Fresh ayes.

• Author: Wallace, Eric
• Position: Benefits of outside consultants

Occasionally a business too long faces unsolvable problems, stuporous stagnation or festering aggravations, and the call goes out for knights in shining armor. For gunslingers. For fresh eyes.

From other companies, from academia or from the business world at large come those we know variously as consultants, efficiency experts, facilitators, management auditors and expediters. Once in a while, even the night janitor will do the trick.

Consultants bring oblique ideas, unbiased opinions and fresh -- to us -- approaches. Energized with unbridled inquisitiveness, virgin flipcharts and felt pens, plus well-tuned billable-hours meters, they probe problems, unearth employee angst, refashion flow charts and lance business boils.

Staffs sail through brainstorming sessions, est-like soulsearchings and cheerleading classes. Often we're refreshed, recharged, inspired -- knowing how to clean up our acts, unlogjam dilemmas, smile again at customers and whistle while we work.

Sounds good, doesn't it? And it can be. Outside consultancy may be just the ticket for what ails a business.

But boy, there can be pitfalls, pratfalls, downsides, frownsides and watchoutfors.

Take resentment. Employee eyebrows go up and stubbornness sets in when a hired gun hits the company street. Who is she to tell us how to solve our problems? Why does he get a hundred bucks an hour to hang around?

Mid-level managers in particular can be antsy, fearing that consultants will finger their shortcomings. Over defiant protests of "We can handle this ourselves," you'll always hear the knees knocking.

Another downside to using consultants is the tremendous low that often follows the rahrah high. Don Quixote storms through, enchants us for a while, whirls off, and here we still are, more depressed than when he arrived.

Sometimes consultants tell us what we knew all along and have been simply too petrified to act upon. Unless they also give us heavy doses of antipetrificants, we're no better off than before.

And a real biggie: Upper management and business owners may not want to hear what consultants have to say unless it confirms the party line, provides an additional ayeaye for the current policies and procedures. It's a shockeroo if the consultant speaks otherwise.

I worked for a business where Department A was in head-on, divisive competition with Department B. The boss heavily favored B but...