PODCAST · business
Consultants Saying Things
by Chris Lockhart
We saw the need for some direct talk about some of the topics we’re encountering in daily work as business and technology practitioners. This is everything you wanted to know... the REAL deal... about consulting. We talk about the stuff that our clients care about and that consultants everywhere deal with every day.This podcast is about business, people, technology and the intersection of the three.Check out the website or Youtube channel for more stuff.
Episodes
-
The One About Business Architecture: Where Do We Go?
Business architecture stands at a critical crossroads as AI-driven disruption and accelerating change challenge traditional practices. In this live recording from the Twin Cities Business Architecture Forum, four industry veterans debate whether the profession is properly equipped for the future,...
-
Episode 83: The 2025 Christmas Special
Happy Christmas! The Consulting model is totally collapsing! Well, perhaps it is just the traditional consulting pyramid business model that is being disrupted. Check out this episode for 5 things you need to know about it... We Discuss: Can AI do all the consulting work, making consultants...
-
The One About AI Coming for Advisory Consulting Jobs
With AI, the consulting industry faces an existential crisis beyond technical roles. Traditional strategy and advisory work is now threatened. Check out this episode for 5 takeaways to help you navigate this change... We Discuss: What are consulting firms actually selling in the age of AI? Is...
-
The One About Selling Architecture Consulting
It's hard to sell 'architecture' consulting gigs since people frequently don't know what it means or what they're gonna get for their money. Check out this episode for 5 takeaways to help you get better at selling architecture... This is our first ever LIVE podcast recording at the BCS Enterprise...
-
The One About Why Whynde and Chris Got Into Consulting
Two seasoned consultants sharing their unexpected journeys into consulting and what has kept them engaged in the field throughout their careers. Here are 4 things you should learn about getting into consulting... We Discuss: Why did they go into consulting? Why stay in consulting throughout a...
-
The One About Enterprise Architect Skills for the Future
Enterprise Architects are just really good technologists and all they really need to know is the latest thing about AI or Agents or Gonkulators or Flux Capacitors. 🤖 🛸 🤓 Yeah. Right. Whynde Kuehn and I recently attended the Next Generation SAP Enterprise Architecture Learning Forum at SAP HQ…
more -
The One About Building a Career Narrative
Is it difficult to find work these days if you've spent your consulting career as a generalist? What is the real value of broad experience in today's market and is it actually an advantage rather than a limitation? There are 6 things you need to know... We Discuss: Is being a "jack of all trades,...
-
The 2024 Christmas Special
It's that time of year. Overeating. Overthinking. Overimbibing. But full of festive spirit and reflection. What are YOU reflecting on this last week of 2024? On this show we have a tradition of recording an end-of-year discussion. This year we share our most profound learnings from 2024... But it...
-
The One About Winning New Business
There's a train of thought that says all consultants are in sales. Maybe. But there is definitely a change in bizdev as you progress from Analyst to Partner. Making the transition from a delivery-focused consulting role to one that requires business development can feel like stepping into an...
-
The One About Existential Angst
Management consultants often grapple with the challenge of articulating what they do while simultaneously questioning if what they do truly matters. Watch this episode for 6 takeaways you need to know about meaning and purpose in consulting. We Discuss: What do consultants even do? Why do people...
-
The One About Finding and Landing Clients
Finding and landing clients can be a daunting challenge for even the most seasoned professionals. Consultants want genuine opportunities to help solve problems and make a meaningful impact. There are 6 takeaways you need to know for transforming the sales process. We Discuss: How do you ask for...
-
The One About Asking Good Questions
In the fast-paced world of consulting, the ability to ask insightful questions can be the key differentiator between average and exceptional performance. Here are 7 things you need to know about the art and science of effective questioning to generate superior outcomes. We Discuss: How can...
-
The One About Strategic Foresight 2035
The consulting industry stands at the cusp of a profound transformation, driven by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and changing business landscapes. Here are 5 things consultants need to know about adapting and thriving in the future of 2035. We Discuss: How will the role of...
-
The One About The Buggy Whip Moment
The rise of AI in consulting is akin to the demise of the buggy whip industry in the early 20th century. Just as the automobile rendered buggy whips obsolete, AI and large language models threaten to automate many tasks traditionally performed by consultants. Here are 7 things you need to know...
-
The One About Deliberate Career Planning
For ambitious consultants aiming to establish themselves as thought leaders and advance to senior decision-making roles, deliberate career planning is important. Here are 5 tips for actively managing your consulting career. We're joined by Patrick Milholland who in his career has served in every...
-
The One About Unlearning
We spend our lives gaining knowledge of the world around us. Unlearning things, making room for new knowledge or corrected or updated knowledge, is a skill we aren’t usually taught and don’t often practice. Here are 8 important things to know about Unlearning. We're joined for this discussion by...
-
The 2023 Christmas Special
With focus on people, practical tips, managing uncertainty, anticipating trends, and weighing digital impacts - our annual Christmas Special is chock-full of useful and relevant stuff for consultants. We Discuss: First appearances on the podcast by each of the cast and current reflections on what...
-
The One About Community
The digital age has offered countless opportunities for connection, but the depth and authenticity of these connections often fall short. Check out these 5 strategies for growing professional communities. We Discuss: Why do these communities matter? What problem are they solving? What are some...
-
Episode 66: The One About Disillusionment
Consulting is known for long work hours, lack of work-life balance, tedious work, and sometimes lack of meaning. Here are the 5 things you should know about consulting and disillusionment. In this episode we discuss: What causes consultants to become disengaged or lose passion for their work over...
