Big Picture questions:

- How do they happen to be here? (Past)

- How do they feel about being here? (Present)

- What would they like to have happen? (Future)

How do they happen to be here? (Past)

When someone talks about past consultants, they’ve given me a free head start without my having to ask one of my “past” questions, such as,

Did Darlene choose to be here, or was she forced by me, or some other factor, like her boss?

What has been her past history on this job? What knowledge does she have that I can tap into? What prejudgments has she made about the nature of this task?

Has she had early personal or cultural experiences that might affect the way she works on this job? With me? These are not excuses for poor performance, but things I have to understand to work well with Darlene.

What’s been her past experience with me? With other contractors? What preconceptions does she bring to the table as a result of these experiences?

How do they feel about being here? (Present)

In this instance, I knew right away that this organization “had consultants before, but none of them made any difference.” Obviously, Darlene felt that this was an important thing to say, but I didn’t know why she brought this up so early in our relationship:

Does she have some reservations, or forebodings, about this assignment? About me? Does our doing this assignment conflict with something else she wants to do?

Is she eager to be here? Is she looking forward to working with me on the task that I’ve agreed to do?

Is she clear about what’s going to be required of her if I take this assignment?

How’s her self-esteem? Does she feel able to control her situation and accomplish her personal goals, or does she feel powerless?

However she’s feeling, is hers the right mood for me to succeed in this job? If not, what steps can I take to help her get into the right mood?

I often seek this information by asking, “And what does that tell you about my tour of duty?” Here are some of the answers I’ve received from Darlene and other people, at other times:

Aaron:

You don’t have a chance, so I’m not going to waste any time helping you.

Bonnie:

You’re going to need my help if it’s going to turn out differently this time.

Carter:

It’s nothing personal, but this will be another of those management vision things, full of sound and fury and going nowhere.

Darlene:

I’m really excited, because you’re different from any of the consultants we’ve had before. This time, our consultant is really going to make things better around here.

Each of these answers is full of information, but I’m going to work differently with each of these people.

What would they like to have happen? (Future)

First, though, I have to know the answer to the third question, “What would you like to have happen?”

Why did X agree to work with me on this assignment? The experience? The challenge? Fear of the boss?

What will success look like, to X? Is it aligned with my success criteria? Did previous consultants solve problems that X failed to solve, thus making X look like a failure?

How long does X want me to be on this assignment? Will I be able to stay long enough to see it through? If the customer extends the project, will X be laughing or crying?

My responses

Assuming each of them genuinely hoped something would change, but knowing that each felt differently about my being here, I would construct different responses, perhaps as follows:

Aaron:

You don’t have a chance, so I’m not going to waste any time helping you.

Me:

I can understand your feeling. I’ll do my best not to waste any of your time, but if I should happen to come up with something that might save you some time, would you be interested in hearing about it?

——————————————————————————–

Bonnie:

You’re going to need my help if it’s going to turn out differently this time.

Me:

Great! What sort of help do you think you can give me?

——————————————————————————-

Carter:

It’s nothing personal, but this will be another of those management vision things, full of sound and fury and going nowhere.

Me:

Yes, I’ve sure seen my share of futile, grandiose projects. I personally think that big changes result from an accumulation of small changes. Would you be willing to work with me on some small thing that would help you in some way? Then we could see if we’re wasting our time, or if things might be different this time.

——————————————————————————–

Darlene:

I’m really excited, because you’re different from any of the consultants we’ve had before. This time, our consultant is really going to make things better around here.

Me:

I’m flattered. Thank you. In what way do you think I’m different from the others, and why do you think that will help?

As a result of learning their Big Picture, I’m no longer knocked off balance. Instead, I’m well centered and already beginning to create a method of working appropriately with each of my clients.

Question and answer

Q: How do you come up with such responses in real time? They make sense when I read them, but in the moment, I often go blank.

A: There’s a pattern, but it won’t work if you think it’s a formula. You must remain creative in order to fill in the pattern, so the first thing you must always do is center yourself. Then, find a way to connect with the emotional content of what they’re saying, relating your own emotional state to theirs. Only then can you proceed to the content — what they want to have happen, and you might do next to move toward what they want.

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The editor of Contract Professional chose the name for my column there, “The Big Picture.” He told me he chose the name “because you (Jerry) look at the business of contracting and consulting and the people skills involved, which translate across all skill sets and even industries” — in short, The Big Picture.

