Spiking The Punch Bowl, Part 3: He Said, She Said
We’ve already received heaps of response to our Punch Bowl Survey on clients’ and consultants’ perceptions of each other. Timed to coincide with the DMA’s 2012 Nonprofit Washington Conference, where all will make nice to one another.
We won’t report the stats until Friday. But as is often the case with surveys, the ‘open-ended’ comments say a lot! Here’s a taste …
He said:
- “They do not offer to waive their fee when they are wrong.”
- “They don’t have to deal with the internal politics that I do.”
- “That’s not included in the SOW.”
- “Their job is to keep tabs on the larger world of our business…something those of us in the trenches don’t have time for.”
- “We can blame them if things go wrong.”
- “They give credibility to a course of action that I approve of.” [We received this one in many forms!]
She said:
- “They are happy working for nonprofit salaries – I could never do that.”
- “They can just blame the consultant.”
- “Risk averse, penny-wise, pound foolish.”
- “Living in a fantasy world.”
- “Paying for advice they never take if they can possibly avoid it.”
- “It’s too different.”
- “They truly want to make a difference.”
Hmmm … I’ll have another glass of punch please!
Tom
P.S. There’s still time for you to express yourself on the client/consultant relationship in our Punch Bowl Survey. Results on Friday.
One response to “Spiking The Punch Bowl, Part 3: He Said, She Said”
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Granted, I am a one-person shop, but there are a lot of us out there who rely every day on our reputations to continue to work in the nonprofit consulting field. Could things be better? Well, obviously, especially after all this ranting and raving.
Get a grip! Things are never perfect, and they aren’t going to be going forward. We as consultants have the ultimate obligation to our clients. From the moment we begin developing the relationship that will result in a contract, we owe them honesty, openness, reality, a reasonable and achievable goal, our support when they need it (and in my experience, that is all the time we are with them), a rewarding outcome or the truth when that isn’t going to happen, and the ability to roll with their challenges. Nonprofit executives have huge challenges and we have to respect that.
This public display may be cathartic, but really? What exactly has this accomplished for either group? And what is supposed to happen next?