Discussion: View Thread

From: Fred Nickols [mailto:nickols@safe-t.net]

Tyrone Pitsis asks for jokes, anecdotes, definitions, etc, about
consultants. In doing so, Tyrone makes use of the old saw about a
consultant being someone who comes in to your organization, borrows your

watch, tells you what time it is, then keeps the watch and charges you
an
exorbitant fee. I've heard that saw on more than one occasion during my
30
years as a consultant (internal and external) and, although I appreciate

the client sentiment it sometimes expresses, it also seems to me that
there
is another way of interpreting that remark. It goes like this...

A consultant is usually outside the client organization, hence the
"someone
who comes in" portion of the preceding definition. Consultants learn
about
their clients from observing them and it is what they learn about their
clients that they eventually share with their clients. This accounts for

the portions of the definition pertaining to "borrows your watch" and
"tells you what time it is." Consultants also retain what they learn,
thus
"keeps the watch."

And what about "charges you an exorbitant fee"? Well, for me, that
portion
of the definition refers to the fact that people who can't see what's
right
in front of them typically downplay the value of those who succeed in
getting them to see those matters. It is as though they are saying, "I
should have seen that all along, so I resent having to pay your fee for
pointing it out to me."

A consultant, then, is someone who helps others profit or learn from
their
own experience. A really good consultant also helps clients see the
value
of their experience and so the fees are rarely seen as "exorbitant."

>As part of our research into organization cognition and consulting we
>are looking at interesting, pertinent and/or humorous definitions,
>stories, jokes or fables about consultants. For example, some people
>have defined a consultant as someone who asks to borrow your watch to
>tell you the time, charges you an exorbitant fee, and leaves without
>returning the watch to you. Things like that!
>
>Tyrone S. Pitsis
>School of Management
>University of Technology, Sydney


Regards,

Fred Nickols
740.397.2363
nickols@safe-t.net
"Assistance at a Distance"
http://home.att.net/~nickols/articles.htm

From: esteban.trevino@neoris.com [mailto:esteban.trevino@neoris.com]

Fred, et all...

Now your response has to be one of the best transformation of a story
that
I have seen for a while...

The interpretation you shared was probably only held by a few to begin
with, which makes me wonder why most stories center on discounting
instead
of constructing... This seems similar to laughing and being entertained
when people happen to have accidents and misfortunes. Yes laughing may
transform the unpleasant into something else while displaying and
promoting
the entertainment on the basis of seeing someone else's accidents
(discounting stories) may be ethically wrong.

What responsibility does each have in passing them along?

What pushes the jokes, anecdotes, definitions to vilify instead of
dignify?

Cordially,

Esteban

It is in the nature of humor that we recognize a part that is familiar,
and distinguish that part which is absurd. When we connect the two,
humor is the by-product.

What Fred marvelously did, was to expose that connection and point out
that what some consider absurd, really makes sense in another context.
Thus, that which we thought absurd really isn't, and the humor
disappears. It is no longer funny.

It takes creative thought to do what Fred did. Most of the time we are
content to laugh without making the effort to think, and uncritically
pass the "joke" on. Oftentimes, we don't stop to think that perhaps
that ethnic, racial, or whatever remark we made really might have hurt
someone.

That's my $0.02
Bob

Fred, et all...

Now your response has to be one of the best transformation of a story
that I have seen for a while...

The interpretation you shared was probably only held by a few to begin
with, which makes me wonder why most stories center on discounting
instead of constructing... This seems similar to laughing and being
entertained when people happen to have accidents and misfortunes. Yes
laughing may transform the unpleasant into something else while
displaying and promoting the entertainment on the basis of seeing
someone else's accidents (discounting stories) may be ethically wrong.

What responsibility does each have in passing them along?

What pushes the jokes, anecdotes, definitions to vilify instead of
dignify?

Cordially,

Esteban

From: R Ramamurthy [mailto:rramxx@vsnl.com]

A very flashilily dressed man was travelling on a long lonely highway in
his
Ferrari equipped with hitech gizmos. On the way he saw a shepherd
tending to
his large flock. He wanted to impress him and stopped the car in front
of
the shepherd and told him: "If I tell you the exact number in your
flock,
would you give me one of the calves? " The shepherd agreed.
The guy got into the car, put up a dish antenna, connected his laptop to
the
satellite, hooked on to NASA and got their satellite take remote sensing
photos of the herd, got them downloaded to his laptop and set his
computer
to do the auto-count, watched by the facinated shepherd.
Finally, the guy told the shepherd triumphantly, "You have 571 cows and
253
calves". The shepherd agreed that the count was right and handed over
one
animal to the whiz-kid, saying "If I tell you your profession, would you
give the animal back to me?" The guy agreed.
Without hesitation, the shepherd said, "You are a consultant!". The guy
was
astonished and asked him how he could make it out. The shepherd said,
"You
make an incongruent appearance out of nowhere, offer your services
uninvited, give me an information which I already have, do it in the
most
round-about way and charge me exhorbitantly for it. Incidentally, they
are
not cows and calves but goats and lambs."

Ram

----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Wankel <wankelc@optonline.net>
To: <MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 9:06 PM
Subject: About Consultants


> From: Fred Nickols [mailto:nickols@safe-t.net]
>
> Tyrone Pitsis asks for jokes, anecdotes, definitions, etc, about
> consultants.