Experience The Secrets Of Consulting: A Guide To Giving And Getting Advice Successfully Penned By Gerald M. Weinberg Exhibited In Leaflet

is a master of extracting the human personality required to run modern business, He describes one of his artforms in this introduction to consulting practice, This book does not focus merely on short heuristics on how to consult, It instead goes indepth into the psyche required to succeed as a consultant,

He defines consulting as the art of influencing people at their request, He then describes a rational framework for this practice and how communication can succeed through humility and the proper management of change.
This latter topic the management of change is where Weinberg is at his best, He distills his advice in rules or laws that govern the enterprise, Often these laws seem paradoxical or unusual at first, Then he supports these laws with interesting anecdotes that bring the truth to the fore, As such, he prepares the landscape of consulting for those new to the practice, Landmines are able to be anticipated and avoided instead of exploded with pain,

At the very least, Weinberg's voice needs to be heard because of his incredible selfawareness, Instead of approaching the matter as mere science and facts, Weinberg artfully describes the human component in consulting since it is the art of influencing people, at their request.
Anyone who wants to get better at navigating the thorny roads of human feelings and human nature would benefit from reading Weinberg's take.

This book is a very quick read because it is a bunch of ProTips smashed together, I had a coworker tell me that this is a book from the point of view of an old school consultant.
I think the consulting work I will be doing will somewhat relate to what Weinberg has written, but it will also be more structured as well.


None of what I am listing will make sense without Weinberg's examples, but these are the things I thought were most important:

: Why Consulting is so Tough

There is always a problem
It is always a people problem
Paid by the hour not the solution
Only promiseimprovement if over that help the client take all the credit
"Whatever the client is doing advise something else"
"If they don't hire you don't solve their problem"
Once you eliminateproblemgets a promotion

: Cultivating a Paradoxical Frame of Mind

"Don't be rationale be reasonable"
You don't get nothing for nothing tradeoffs
"The better adapted you are the less adaptable you tend to be" too close to the problem
Consultants most effective onrd problem
"The orange juice test: We can do it and this is how much it will cost.
"

: Being Effective When You Don't Know What You're Doing

If it ain't broke don't fix it most problems are self healing so interfere gently
If what they've been doing to fix the problem has not worked tell them to do something

else
Make sure they pay you enough so they will implement your suggestions setting the right fee
Don't give up the treatment too soon and don't stick with it too long a fine balance of medicine and method
Can't fix feature Can't feature fake If you fake it, it must need to be fixed.
Featuring is spin, but faking is lying and bad all around including using euphemisms,

: Seeing What's There

Specialists might only try to solve problems using their preferred/ understood method
Using the same recipe gets you the same bread
You need to understand context to understand how not to repeat the same mistakes
"Study for understanding, not for criticism"
Look for what you like at about the present situation and bring it up to the client
People never run out of reasons
"The name of the thing is not the thing"
When doing interviews: "Clients always know how to solve their problems, and always tell the solution in the first five minutes"

:Seeing What's Not There

This section is all about following you intuition, and recognizing when the problem might be what's missing, not what is in front of you.

"Be aware of your own limitations"
Use other people, including those outside of the scope of the problem
Other cultures can give insight into what we aren't doing
Laundry lists help you too look at everything, not just what could be important
"Sometimes farfetched is only shortsighted"
"If you can't think of three things that might go wrong with your plans, there is something wrong with your thinking"
Create analogies
"Move to extremes"
"Look outside the boundary"
"Look for alibis versus Explanations"
"Words are often useful, but it always pays to listen to the music"

: Avoiding Traps

"What you don't know may not hurt you, but what you don't remember always does"
"If you know your audience, it's easy to set triggers"
"The thought that disaster is impossible often leads to an unthinkable disaster" called the Titanic Effect because they thought the boat was unsinkable so they didn't need all those life boats and didn't need to avoid icebergs
Try to develop your subconscious triggers, those things that already crop up to help you remember important facts

: Amplifying your Impact

Jiggling: unsticking the system overload and communication and remember less is more.

Try to change awareness and perceptions by understanding internal behavior and feelings,

: Gaining Control of Change

"Some of the time, in some places, significant change happens especially when people aren't working hard at it.
"
"Cucumbers get more pickled than brine gets cucumbered, "
"The best way to lose something is to struggle to keep it, " Big and lasting change originates in trying to preserve the thing that will probably change most,
Put your money where your mouth is to get people to show you their confidence in the system,

: How to Make Changes Safely

"Nothing new ever works, but there's always hope that this time will be different.
" Back ups are important, and make sure that you only make one new change at a time,
"Trust everyone, but cut the cards, "
"When you create an illusion, to prevent or soften change, the change becomes more likely and harder to take.
"

: What to do When They Resist

"You can make a buffalo go anywhere, just so long as they want to go there.
"

: Marketing Your Services

Weinberg Laws of Marketing:
: Consultants can exist in one of two states I Idle or B Busy
: The best way to get clients is to have clients
: Spend at least one day a week getting exposure
: Clients are more important to you than you can ever be to them
: Never let a single client have more that/of your business
: The best marketing tool is a satisfied client
: Give away your best ideas
: It tastes better when you add your own egg
: Spend at least/of your time doing nothing
: Market for quality, not quantity