That’s flattering — but why would you want to look at the Big Picture? If you’re like me, you’re often called into an assignment because you’re supposed to be an “expert.” You know what an expert is: “someone who avoids all the small mistakes while committing a grand blunder.” So, before I get down to the nitty-gritty of a new assignment, I like to place everything in a grand array. I always make mistakes in my assignments, but this way I can hope they’ll all be small mistakes.

My favorite method of approaching the Big Picture is first to break down the question into three parts: Self, Other, and Context. In this column, I’ll start with Self — that is, the Big Picture of yourself.

Focusing on myself, I then ask three three questions I learned from the famous family therapist, Virginia Satir:

- How do I happen to be here? (Past)

- How do I feel about being here? (Present)

- What would I like to have happen? (Future)

How do I happen to be here?

Here are some Big Picture questions that make an enormous difference in how I approach an assignment.

If it’s the first assignment with this client, how did I make the connection? Was it through a third party, or through a direct contact by the client?

If it’s a repeat, what impressions did I leave the previous times I was here? Did I leave friends, or enemies? Are my old contacts still viable? What assumptions am I carrying over from the previous assignments?

Did I get the contract I wanted, or did I have to make some concessions that might come back to haunt me?

How do I feel about being here?

Am I here reluctantly? Do I have some reservations, or forebodings, about this assignment?

Am I eager to be here? Am I looking forward to the task that I’ve agreed to do?

Am I puzzled about what’s expected of me, or is the assignment clear? How sure am I of the assignment?

How sure am I of myself — of my ability to provide value for value received?

However I’m feeling, is this the right mood for succeeding in this job? If not, what steps will I have to take to get in the right mood?

What would I like to have happen?

Why did I take this assignment? For the money? The experience? The challenge? The possibility of a future reference? If I don’t have my mission in mind whenever I choose a course of action, the client may be happy with my work, but I’ll come away with a hollow feeling.

What will success look like, to me? If I come away with a pile of money but a poor reference, will I be satisfied? How about an ecstatic client who’s enormously impressed by my repeating a solution I’ve done so often it bores me into a trance?

How long do I want to be here? If the client extends the project, will I be laughing or crying?

Using the Big Picture of Yourself

By using these three questions to assess my own state before I start an assignment, I’ve enormously increased my level of satisfaction. I use them to survey my state before I agree to any contract, new or renewed. On one occasion, for instance, I found I was about to renew a long-standing contract with a nice 15% increase in my daily fee. When I checked my feeling, however, I realized that I had negotiated for the wrong thing. Much of the time on the old contract, I felt that I was doing a fine job in solving the wrong problem, and I don’t find this very satisfying. I didn’t mind the extra 15%, but what I really wanted was more involvement in defining my own assignments.

Armed with improved self-knowledge, I halted the negotiation process and asked for more leeway, which the client was only too happy to grant. I was prepared to sacrifice at least some of the 15% increase, but the client insisted that I take it. He commented, “Now that you’ll be helping do the right things, rather than just doing things right, you’ll be worth at least that much more to us.”

Self-assessment doesn’t always pay off this directly. On another renewal, early in my career, my attempt to get more leeway in defining my work led to an irreconcilable difference between me and my client. This client knew — or thought he did — exactly what his problems were, yet I felt his poor problem definition limited my ability to be successful in my terms.

At that time in my life, what I wanted most was experience with certain types of problems and a few outstanding references. On my first assignment with this client, I had helped solve a problem that didn’t vaguely resemble what I really wanted to work on. And, though the solution was innovative and successful, it didn’t really help the client with his true problem — since he was working on the wrong problem to begin with. He attributed his lack of satisfaction to some unspecified shortcoming in my work, and was reluctant to give me a sterling reference.

And, of course, he was right. The shortcoming in my work was my failure to assess the Big Picture — both his and mine — before I took the assignment. As we negotiated for a follow-on, the three questions show me that the extra money he offered wasn’t adequate to overcome my bad feelings about working with him again. Negotiations broke down, but at least I didn’t waste another six months of my life struggling for something I didn’t really want.

It took me a few weeks to get a new assignment, and that cost me a few bucks. The cost is long forgotten, but I still savor the memory of my satisfaction with the new assignment — what I learned, what I earned, and how it put my professional life back on my own track.

