How do you know a consultant is competent?

Think about it. You understand (I hope) situational competence. We all know people who are extraordinarily competent in one area and hopeless incompetents in other areas.

So the question is really, “How do you know the consultant you’re about to engage is competent to assist you with the issue at hand?” Having the world’s greatest consulting brain surgeon working with you on a factory floor reengineering project might not be the wisest thing to do, no matter how competent the consultant was in her field or how nice she was.

What’s the approach you use to determine and verify the competence of the consultants with which you work? From my perspective, it’s less important which approach you use (as long as it works) and more important THAT YOU HAVE AN OBJECTIVE APPROACH that you use with consistency.

So. What’s the name of your approach? How often do you update it? Who is in charge of updating and maintaining it? Is it used consistently throughout your organization?

Hmmmmm.

Consulting Knowledge Bargain!

Have an interest in consulting?

For over 24 years Consulting to Management, also known as C2M, has been a source of invaluable information and insight into the world of management consulting.  Unfortunately, they have ceased publication.  The reasons are many but primarily revolve around the decline in the number of subscribers who received their copies as part of their membership in various professional organizations such as the Institute of Management Consultants USA.

This is a sad time for those of us who were loyal subscribers and avid readers as well as the volunteers who supported the Journal of Management Consulting, Inc., the not-for-profit educational corporation that published C2M.

But, it's an opportunity for you.  Over 600 hundred articles -- going back to the original issue -- are available in electronic form to download for the very reasonable price of US$ 49.  You can download a few, a hundred or ALL of them for that US$ 49.  Follow the C2M link above and scroll down till you see "Special Archive Pass" on the right side. Then, just follow instructions.

If you're interested in consulting and would like to add to your personal library or -- like me -- are writing a book and are looking for a source of well written articles on a wide variety of subjects to add to your reference material, it's a great bargain.

One catch however.  You have to complete the downloading by September 30th.  After that they'll no longer be available.