: Putting a Price on Your Head

Weinberg Laws of Pricing:
: Pricing has many functions, only one of which is exchanging money
: The more they pay you, the more they love you.
The less they pay you, the less they respect you,
: Money is usually the smallest part of the price
: Not a zerosum game
: If you need the money don't take the job
: If they don't like your work, don't take their money
: Money is more than price
: Price is not a thing it is a negotiated relationship
: Set your price so you won't regret it either way
: All prices are based n feelings, both yours and theirs

: How to be Trusted

Only you care about the reason you let someone else down
People don't tell you when they stop trusting you
Avoid tricks
In their own eyes, people are not liars
"Never be dishonest, even if the client requests it.
"
"Get it in writing, but depend on trust, " A book can only do so much, but this book is the closest thing I've ever seen to a howto guide to consulting.
A person could do some good, and make a very comfortable living just following Carl Weinberg's advice, This is especially useful for technical consultants, I dont love old books and this one was writtenyears ago, so I was kind of skeptical at first.
Although I expected the book to be a lot more business oriented, I did like the content,

The book is filled with advices and laws some are pretty weird haha, Dont visualize a technical, formal book, Its more of a practical, casual and fun way to convey ideas of counseling in your work and your everyday life.
The Secrets of Consulting by Gerald Weinberg is a book about the learning and wisdom of Weinberg's consulting career,

The Secrets of Consulting from the outset seems like it is specifically aimed at consultants or perhaps employees in larger corporations but as soon as you read it, you instantly become aware that this book contains advice and wisdom for your life.
While all of the advice usually centers around consulting cases it is most of the times applicable for your life as well.
As a result this book becomes a lot more than advertised,
The style of the book is also delightfully conversational, It never becomes a bore to read due to Weinberg's ability to illuminate his learning in a funny and personal way.
It however also backfires sometimes where I was not sure how true an anecdote was, Somehow it bothered me a bit, if I can't trust the author, how can I trust anything else in this book.


All in all a good book on consulting, on work and on life, The lessons from this book are applicable to most situations in your life and in your work,

One of the best and most enjoyable business books I've read, Certainly on my toplist,

I came across this in some IT book club it was apaperback and I was aghast, Have since probably bought and given outcopies Gerry, you can send thanks to engineers, auditors, and others who need to bring humor and sense to situations.


It has sayings: "Things are the way they are because they got that way, " Remember it. Interesting! A quick read and actually pretty utilitarian, Weinberg has that peculiar sense of humor of older "systems" i, e. computer science guys an unhealthy love of puns, alliteration, riddles, goofy parables, etc but it doesn't interfere with the clarity of his messages.
This is not "consulting" as a methodology or a framework akin to what one may expect from a McKinsey or HBS alum.
By his own description Weinberg sees the role of the consultant less as a problem solver and more as a "jiggler" someone that disturbs a system just enough critical point JUST enough so that the system and the people within it become more robust at solving their own problems or, even better, at anticipating and preventing problems.
He's just cynical enough to maintain a realistic stance, which is refreshing to those who balk at the latest book toutingsteps to global domination.
Recommended for anyone in a managerial role or overseeing any process improvements or work involving structural aspects of a "system.
" The author presents management consultancy as kind of therapy for organisations, Filled with witty heuristics backed by his personal anecdotes, Before reading this book I didn't realise a when it was written and b that the author was also influential in systems thinking.
The former didn't show hardly at all and was actually the better for it, . . all problems are still essentially people problems regardless of management style, The latter became more and more obvious throughout the book, even his rationale for pricing is based on balancing feedback loops! Recommended for anyone with, or who may one day fall into, a consultancy role.
Finished the book in three days and enjoyed it very much,

Afterwards I wish Id read it earlier, and Id like to compare it with How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Both books introduce a lot of principles, backed by enjoyable and memorable stories, that you can apply to your lifefor great effectright away.


Also, it finishes off with a great list of other books you might enjoy reading on different subjects one of them being the book I just mentioned.
At the suggestion of a colleague, I read Jerry Weinberg,

Like the alternate title says, A Guide to Giving amp Getting Advice Successfully, the book is more about human interactions than about the business of consulting.
And, it is very good,

Weinberg takes us on a stroll through his vast experience as a consultant, sharing bits of wisdom as he goes along.
He tries to couch each bit of advice in a catchy slogan, like The Law of Raspberry Jam or The Orange Juice Test.
Some of them end up sounding kinda corny: Rudy's Rutabaga Rule,

One of the more interesting ones is The Law of Raspberry Jam: the wider you spread it, the thinner it gets.
You can have a lot of influence on one person, or a little influence on lots of people, You cannot have it both way,

Another really interesting one comes in the chapter on pricing yourself, The Second Law of Pricing states that the more they pay you, the more they love you and that the less they pay you, the less they respect you.
I have been thinking for a while now that people care about a thing in proportion to how much they have to pay for it for a very loose definition of pay.
If you give them something for free, they won't really care much for it and will let it wither and die.
If they have to spend resources for it, they will look after it much more, It could be a piece of software, or a tool, or a new practice,
.