Consultants! Good God! What are they good for? Absolutely —!

Through Rose Colored Glasses

If you bring it up, I’ll be the first one to admit that consultants are leeches. Our least endearing quality is the habit of pointing out the almost painfully obvious, and then getting rewarded for it. Then, there’s also the fact that thanks to Clinton and to Mr. Inconvenient Truth, the government can’t run without us.

But we must also do some good, otherwise, we would have been driven off the cliff in a bus with all those lawyers. I actually enjoy consulting work. I enjoy experiencing different environments, applying my management and tech expertise so others can focus on what they do better, teaching people what I know, and leaving behind a solution I poured my sweat and time into and am feeling pretty good about.

Normally, on a new project, the people at the organization I’m parachuting into have a pretty good idea of what they think they want, they...