Don’t Blame the Consultants
by Lois Melbourne
Recently, I have been hosting, speaking at, or attending several conferences. Most of them involve human resource professionals. I’ve heard several comments like, “I wish they had put more practioners and less consultants and vendors on the stage.” Trust me, the meeting organizers have tried. Also trust me when I say, “you may have gotten a better education because the show organizers didn’t succeed at that mission.”
The attendees should not blame the consultants for being on stage. That is what they do. They educate. They coach. They aggregate the information from multiple clients and share the experience with their clients and with their audience. If you have a practitoner speak for 45 minutes, you get the wisdom of one practitoner from, typically, one company, with one point of view. A quality presentation from a consultant or a vendor, assuming they know this is not an opportunity to sell, can give you the wins and losses from multiple companies, industries, and projects. It should be a win/win situation.
I don’t like an infomercial when I attend a conference anymore than the next person. There is a place for the sales pitch, but not during a session track. I know that many vendors have shed a bad light on the reputation of good speakers because they have blown the trust of the audience by thinly veiling their presentation as a content driven story, then selling. That shouldn’t ruin the chance for a good speaker to present and deliver the goods. The bottom line? I love data and lessons learned. Consultants are usually willing to really tell the ugly parts of a story that get glossed over when somebody is talking about a pet project that they hung their career upon.
I have incredible stories of saving companies millions of dollars during a RIF (Reduction in Force), but it is much harder for a customer to stand up and tell a story about how she laid people off faster to save her company money. The corporate communication department doesn’t want employees knowing that their collective loss of a month’s salary was a huge savings for the company and due to a faster and more efficient reorganization. I seldom get a chance to share this story on stage because I don’t have a customer willing to take the risk (in this case, rightfully so) of exposing their story.
I can provide you with dozens of pros and cons for using a 9 Box representation while working on your succession planning without selling my software. But, I have seldom seen a practitioner presentation give multiple views or methods to reach a broad group in an audience.
If you want more practitioners to speak at conferences, be one of them. Volunteer to speak on a panel if you don’t want to speak on your own. Look at what you are doing that is worth sharing with others and find a way to present it.
The reason conference organizers use vendors and consultants is because they are willing to raise their hand and tell the good stories. HR professionals, usually, are not willing. Even at vendor user conferences, it can be difficult to get users to commit. Their company often won’t let them speak because then it looks like an endorsement. That is a load of #$*&. If you are a satisfied customer and and found a product that serves your company well, then please share the story.
Don’t blame the consultants for being on the stage. Step up to the mic and tell your story. Look for the call for presentation requests for next year’s conferences and be a part of them. Or, when your favorite vendor or consultant asks you to present with them – PLEASE take them up on the offer.
Cheers,
Lois
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