Human indeed I am, and here is my Meditation ...

Many of you hold yourselves out to be Consultants.   But if this be so, and you do not wish to starve to death, it is very important that you and your client clearly understand – and, clearly establish and clearly maintain – the terms under which you will avoid starvation (perchance to profit).

Many folks are actually temps.   Companies have sometimes filled-out their entire IT workforce with what they call “contractors” but who are actually temps.   The key player in this game is “the agency,” because, as the only one who has actually signed a contract with the company, they hold all the cards and you hold none.

Contractors always know exactly how many feet of cable are to be stretched into what rooms and exactly where each outlet is supposed to go.   They have it in writing.   They had it in writing before they showed up.   They’re gonna put exactly those outlets in exactly those places and guarantee that all of them will work.   Nothing more or less.

Consultants, usually, are “consult-ing something-or-others.”   The term is usually an adjective.   But there is a clearly defined scope-of-work, a clearly defined question to be answered, a clearly defined goal-state that the organization is to be guided to.   And it is on a signed piece of paper.

Why do contractors and consultants, as I have defined it, succeed where others fail?   (a) Because there is real money on the line.   And, (b) because the line has been clearly drawn before money was laid upon it.   “That piece of paper” changes both parties’ approach to the entire engagement, and it is a key reason for success.