Questions and answers

Q: It’s all very nice to say that I ought to be centered in myself before I make big decisions, but whenever I get into some sort of negotiation, I lose track of myself, what I want, and what’s good for me. What do you suggest?

A: This is too big a question to answer entirely, but the first part is easy. When you first notice that you’re starting to lose yourself, STOP whatever you’re doing. Then concentrate on how you’re breathing, and switch to smooth, regular breathing.

Q: I’ve tried the breathing thing, and sometimes it works. But sometimes it doesn’t, like when another person is blasting at me in a loud voice. What should I do?

A: If you can’t get your breathing under control, find a way to leave the situation. If you wish to continue, come back later. If you find yourself unable to leave, then that’s a sure sign you must leave, now, and not come back. This is not the situation for you.

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I’m not the kind of person who hangs out in nightclubs. In fact, the last nightclub I can remember visiting was in Miami Beach in 1957. What I remember about it is what the stand-up comic said.

After warming up the audience with some rather gross remarks, he commented that early in his life he had learned the motto he had lived by every since:

Sound mind; sound body …
… Take your choice!

How funny to hear it articulated so clearly, but many of us did make this choice early in life. Somehow we got the impression that athletes are stupid and software developers are flabby – and that we must make choose one or the other. Actually, though, a reasonable level of physical health increases the effectiveness of my intellectual work. Increased effectiveness then produces more slack time in which I can pursue healthy practices. So, good health tends to produce better health, at the same time that it produces better mental health.

But this syndrome works both ways. Poor health tends to produce poorer health by diminishing work effectiveness, which in turn causes work to pile up. Piled work causes me to overwork, consume junk food in haste, and generally ignore my physical well being. Eventually, my health becomes even poorer, and the cycle continues unless I can manage to break it in some way. I become, literally, stupid – “in a stupor; deficient in alertness; lacking in the power to absorb ideas.”

But this kind of brain dysfunction is merely the grossest kind – akin to the effects of being struck on the braincase by a piano leg. The brain is a complex problem-solving device whose functioning we still only vaguely understand. We know that the piano leg will put the brain out of commission, as will sickness. But we also know that a computer can be put out of commission with a sledgehammer, or by pulling the plug. What interests me now is some more subtle elements of my brain. Those subtle elements make people want to hire me as a consultant, treat me like royalty, and pay me large sums of money.

My interest in subtle brain factors drew me to reading an article about “personal chemistry.” The author’s list suggested some of these success factors:

Articulate: writing and speaking fluently in at least your native tongue.

Thoughtful: weighing a question for a few seconds before responding.

Bright, informed, sparkling: difficult to define, but obvious if a person doesn’t have it.

Breadth of interest: able to carry on an intelligent conversation without permitting embarrassing gaps because of lack of interest or education.

Unfortunately, the author seemed to suggest that you can somehow wipe a veneer of “chemistry” over your otherwise dull, boring self. For instance, he says, “brief reflections give the impression that you have good judgment” – not good judgment, but the impression of good judgment.

At this level of analysis, brain chemistry consists of a set of rules. For example, “count to three before you answer a question, so people will think you are thoughtful.” In the typical steamy working environment I usually encounter, however, this kind of veneer peels quickly, revealing all my ugly lumps and hollows underneath. No, if I truly want to be more articulate, thoughtful, bright, informed, and sparkling, rules won’t suffice. I have to devote some time and effort to the job.

My acquaintances who don’t work with computers tell me that software people are the dullest people they know. I have a hard time believing this assertion. We all know that computers aren’t dull – they are an endlessly fascinating subject. But let’s face it. There is more to life than computing, and more parts to our brains than those we use in our professional work.

At AYE Conferences, I’ve repeatedly seen that problem-solving behavior becomes stereotyped when people work in a closed situation. Once they find one or two tricks that work well, they tend to adopt those to the exclusion of all others. I wish we presenters could take more credit, but most of the effectiveness amplifying that takes place at AYE seems to come from exposing the participants to the problem-solving styles of other participants.

My consulting problems are growing more difficult. Systems are growing more complex; needs are growing more demanding; because of past successes, my expections run high. If I remained at the same level of problem-solving effectiveness, I’d soon accumulate a deadening backlog of unsolved problems. With a little slack time, I have some possibility of “outside” activities that stimulate those parts of my brain I don’t ordinarily exercise at work. Without such activities, my problem-solving effectiveness would grow ever more narrow and specialized. New problems would then become unsolvable problems.

