Management consulting digression and discussion from the What were you thinking thread

In My Humble Opinion
86

ISTM there are two approaches to PM.

  • What I call the “scorekeeper” model. Hire some flunky to track milestones and run meetings and write reports to management highlighting how well everything is going until that lie just can’t be maintained any longer.

  • What I call the “manager” model. Hire somebody to be in charge, give them a sufficient budget of dollars and weeks/months and allow them to them command their forces to make it so.

The former model seems to be the 90% favorite in the industries I’ve touched.

87

Huh, those weren’t my experience. I had some third type of PMs who were assigned to me from an available group, and who basically reported to me during projects. They did all the scorekeeping work, sure, but they also pushed me to have realistic timelines, problem solved if things were slipping, and most importantly: knew people all over the company and were able to get me resources on my projects, either SME advice or actual work. To be fair, some were better than others at doing all that.

88

My experience varied depending on the environment.

Being a PM should be like what you described or @LSLGuy 's “manager” model where you have the systems, people, and tools in place to properly run a project. Those are the projects I liked to be involved in.

But I’ve also experienced the first style of PM that @LSLGuy described. They create rosy pictures of “green” RAG status reports (perfectly formatted) for inept middle managers. Inconsistent or completely lacking approach or methodology. Just total shit shows.

As a “management consultant” coming in from the outside, often the people running these organizations seem utterly incompetent and stupid to me. I get it. Sometimes we propose solutions that aren’t a great fit. But you know what? I just got here and learned your entire business in a month. You (executive) have been here for years? What the fuck is your excuse?

89

Ah, the classic Seven Stages of a Project. You can tell it’s classic by the look and feel of the site.

90

For a while we had a senior executive who believed that “smart people ought to be able to project manage their own projects”, and among other stupid things he did, he disbanded that unit that supported me & others. As a result, I saw a lot of green checklists that suddenly flipped red, Gantt charts that had no chance of completion, and rosy updates (until they weren’t).

There are a lot of people who don’t think PM is an actual skill/discipline, but I’m not one of them. (but yes, there are a lot of PMs who are bad at it, and who drag the whole profession down behind them)

91

I agree that PMs are generally necessary and I did some PM work as well.

92

I have found good project managers to be immensely helpful

I haven’t worked with a lot of bad project managers (other than me, i suck at project management.)

But my husband, the Web developer, is constantly complaining about terrible project managers. Part of it is that he hates anything resembling a meeting, so if everyone has to talk about where they are, it feels like a waste of time to him. Why doesn’t the pm just read the giro? But partly, he’s had some really obstructive project managers who get in the way of the project.

93

Did you mean Jira?

94

He might’ve. He’ll acknowledge your question and put you in the queue; you should hear back in a few weeks.

95

Please inform him that I placed it as an agenda item for tomorrow’s “standup”.

96

Jesus, the phrase ‘standup’ gives me the worst flashbacks. Well played.

97

Probably. It’s not a tool I’ve ever used, it’s one i hear my husband say out loud.

98

And my husband’s “standup” meetings are over zoom, with everyone sitting at their own desk, in their own home.

99

I get why people often take a negative view of management consultants and often times it can be deserved. But at this point, I feel I need to point out why people get into this profession from the POV of someone who has been in it for most of their career.

Firstly, as a “physically attractive and young” frat guy recent college grad, it’s kind of appealing to go into an industry that seems to specifically hire for that and continue to enable that campus lifestyle of happy hours and fancy client dinners and whatnot. Perhaps not the best reason and I think firms have downplayed some of this over the years.

More importantly, you do get to work with other highly educated, highly motivated people, many of whom come from diverse and eclectic super-competitive backgrounds. And you often get to work on interesting, high profile projects at your clients.

Consulting also provides a lot of good “exit opportunities”. Which is consulting-speak for “opens doors to other good jobs.

Objectively speaking, I don’t really care if some middle manager or local office workers don’t want me there or respective my profession. No disrespect or anything, but they aren’t my client (who pays me) nor are they why I got into the profession.

Although, at one of my last assignments at my old firm, the 40 client stakeholders we spent two days with in a workshop teaching Agile project management and helping them build their project roadmaps for the COO really seemed to get a lot out of us being there. So that’s kind of neat.

But it can also be a grind. Especially when the economy or your firm isn’t doing well. There is a lot of pressure to “bill hours” or “sell” and you often don’t have much control over either. I’ve been fortunate that I haven’t had to travel that much, but it is known as a profession where you routinely live out of a hotel 4 days a week.

Unless you pick the right focus, your experience can feel a bit “thin” at times compared to, say, working 5-10 years in an “industry” company and knowing the ins and outs of how a bank or ship-builder or retailer works.

A lot of people also have trouble transitioning between grinder, minder, and finder roles. I’m a better project lead and engagement manager than I was a staff consultant putting up with some middle manager’s bullshit about what font to use in a PowerPoint deck. I haven’t quite figured out the sales aspect of the job. My old firm we basically had to fuck off and figure out how to make our numbers on our own. But I talked to a former colleague who works at another firm and apparently some firms actually provide you with leads and accounts to manage so you aren’t cold-calling and sending LinkedIn outreach messages like some asshole.

100

If you make the client (COO) happy and get paid, do you give a fuck if you make life better for the assholes (engineers/office staff)?

101

Lol, my ex sister in law once flew to Hong Kong for a single meeting. Like, she flew there, held the meeting at 2am (her internal time) and then flew back, without even spending a day there.

102

I do actually. Most of what I do is designing business processes, implementing or building software, data analytics, operating models and whatnot. Also providing a bit of guidance on project management practices, Agile, stuff like that.

Ideally, the intent is that when we leave, the company is in a better position to manage their work or has some new capability that grows or improves their business.

For this one engagement with the COO, I think his people’s lives are much better if they are better able to track progress and manage risk better on their projects as opposed to dealing with a constant shit show of fire drills.

Not sure why you think those people are “assholes” though.

103

Yikes.

I’ve had to take day trips from New York to Boston, DC, or Baltimore are from time to time. That’s about 4 hours each way on the Acela.

I did have a client one time who had me fly my head architect from Poland to Chicago to work with some stakeholder only to find out she only worked from home. Like…you couldn’t work from home with the guy not having to fly 8 hours?

104

I suppose the question comes down to

    If we assume the C-suite’s interests are mostly contrary to the interests of the middle managers and worker bees, then that suggests that a consultant who makes the C-suite happy will necessarily be an agent for adverse change from the POV of the middle managers & worker bees.

Not also that worker bees can be PhD engineers, physicians, etc., not “merely” somebody who processes HR leave request forms from in-basket to out-basket all day.

In the world as seen through the old pre-stupid Dilbert, competence is inversely distributed with rank. The worker bees are useful to the actual corporate goal of delivering product and profitability, the mid-level PHBs are un-useful as they muddle around lost getting in the way, and the C-suite is anti-useful as they pursue career self-aggrandizement at the active expense of the corporation.

To the degree that model is accurate, it explains why a) modern corps are very sick beasts, and b) management consultants who aren’t simply temps are viewed as adding to the sickness, not working to cure it.

105

Honestly, i think Dilbert was always stupid. It was funny. But there have always been healthy corporations where management works towards the overall goal, and recognizes that it needs to let the worker bees do their job. That’s how those worker bees got there in the first place.