Consultants have long had a reputation for being able to ‘read your watch and tell you what time it is’, which is actually somewhat tricky, as you know if you’ve ever tried to sneak a peek at someone else’s watch. This particular skill is valuable to you if you’ve forgotten you are wearing a watch, and you need to know the time. It is less valuable if you’ve ditched the watch and just use your phone, like most of the developed world these days.

So what good are consultants, if you are in the latter category?  Many of the traditional values are still there – consultants can bring in an outside perspective, they have tools and techniques that may not be known within your organization, and they have experiences with other organizations that are grappling with similar experiences to yours. But if they aren’t conversant – if they can’t help you talk through your problems and effectively frame them, you aren’t getting what you need. Consulting on business problems requires outstanding conversational skills, and not just chit chat – consultants need to be able to have nuanced, informed discussion with clients about the problems the clients are facing.

Think about the consultants your organization uses.  Are they helping you move forward with problems in a way that makes you more conversant in talking about the challenges? If not, you may not be getting all you need out of them.