My brain is a muscle. Like any muscle, it requires stimulation to remain healthy. If I’m locked into a pattern of work, work, and more work, my brain soon stagnates. Paradoxically, if I want to be more effective at work, I must be less single-minded in my devotion to work. Anything I do that stimulates new segments of my brain will make me a better programmer, or tester, or analyst, or manager, or writer, or consultant.

Many technical folks, seeking this kind of stimulation, enroll in university courses. Some are successful, but some are not. Perhaps the course is dull – not stimulating at all – yet they persist because their employer is paying the tuition and they are embarrassed to quit.

Or, the course may be too “relevant” to their work – more of the same bland diet they consume every day on the job.

If you want to keep your brain healthy, you might do better seeking your stimulation outside the formal education system. For instance, change your TV-watching habits, not necessarily to something more “intellectual.” Or, if you never watch TV, a little tube time might prove a stimulating change. If you don’t read anything but manuals, pick some paperback at random on the way home and read it – but stop if it’s dull.

If you read frequently, read something different. Or, stop reading for a few days and just open your eyes and ears and nose to the world around you. I find that natural settings always make my brain sparkle.

If you must attend courses or conferences, participate in something your employer would never pay for. That way, you can quit if it’s dull and move onto something healthier for your brain. Sound mind; sound body – it’s not a choice, it’s a mandate.

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External consultants are seldom sent to classes by their customers, but often pay for their ownprofessional development. As such,they’re eager to get full value for their time and tuition.

Moreover, external consultants often find themselves as instructors in classes, in which case, they’re also interested in making sure the class goes well.

But not all classes go well, and often it’s because the mix of participants isn’t ideal. Or, to look at it another way, it’s because the instructor doesn’t know how to handle certain kinds of participants.

Our Problem Solving Leadership workshops are designed for professional development – specifically, to develop leadership abilities in the participants. Because leadership means so many things to so many people, our participants arrive with different expectations, so one of the first things we must do is clarify why each participant is in the room.

Over the years, I’ve seen students who fall into four categories – Customers, Learners, Visitors, and Complainers.¹
Each type of student requires a different approach from the instructor.

A Customer is someone who arrives with a particular problemto solve, for themselves or concerning some other person(s) or situation.If a student is a Customer, it’s possible to gain a relatively cleardescription of this problem. Here aresome examples of Customer problems brought to our PSL Workshop:

“I want to communicate better with my customers when they are trying to tell me
their requirements.”

“I want to do a better job facilitating meetings.”

“I can’t handle my boss when she criticizes my work.”

“My teammates often don’t listen to my ideas,so that they misunderstand them and reject them.”

“I’m putting together a new project team, and I want to do it without making the
same mistakes I made last time.”

The participant as Customer quite clearly wishes to do something about this problem and is seeking help from the class and the instructor. All the instructor has to do to satisfy the Customer is offer a high-quality class. Most instructors wish for a class composed entirely of Customers, but it’s never that easy.

A Learner is someone who comes in without a particular problem to solve, but just wanting to learn whatever the class has to offer.Typically, Learners may state their objectives in ways such as these:

“I heard this was a neat class, so I wanted to learn what you had to offer me.”

“I’m interested in teamwork and how to build teams.”

“My best friend at work took this class and wouldn’t tell me anything about it except that I should come and learn whatever I learn.I like that idea.”

“I’d like to improve my problem solving skills (without mentioning any particular situation).”

Learners are fun to have in class, because they gobble up everything the instructor has to offer. They never ask that hard question the Customers may ask: “What’s the relevance of what we just learned to so-and-so.”

Nevertheless, they can be a danger to the class because they may drift off in any direction just because it catches their fancy.If the instructor gets distracted by Learners, the Customers start getting angry because they’re not getting what they came for.

A Visitor is an uncommitted participant, often involved in the class under some kind of duress, implicit or explicit, and usually because of the concerns of some other person. Typical statements by Visitors might be:

“My boss told me I needed to learn whatever this class teaches.”

“My company bought three seats in this class, and someone cancelled one of them, so they sent me to fill the empty seat.”

“Everyone in our department has to go to this class.”

“I can’t get promoted unless I’ve taken this class.”

The Visitor has no agenda to participate in class discussions, and works on any exercises in the most minimal way. Attempts by the instructor to improve the Visitor’s participation are likely to be fruitless or to lead to “resistance” that can be disruptive to the whole class.

