The economy and tribal mentality

Clients, whether they are aware of it or not, create all kinds of avenues for going native- and in fact encourage it. Although I will concede it is mostly in the middle of the organization.

Things like contract to hire, expecting industry experience for work that is universal, using third parties to acquire consultants and assigning change to a report (usually a Director) all guide the consultant into a native role.

Based on these assumptions (I admit they are assumptions) and considering the paring down of resources that has taken place in the last two years, tribal culture, or whatever you want to call the going to area for “native”, has weakened. From the client perspective the fix is to fill it back in.

Weakening the native aspect is often the key to getting to root causes rather than addressing symptoms. I see this environment as an excellent opportunity to build rather than re-build. But that could be because I like to attend tribal events as a guest…

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