What does it mean to be an expert? Malcom Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers, talks about the 10,000 hours of practice needed to master something. In consulting, we rarely have the luxury of that much time in any one area, at least initially. I remember on my second project out of university, we were sitting down for the kickoff meeting and I was a little bit shocked to be described as the cost to serve modeling expert. This was after doing one cost to serve project. So it is pretty clear that when we talk to clients, consulting expertise is not always particularly deep.
Within the walls of the firm, its generally another story. Expertise is valuable in a couple of ways, and generally it will be gained because of more than one project you have worked on, or just a general ‘rep’ around the office. This rep is crucial to your development as a consultant, but it can cut both ways. If it’s for good, interesting things, then it will drive you towards those sort of projects – if it’s not, you’re screwed, because you will keep being put on those things people think you are good at. I came to this realization the other day, when someone came up to me and asked me a question, prefacing it with “Seeing as how you are a government expert …”. I was pretty annoyed, and for good reason. I have only been on a couple of government projects, and I hated every minute of them. I am kind of screwed if this is my rep, and I have no idea how to get out of it. Any ideas?
By the way, I know it has been a bit of a gap between posts. I can only promise to do better - this is still fairly new to me.
Getting out of being an "expert" on a field you did not chose (or favor) yourself has no quick fix. People simply assume that once you have some project in a certain industry/topic on your back, you know stuff about it.
ReplyDeleteAs of my experience, the only way to get out of this is to actively seek projects that get you into a different area of expertise and strongly engaging in developing and sharing the knowledge needed there. That way, you can bit by bit form your reputation in an area you chose yourself.
See what I mean everybody? Even people who are actually government experts think I am a government expert.
ReplyDeleteAbout time CI. Been a while since your post. But you bring out a very real problem in the consulting world. Ive had similar issues. In fact with govt clients, you can even end up on the same client for years. Only way to get out is to leave the company
ReplyDeleteCI - best advice would be to leverage the hell out of your partner relationships to get them to staff you on non-gov't projects. Then start building alternative expertise a la Florian's advice.
ReplyDeleteThe best way is to build functional skills (as opposed to industry skills, in this case public-sector consulting). If you try to shift to something like operational turnaround experience, it'll give you more flexibility to pivot industries.
I shall ensure CI will have the 10000 hours to become the true and only one government expert in his Firm ...
ReplyDeleteThanks all for the excellent comments - except of course for my humorous colleague Dan/Anon. I will take your advice on board, and it has sparked the topic of my next post - staffing (the bane and salvation of many a consultant).
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