Modes of Consulting #3: The Collaborator

My favorite consulting engagements have me working with clients as a skilled collaborator.

In his classic book Flawless Consulting, Peter Block describes three types of roles that consultants and other types of freelancers might take on: expert, pair-of-hands, and collaborator. Each of these represents a different kind of interaction when working with clients and a different source of satisfaction for the consultant. In previous articles, I described the expert consultant mode and the pair-of-hands mode. This final article in the series describes consulting as a collaborator.

Putting Heads Together

In this third type of consulting engagement, the consultant joins forces with members of the client organization to work on the project or solve the problem together. The collaborative mode involves frequent interactions between consultant and client to identify solutions, set priorities, make decisions, and create deliverables jointly.

As an example, a client hired me for an extended remote collaborative engagement. This financial services company wished to implement peer reviews as part of its architectural governance process. A manager at the company was familiar with my book , so he engaged me to help…