Dropping acid for profit together
tl/dr: Designers and Consultants care equally about methods and outcomes. But we care about them at different times. Let me be clear, I don’t think consultants are evil. I married one, and she’s mostly nice and very productive.
Management consultants can be tricky, they look at the work through a highly structured, always driving to impact lens. They need progress, it’s their drug of choice. As designers, we see the world and the work differently. It’s not about linear, predictable progress. Our drug of choice is the look of delight on a user’s face when something works, beautifully. Bringing the two perspectives together can be powerful, and I often get asked how I cross the divide and bring designers and consultants together (dropping acid for profit).
It’s time to build some empathy for the consultant. So, dismantle your biases and discard your prejudices against management consultants. Acknowledge that they are bright, entrepreneurial thinkers and thats awesome - right? These MBA folks are paid to solve business’s hardest challenges. Underneath the jargon, they analyse processes, they can change how people work and do magical stuff with a spreadsheet I only dream of. And I have learnt lots from them.
I refuse to use the bullet points my wife adores, so here is a numbered list:
A management consultant can pretty much always tell you why they’re valuable (like, always)
They have surprising empathy (but their focus might be a bit too narrow)
Surprisingly (I mean shockingly) good at telling a story (but only a certain type of story – they need to quantify, evaluate and ultimately move forward everything. They can’t simply seek knowledge or understanding for the sake of expanding themselves)
Shockingly (I mean surprisingly) bad at visual stories
They are natural teachers who truly love sharing their knowledge and collecting yours
So, that’s why they are worth working with. But (and I say this with all respect to my lovely wife) they can be difficult monsters. Here are a few of the broad challenges one may encounter in working with management consultants, and a handy guide to getting the most out of your acid trip:
That won’t work / we’re wasting time
Consultants get high on outcomes, Designers get high on methods
The underlying cause: Consultants need progress, they need to feel like they are always moving forward, even in open creative processes like ideation or brainstorm. They are hardwired to constantly evaluate and dismiss least likely paths, to focus their energies on only the things that matter. Designers refuse to decide what matters until they are ready, until we have enough research, understanding, and wisdom about a subject. We refuse to dismiss a path until we’ve explored enough, knowing the wrong path can inform the right solution in many (if not most) cases.
How to make it work together: If you can’t give your consultant certainty about the outcome, give them certainty about the process and their role at the moment. I have literally given consultants targets to come up with 30 ideas, something I would never do to a designer. They need a target to hit, and to work effectively with them, we need to set a target that helps them achieve our objectives.
That’s great, but is it really a design problem?
Consultants are speedballing methods and outcomes, designers OD on method
The underlying cause: Consultants learn 20-30 frameworks before they even interview to be a strategy consultant. When they’re actually in an interview, they have to respond in real time to a business challenge, and adapt or create a new framework to solve the problem. My wife, who knows nothing about American sports, was once asked to justify paying a baseball player a record-breaking salary in an interview with Bain. This is how they are trained to think, to look at a huge toolbox, find a decent looking tool, and adapt it as needed, no offence to the tool not selected.
How to make it work together: Sometimes, rarely, they are right and it’s not a design problem. More often, they are wrong, it is a design challenge, but they need to believe your method / process / framework will deliver the outcome. And that you will be comfortable adapting. Consultants always start with the end in mind, and if you can assure them that you are trying to achieve the same objective, and you understand these 3 things are important to address in getting there, you will have their support. Side note: consultants need to group things in threes. It’s weird. Something about pyramids and Minto and logic, but it’s a magical number for them.
Can you wear a suit to the meeting? Can you stop saying f—k?
Some like to smoke, some like the edibles
The underlying cause: Consultants are always fitting in and have built their lives on exceeding all expectations. Clients expect a suited and booted, clean shaven, well-groomed and on-time person, and your typical consultant will over-deliver on this expectation. They are weirdly empathetic about understanding client and other’s expectations, and meeting them. They get strange satisfaction out of defining their mould, then squeezing themselves into it.
Designers take great pride in breaking moulds. We are ourselves, full stop. The expectations of others are their problem, our job is to challenge and question expectations. One might consider it oddly un-empathetic, but it can be our superpower.
How to make it work together: Agree together on the expectations that actually matter. Use your consultant’s desire and drive for outcomes to your own advantage, and force them to articulate the expectations that must be met in order to deliver meaningful impact. And maybe don’t say f—k so much. If you want bonus points, try to learn from your consultant how to have empathy for the client, and start using some of their language to show the value of your own work.
Show me how you did that
Consultants getting high on methods, designers high on outcomes
The underlying cause: Consultants are sponges for learning, even when they’re showing their maximum level of arrogance. They are hired early in their careers for potential and coachability, not for prior knowledge or skill (except Excel. They are freakish with the Excel), and their success and progression in their careers comes down to two factors: their ability to continuously learn, adapt and apply new methods, tools and frameworks, and their ability to develop client relationships. They don’t need to know the answer, they just need to know how to articulate the problem, and assemble the team to get there.
Designers are judged on their past portfolio, their value is often (perhaps wrongly) judged by the quality and beauty of solutions they’ve designed before. Sharing the how is like asking a magician to reveal the secrets of a trick – and so often, the secret is hard to articulate. Uncanny and beautiful insight is the result of seemingly unproductive work, false starts, idle exploration, and a spark where it all comes together. Sorry, Ms MBA, I don’t know how to put that into Excel for you. Our results must speak for themselves. Explaining the how gets messy, fast, and Consultants just don’t tolerate it well.
How to make it work together: Stare your consultant dead in the eye and repeat after me: Magic. Share your tools, share your frameworks, share the methods you love. They will respect you for it, and you may think they will steal your magic, but if you give them an opportunity to work their own unique brand of magic mushrooms, they will tell the story of how your complex spells create value that matters to your business clients. With a little trust, and a lot of mushrooms, the magic will multiply. For profit.
Oooh that’s so pretty
Take the compliment. You’re not tripping.
The underlying cause: See above. Consultants can tell a story, but can’t visualise their way out of a dark room. My wife’s attempts at slides have nearly made me OD to escape. They know how bad they are, and they have an innate respect for what we do: tell a compelling story in a beautiful, simple and human way, with or without words.
How to make it work together: Revel in your superiority, then realise you alone have the power to take their narrative of words and elevate it to an epic work that resonates with a client’s logical and emotional needs. Music and lyrics, together in harmony.
Conclusion
When I started I was clueless, frustrated and didn’t understand how this management consultancy thing worked. But what I did have were supportive leaders and peers, who when I asked for help, were willing to guide and teach. Steal from their playbook, because they’re actively trying to assimilate yours.