And so now we tackle another tough issue – ethics. I think this chapter hits the nail on the head from the beginning – ethical problems usually aren’t planned in advance. They happen as a result of shifting focus or responsibility.

I have ran into ethics problems with consultants before. I think I have already gone into it, but the company I used to work for wanted to contract another company to do some Flash design work for us. When I started asking questions about certain web programming languages, I got some nervous answers. I should have spoke up then, but the CEO was there and he didn’t like others piping in at the wrong time. Needless to say, I don’t think anyone there knew Flash, and the rough draft we got showed us that they were probably trying to learn as they went.

Ethics seems to be an even stickier situation in consulting. You basically have to take on so many aspects of the company that you are hired by. But what if that business participates in some slightly unethical practices? Where do you draw the line between them and you? I guess it would have to depend on the situation, but I would definitely not work for someone that would drag me into their risky business or shady reputation.

One of the interesting things on the list of things to do to remain ethical is to say no as much as we say yes. This seems to be very important, but very hard to accept in today’s world. Everyone’s heard of the “yes” man – but not the “no” man. Many times the CEO only wants yes people (not just men, hopefully). So, it takes guts to say no – but the longer you let it go, the harder it is to say.

Oh, no – politics. I hate dealing with office politics. Even though I work in a small office now that seems to be free from too many bad political situations, I have worked in some pretty bad situations in the past. Situations where we had to bring the entire office in to a meeting with a manager for a tongue lashing.

Of course, all offices have politics, and sometimes its just a matter of figuring out someones personality so that you can work with them and not offend them. Stuff like that doesn’t bother me. But some of the other stuff does, and that’s why I like our books position on politics and suggestions for dealing with them. Remain pure and don’t take sides – the best advice for people inside and outside the office.

I’m also glad that this book takes a realistic look at resistance. I’ve read articles that claim that resistance will never happen if you prepare people properly. Yeah, right. At least this book is realistic, and also bluntly honest, about resistance.

In fact, these last chapters are where the book does get painfully honest. Or, at least, the reader is encouraged to be painfully honest with themselves in determining where they need to grow and learn. But we all need that encouragement sometimes.

“Run meetings as facilitated work sessions, not as presentations of conclusions”

I think that this is an emerging theme in this book – working with the client, not just throwing ideas over the wall. Some where the book even went into good ways to hold brainstorming sessions. This information was probably the best guide I have ever seem written on how to hold these sessions. But the big word for this book seems to be COMMUNICATE.

I also like how the author goes into turning a solution into a complete, sustainable system. I just finished up a web design project for a company a few months ago that just did not understand this distinction. A web site is like creating a poster – you finish it and it works forever. Except, they had a dynamic website that functions more like a desktop program than a digital poster. Once the “poster” looked good, they were done with me. I looked back at the site this week and it’s not working – I could tell by the error that was coming up that someone changed a critical part of the database. Oh, well. Their choice. I tried to get them to look into operational policies and procedures, support and maintenance services, documentation, and security – but they weren’t interested.

Okay, okay. I have to admit. As a programmer, I am horrible at documenting. I recognize the need for it, I just hate to break my train of thought to put that comment in there to explain what I was thinking. And I always come back later and regret not doing it. So, lesson learned right off the bat: document everything, everywhere possible.

I know that I also like to push bleeding edge technology in all circumstances. Not that it is bad to push new stuff, but it can’t always be used in all circumstances.

I also get a little concerned when I read about clients wanting to just find someone else to blame for their companies problems. I think this goes back to the documenting. I remember when I worked for another company and started to do things for their website. So many times we would tell the CEO that we needed to do things a certain way, but he wouldn’t listen. Then he would come back a few weeks later and be mad at us for doing it the way we did it.

One of the things that I found most interesting was the lessons about communication. I have worked for plenty of companies and/or school districts where gossip and rumors fill the voids. If the people in charge won’t tell you what is going on, you have to find out something. Even if your source isn’t know to be reliable, you’ll still listen just to hear something. And usually, what you heard ends up being much worse than the reality of what is going to happen. But not always.

I have never thought of this as being part of the consultants role, but it does make total sense. Who would co-operate with an outside person if you thought that person could get your job eliminated? But if they don’t know why you are there asking questions, or they don’t even have the full picture, they may start guessing.

So far, I am getting some great insight into what goes on in the “other person’s” head. I know that I can generally get a long with people – but what are they really thinking? I have only been in a few true consultant-like situations. They seemed (to me) to have gone pretty good. Reading through some of this makes me realize that there were areas for me to improve.

One thing that I know that I do sometimes if prescribing before I diagnose. I used to think that it would give the person confidence that I know what I am doing if I offer ideas from the get got. But I think now I can give that confidence by showing concern for the person’s needs and save time by holding my ideas until after I can get a better picture of what is going on.

I’ve also wondered a lot about clarifying the relationship. I’ve always known in the back of my head that if I agree to something, the person might think that I was going to get that 3am call. I never wanted to bring that up because I thought it might ruin the deal. But now I see that I need to bring it up (in a tactful way) to make sure we all know who does what.

I found three things that said “reflect on this in your journal, so I have three posts today. One of things that I got out of this lesson today was that I am way under-utilized at my job! But that’s another issue. I never really thought much about what really goes into consulting. I would probably have gone into a consulting situation and just winged it. I probably would have done okay, and made the client laugh and feel good about using me, but would I really have done that great of a job? Now I have some real steps that I can use to evaluate how I am doing what I am doing. Hopefully that will help me improve my ability to interact with clients.