Julie,
I wanted to resist your invitation but I couldn't.
I'd offer, for a beginning, that consulting (like maybe everything
else?) is base in relationship and not ideas, content or even proven
competence. So, at least in a significant number of cases, the
"unexpert" is the right one to do the work. And heaven help us from
some of the results.
Another is that many in the business of consulting are trying to fix
something wrong and righteousness takes over from a need for
competence. It never works out from this position anyway.
The worst as a profession, in my observation, is that we are too
greedy and needy (money and proving ourselves) to say, "I don't do
windows." Let alone to say "I know somebody who does."
Until you can say what you don't do, then you can't cooperate with
others. It won't occur much and, when it does, it won't work well
because most of us are being "I can doing anything better than
others" and/or "That one isn't worth doing."
But there's hope.
The hope is, that some of do collaborate. Some of us are not
operating from survival. And some clients are beginning to demand
that we get bigger than these petty concerns.
--Michael McMaster <Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>