I've recently done some informal consulting with people doing hip hop websites, because of my blogging at ProHipHop, but not about blogging and, in both cases, my "consultation" resulted from my response to business pitches rather than from a consulting relationship per se. But what I've learned so far is that it doesn't matter if you have a clear vision of the problems and/or possibilities if folks are holding on too tightly to what they've created.
In both cases, it seemed like the founders had invested so much in their sites that they weren't willing to see that they were heading towards a dead end. I guess that's a form of "sunken costs", though that concept comes from investing, as I understand it. Also, neither were technically minded and were both in the position of paying others to program and relying on those programmers expertise and feedback, which seemed to lead to larger knowledge gaps regarding the current state of web development.
One of the projects is dead. I expect the other to die unless the owner finds a "greater fool" to acquire the project [or proceeds down a more difficult but unlikely path]. Again, an investment concept that seems quite applicable in other areas of business but might not work so well in the current economic environment, though it might have worked a year or two back.
These discussions make me wonder about a couple of things. First, have I made the same mistakes when folks were trying to give me advice and I rejected that advice?
I'd like to think not too much because the folks that have given me advice in the past were not privy to certain information that caused me to reject that advice and when, in certain cases, I shared some of that information, they didn't seem capable of adapting or continuing with a dialogue. But that's what happens when folks are giving you advice online, in public, and you don't have an ongoing conversation.
It also makes me wonder if I could handle being the kind of consultant who comes in, makes my report and then leaves, knowing that none or very little of the knowledge will be put to use. I wouldn't find that very satisfying for very long and I don't think you can build any kind of service if folks don't implement any of your suggestions.
So I have to figure out more about how one addresses the resistance of those with whom one consults without being argumentative or causing them to shut down.
In the two cases to which I refer (I apologize for having to withhold so much information due to confidentiality), the individuals weren't really coming to me for advice on their sites so I may have caught them by surprise. But, in both cases, neither seemed to be able to consider user expectations in a manner that would affect their product and neither seemed comfortable adjusting to the fact that changes in web development had made their projects out of date.
Since they weren't coming to me as a consultant per se, perhaps I shouldn't be too concerned about these specific exchanges, but I am going to start to find out more about how consultants handle situations where resistance makes an honest appraisal a dead end process.
Hmmm, one dead end meets another. That's certainly not what interests me!
Update:
So the very notion of "client resistance" suggests one of the more dangerous paths for a consultant to follow, that of believing one knows the answers rather than recognizing that there is a process in place of which one must become a part.
That said, I recently had someone contact me about a service I don't offer but they did express interest when, at the end of our initial exchange, I suggested I take a look at their site and web presence and discuss some possible improvements.
But I decided that, rather than launching in with an analysis featuring my brilliant insights, I would ask them an opening question about their goals. Though such a question will not fully address where they're at and how I might participate in where they're going, it will require enough of a response that they have to indicate a more active buy-in than, "sure, what the heck"!
So I'm actually still waiting to see if they bother and that's a good thing. I'm learning from even such small exchanges about where to focus my time and energy in a mutually productive manner.
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