Consultants Saying Things

If you live in the real world, if you practice your profession in the real world, then you'll know the real world loves throwing crap at you whenever it can.   

The challenges come at us from every angle: family, work, friends, clients, colleagues, children, culture, technology, politics, pandemics... just to name a few.   

How on Earth is your average consultant expected to navigate this, continue to be productive, and stay sane?  

One way is by adopting and applying certain philosophies as frameworks for interacting with our world and our work.  

I have some friends that are interested (and knowledgeable) in this area and I sat them down for a chat. Added to this group is my friend Nathan Allchin who spent quite a bit of time in AI research and has been a management consultant for, well, for ever.  

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Consulting can be a tough game. All of these Type-A personalities aggressively posturing and circling each other for the kill. Egos are large and there's no shortage of locker-room braggadocio.

It's an industry that employs far too many sports metaphors and comes with a distinct odor of machismo.

Couple this with the fact that consultants dealing in Business/Technology Architecture roles often have technical or engineering backgrounds and this sets the scene for one of the great critiques of the field: Consulting is a Boys Club.

I wanted to talk to my friends about what it's like for women in the consulting field. I turned to the smartest business architect consultant I know, Whynde Keuhn, to join the cast for a lively discussion on the topic.

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I'm tired of Covid. How bout you? Unfortunately, it probably doesn't matter if we're tired of it or not.

We've all been talking quite a lot about Covid impacts. We've all been living the Covid new-normal lifestyle. We've been quarantined and socially distanced and working from home and hunkered down. We've been living this Covid reality.

My question is simple: Have we learned anything or will things just go back to the way they were before?

I was basically ranting about this with my friends and we turned it into another episode of the podcast.

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You may be thinking that now is the time to hunker down and just hope your business can survive. But what if you're missing out on a killer opportunity?

With the economy under pressure, an ongoing global pandemic and a healthy dose of socio-political uncertainty, it sure seems like the moment is right for the enterprise to keep its head down. Of course, if your company is out there hunting for value, the time may just be perfect.

I was curious about the impact of technology and uncertainty on value creation in unstable times. What opportunities might exist for the bold and unafraid?

As usual, I turned to my smart friends to help me think it out.

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Check your endpoint. It's probably not as safe from cyberthreats as you think. And Covid made it worse...

The cybersecurity landscape has been dicey for years. In just the past week there have been massive outages in the networks of Tesla, Microsoft, Apple and AT&T. Think about that. Those companies basically impact every aspect of life. And while they've done a lot to protect their services over the years, the pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works.

If huge global companies with billions of dollars and super smart people are vulnerable, how safe are those corporate assets on the company laptop you're using for Zoom calls from home (Pajamas, noisy dogs, screaming e-learning kids and bad lighting not withstanding)?

I wanted to know more about this. So I asked my good friend Oliver Cronk to come on the podcast and talk about it. Oliver isn't just smart. He's also British. So he SOUNDS smarter as well. Beyond that, he's the Chief Architect at Tanium. Perhaps you've heard of them? They protect endpoint assets of small mom & pop shops like the US Air Force. So, yeah. These folks know something about endpoint security.

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The ongoing global pandemic has profoundly impacted our clients and the way we work. It has also forced us to make major changes to our daily routines and behaviors.

Given the prolonged (and prolonging) health crisis and related economic and social upheavals around the world, it may seem like things have jumped the shark and spun totally out of control. The world has hit us upside the head with a proverbial 2x4 and how we react will determine the outcomes for each of us.

I asked some of my consultant friends what their thoughts were on where we are and what is to be done. We tried to stay away from predictions, but as you'll see that can often be hard to do on topics such as this.

In this third episode of a three-part Coronavirus series:

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One of the most overwrought concepts in business and technology is the idea of the Enterprise Architect and the Architecture they practice.

Libraries have been written about this topic. Literally. Libraries.

I wanted to have a discussion that was less about what it is and more about some of the most effective ways to practice it.

So I called on my buddy Mike Walker to join me with some of my other smart friends and talk about it.

In this episode:

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If there is one thing the pandemic has revealed to us more than anything else, it's how terrible people are at video conferencing.  Whether it is the "up-the-nostril" laptop webcam shot, the dark-cave lighting problems or someone munching trail mix during the steering committee meeting, our collective quarantine has really demonstrated that most people don't quite have the hang of the video call. And don't even get started on what people apparently think appropriate to wear (or not wear) for the weekly status meeting...  

I wondered if my smart friends might have some tips for effective video conferencing. I was also interested in finding out what sort of products and equipment they're using and what recommendations they might have for folks just setting up a home office and learning the video conferencing ropes.  

In this episode: 

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Yes the global pandemic has altered almost everything about how we work. But it has also dramatically impacted our clients and their businesses.  

It can be easy to first consider how the Coronavirus is impacting us personally. Our clients are also thinking of how this crisis is hitting their bottom line. What is the role that we as advisers can play when it comes to helping our clients through this difficult time?   

I took the question to my group of consultant friends. We talked at length about how consultants should be working with their clients and what short and long term opportunities might exist beyond just cutting costs in a panic.  

In this second episode of a three-part Coronavirus series: 

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The Coronavirus has had dramatic impact on our world. Everything from how we eat to how we learn has changed. The way we work has also changed.  

Even though Consultants may be more accustomed to remote work and video conferences than average people, the impact on consulting, advisory and delivery has also been dramatic and rapid. This current new reality we are in requires us to work in new ways, to engage our clients differently, to improve how we communicate.   

I asked some smart folks I know to come online with me and discuss how consulting work is being impacted, what practitioners out there should be thinking about and what behaviors they should be adopting as we navigate the crisis.   

In this episode:

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