Trying to capture the interest of a Visitor can easily distract the instructor from paying attention to others in the class who are not Visitors.

Instructors need to treat Visitors respectfully, always being open to their contributions, should they decide to start making them. If Visitors do contribute, honor their contributions with complimentary (but not effusive) feedback.Until they volunteer to contribute, however, avoid soliciting their participation or trying to assign them tasks.

They have to make their own choice to transform themselves into Customers, or at least Learners.

A Complainer does have a particular problem (or list of problems), specific or vague, either concerning themselves or about some other person(s). The Complainer’s problems may resemble the problems brought by the Customer, but it’s not clear that the Complainer actually has any wish or hope that these problems be solved. Often, the instructor can distinguish the Complainer from the Customer by the whining, helpless tone in which the Complainer presents these problems – often repeatedly.

Complainers don’t really believe that their problems can be solved by this class, or possibly even solved at all. Therefore, they should be treated initially as Visitors, with empathy. If they display any hope that something can be done about their problems, that’s the time to get them engaged in the class. Often, this display of hope comes in the form of a tentative question that doesn’t refer directly to the Complainer, such as,

“Could this technique be applied to dealing with a boss who doesn’t appreciate your work?”

“But this technique couldn’t be used on a project under heavy schedule pressure, could it?”

Understanding and recognizing the four types of participant is obviously helpful to you when your job is to instruct a class, but what good does it do if you’re a fellow student? And what if you’re not in a class, but just a plain vanilla contract professional working on the job?

As a consultant,I’m seriously interested in my education. When I attend a workshop, I want to get my money’s worth – because I’m paying my own tuition and I’m usually not getting paid for my time. (Sometimes I can get my client’s to pay me for attending a workshop, but that’s a subject for another column.)

Therefore, whenever I’m in a workshop, I watch my fellow students just as I would if I were the instructor. If they’re Customers, I watch to see that they’re shopping for the same learnings I am, because if they’re not, they may steer the workshop into areas that are not related to what I’m shopping for. If they do, I may suggest something to the instructor, such as, “I see that you and Val have a deep interest in this subject, but it’s not my main focus right now. Would you be willing to continue off line with those who are really interested?”

If some of my fellow students are Learners, I cautiously enjoy their excursions into the unknown, because I’m always partly a Learner myself. I do my best to protect them from overfocused Customers (including me), while at the same time keeping my own goals in sight. If necessary, I try to steer things gently, as by offering, “Thank you for that wonderful exploration. I was fascinated, and could probably spend all day exploring it. But I wonder if we couldn’t come back to the subject of …”

If the instructor has a Visitor or Complainer to cope with, I consider myself a junior partner of the instructor and try to help out, generally off line during breaks. This role comes naturally to me, since we usually lead our own workshops in pairs – one instructor “on stage” and one ready to handle Visitors or Complainers one-on-one outside of the classroom.

For example, in a recent workshop, one of the Visitors was using one of our breaks to try to recruit other students to his cause by convincing them that the workshop was a waste of time – which, of course, would make his boss look like a fool for making him attend. Once I recognized that he was a Visitor, it wasn’t very hard to turn the subject toward his problems with his boss, and away from deprecating the very professional job my co-instructor was doing. Eventually, he realized that he had a choice between spiting his boss by learning nothing, or spiting her by actually learning some things that made him a better professional.

And speaking of professionals, I don’t spend most of my time being a student or instructor, so what does all this have to do with my day-to-day work? If you’re a regular reader of this column, perhaps you know by now that I always have my own learning in mind when I negotiate an assignment. I firmly believe that when I stop learning, I’ll stop being a professional – so, I’m always a student.

Yes, I’m on the job to earn money by helping my client, but I’m also there to learn, so I’m always on the lookout for Customers, Learners, Visitors, and Complainers among my co-workers. I believe that any worthwhile high-tech assignment is too difficult to be accomplished without constant learning by all participants, so I’m always working to enhance the learning environment, for me and for the others.And, one more thing.

Like anybody else, I, too, am susceptible to these stereotyped behaviors:

• becoming too focused on just the immediate job at hand (Customer);
• drifting off the subjectinto interesting side tasks (Learner);
• detaching myself from the importance of the assignment (Visitor);
• feeling powerless and whining about everything and everybody (Complainer).

