what happens when the consultant leaves?

the question is usually asked at the end of a meeting, half as a joke. it isn't a joke.

most people have been through it. a project that ran while there was an external person on it, and stood still four months later.

dependence isn't the same as duration

an agreement can run for two years without the organisation becoming dependent. and a three-month agreement can leave a hole nobody can fill.

the difference isn't how long we're there. it's where the ownership has sat in the meantime.

three things that leave a hole

1. the work sat with the consultant instead of an employee. it's faster when the person who knows how does it. that's also why it happens, and it's rarely something anyone decides.
2. decisions were made in meetings the consultant called. the cadence was theirs. it disappears with them, and so do the decisions.
3. something was built that nobody inside has touched. a model, a spreadsheet, an integration. it runs, right up until it doesn't.

what the three have in common is that they can't be seen while things are going well.

the handover starts in the first week

who owns what gets written down while the work is being started. not when it's nearly over.

1. every track has an internal owner from the start. we're happy to do the work. the owner is the person who has to be able to answer for it in a year.
2. the meetings are in your calendar. and you run them as soon as it makes sense. we sit in.
3. whatever is built is handed over with a description that can be read by someone who wasn't there when it was built.
4. there is a date. not a termination, but an agreed point where we go through what still sits with us, and why.

it applies to the roles that run on, too

part of what we do is a fixed role over time. that doesn't change the principle. it makes it more important.

a fixed external role is the easiest way to build a dependence nobody notices, precisely because there is never a moment when it can be felt.

so we put the same question to it: what would stop tomorrow if the role disappeared today, and is that something you can live with. yes is a legitimate answer. not knowing is not.

the test

take one track and ask who does it in three months if we aren't there.

if no name can be put to it, the track hasn't been delivered yet. whatever the status report says, and however well it's running right now.

it costs something, and that is deliberate

placing the work with an employee who has to learn it is slower than letting the external person do it. that's the bill that gets sent either now or later.

later is more expensive. and later is also when it arrives without warning.