None of these roles enhancemy performance on the job, so I always try to watch myself, too – and bring myself back to a more professional and effective role.

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In a previous article, I wrote about the usefulness of treaties between technical teams, but I didn’t give much detail about the actual negotiation process that goes into making a successful treaty. To learn about such negotiations, let’s look at two scenarios of negotiations that went wrong.

Here’s Scenario Number One:

Bob (the Boss): Fay, what’s your estimate of when that component will be ready to ship to testing?

Fay: If I get the equipment I’ve requisitioned, I’m pretty sure I can have it ready in 14 weeks.

Bob: <looking disappointed> Oh.

Fay: Isn’t that okay?

Bob: Well,…

Fay: I suppose I can really push and get it in 12 weeks.

Bob: <still looking disappointed> Oh.

Fay: Darn. Well, if everything goes exactly right, I can make it in 10 weeks.

Bob: <brightening a little> Did you say eight?

Fay: Okay, I guess I can push for eight.

Bob: <smiling> That’s terrific, Kay. I knew you could do it!

Here’s Scenario Number Two:

Darlene (the boss): Ira, what’s your estimate of when that component will be ready to ship to testing?

Ira: If I get the equipment I’ve requisitioned, I’m pretty sure I can have it ready in 14 weeks.

Darlene: <standing up and raising her voice> Ira, that’s simply not acceptable. I want it in eight weeks, not a day later!

Ira: <eyes lowered to the his shoelaces> Uh… But there’s just too much to …

Darlene: <turning red, and raising her voice another level> Ira! I hope you’re not about to say something negative! You know we’re a team here, and we don’t have room for nay-sayers!

Ira: <trying to swallow when his throat is dry> Well… I suppose I could…

Darlene: <breaking into a tight smile> …you could do it! I knew you’d find a way, Ira. <turning towards the door> All right, then. I have your commitment, so don’t disappoint me. See you in eight weeks! <out the door>

—–

Q: What’s the important difference between these two scenarios?

A: Nothing. Nothing important, that is. Bob used a soft approach; Darlene used a hard approach, but nothing was really different. Successful negotiations usually involve trade-offs among schedule, resources, and technical specifications, but these two contain no trading off at all – just different kinds of manipulations to make one person submit to another person’s desires.

Here’s Scenario Number Three, which should produce a better result:

Annabelle (the Boss): Myron, what’s your estimate of when that component will be ready to ship to testing?

Myron: If I get the equipment I’ve requisitioned, I’m pretty sure I can have it ready in 14 weeks.

Annabelle: <looking disappointed> Oh.

Myron: Isn’t that okay?

Annabelle: Well, not really.

Myron: If the schedule is that important, we can look at alternatives.

Annabelle: I can’t give you any more people. We’re shorthanded already.

Myron: Darn. Well, actually, new people right now might be more disruptive than helpful. Well, something has to give – we can’t reduce schedule and hold resources and specs constant.

Annabelle: That’s certainly true. But I do need something to show to my marketing team in eight weeks. There’s that business expo where we have to do a demo, and I can’t change that date.

Myron: Okay, I guess we’ll have to see what features we leave out of the demo, or perhaps fake a bit.

Annabelle: <smiling> That sounds like what we’ll have to do, Myron. Let’s take a look at what you can give us that will look good in eight weeks.

—-

And so Annabelle and Myron get down to the business of examining which features will contribute most to a good demo (her problem) while at the same time being within Myron’s team’s capabilities (his problem). Nobody was forced; nobody was manipulated. The negotiation stayed open and based on facts, not speculation or screaming or placating.

Of course, this kind of negotiation takes trust – trust in the other person, but even more, trust in yourself.

• You must feel that you can be honest without being taken advantage of.
• You must be confident that you understand the trade-offs on your own side of the business.
• You must have enough self-esteem to be able to say what you don’t know.
• It also helps to know that agreements forged through manipulation will be weak and unreliable agreements.

In my experience, at least half of the problems developers have with customers are the result of poor negotiation – usually the result lack of skill and will to deal with various forms of conscious or unconscious manipulation by their negotiating partner.

Do you understand what I?m telling you? Well, you?d better understand, unless you?re too incompetent to do your job! From now on, I?m assuming your commitment to learn to do better at dealing with manipulation, so don’t disappoint me!

(Of course, the way you?ll disappoint me is by yielding to my attempted manipulations.)

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