-
Episode 65: The One About Corporate IT
The Corporate IT group is sometimes viewed as a black hole consuming resources and getting in the way of getting business done. Almost like some don't know what Corporate IT does... Some in the enterprise don’t really know how to engage with and leverage technology to deliver value. If it is hard...
-
Episode 64: The One About Workshop Must-Haves
Consultants are required to have multiple sets of skills. One of those involves bringing people together in workshops to address problems or work out complex tasks. Many consultants are terrible at it... In a recent thread in Reddit's r/consulting community, a junior consultant posted that they...
-
Episode 63: The One About Driving Real World Outcomes
Clients don't hire consultants to learn about our unique frameworks or totally novel perspectives or listen to our thought projects on topics like AI, data strategy or new product development. They hire us to help drive outcomes. Sometimes these are outcomes that the client has already defined,...
-
Episode 62: The One About Work/Life Coherence
Vacation is a great time to contemplate life, work, and life and work. The two can frequently be at odds for most people. When we can relax our brains for minute, there's an opportunity to check-in and assess whether the work that we do and the life that we lead support one another. We hear all...
-
Episode 61: The One About AI in Consulting
AI is taking over the world. It is suddenly and urgently intruding into everything. It can think better than you, faster than you, treats your kids better and is taking your job. What is a consultant to do? Personally I've been giving everything AI-related a generous dose of side-eye. I see...
-
Episode 60: The One About Ego
Which is worst? Too much ego in the workplace, not ENOUGH ego in the workplace, an inability to read the room and tune to the right level of ego needed for the moment? The answer is Yes. Ego can lead to self-deception and self-sabotage. Where humility is required, we often find exactly the...
-
Episode 59: The One About Respect & Retention
Company culture is important, but not as important as profitability. Layoffs are necessary. Business is business... But you don't have to treat your people like garbage. They're your most valuable asset after all. There are a number of examples we’ve seen over the past few years of company…
more -
Episode 58: The One About Using LinkedIn for Success
There appear to be economic headwinds as we move into 2023. Tools like LinkedIn can be one of the most powerful weapons in your branding, sales, or employment arsenal. That is, if you know how to use it effectively... In a recent discussion on using Social Media on the podcast, we acknowledged…
more -
Episode 57: The 2022 Christmas Special
With the year ending, and folks in various stages of vacation and merrymaking, the Consultants Saying Things team wanted to get together for our annual Christmas Special. This year we issue awards in various categories (e.g. Best LinkedIn Appearance by a Member of the Cast), talk about…
more -
Episode 56: The One About Social Media
Social media is a wonderful, terrible thing. It is a cosmos of tools that allow us to be our best or, perhaps more often, our worst. If we're a knucklehead in real life, Facebook can make us a louder knucklehead... For consulting professionals, the use of social media is typically career related…
more -
Episode 55: The One About Public Speaking
According to various polls, public speaking ranks as peoples' top fear... ahead of snakes, heights, clowns and, in fact, death itself. Let that sink in. People would rather be DEAD than speak in front of a group of other humans. So, first... why? And second, what can be done about it? Naturally…
more -
Episode 54: The One About The Book: Strategy to Reality
The knock on consulting is that so much of what goes on is either a bunch of fluff and hand-waving at a stratospheric, impractical level or narrowly focused on mostly useless technical gee-wizardry with little connection to actual business need. How do you connect strategy to reality? Luckily...
-
Episode 53: The One About Mental Resiliency (With Experts)
Being mentally resilient in the face of everything the world throws at us can be daunting. Whether it's work, family, friends, international politics... there's a lot of stress on us every day. How is a person supposed to deal? (Psst: I have the answer...). Okay. I personally don't have the…
more -
Episode 52: The One About Mental Resiliency
Work can be hard. It can be stressful. Consulting in particular is full of A-Types who work long, busy hours trying to help in often frustrating client situations. What if you break? Each person's ability to handle things is different, with some having deeper mental capacity buckets than others.…
more -
Episode 51: The One About Architecture and Consulting
What is an architect? What is architecture? In the business technology context, is architecture a profession? What do architects do? A quick Google search reveals an endless debate on these topics that's been raging for several decades. Let's add more fuel to that fire and stir that pot... This...
-
Episode 50: The One About The Top 5 Special
Four years ago a friend told me that since I had so much to say about business and technology topics that I should go make a podcast. In retrospect I think he just wanted me to quit bothering him. Joke's on him. I had him join the cast. 50 Episodes later, we've talked to dozens of people on many...
-
Episode 49: The One About Consulting Myths & Memes
The work environment can be tough. It is often political and tiresome and exhausting. The work week can be a tough slog. However... the workplace can often be very funny. Or at least, worthy of mockery and parody. We set about trying to lighten the mood by taking a look at various tropes and…
more -
Episode 48: The One About Assessing Consulting Skills
In the battle for talent, how do you identify people who are likely to exhibit the qualities you want? How do you do the same with your existing employees? Assessments? Reviews? Rorschach Tests? Many of us have been part of organizations that sought to understand the strengths and weaknesses of...
-
Episode 47: The One About Storytelling
We all know smart people. They often have smart plans and smart designs. Sometimes fancy shoes. But the smartest plan or design is totally useless if it can't be explained to another human being. As humans, how do we share information in ways that convey our ideas, thoughts, intents, moods,...
-
Episode 46: The One About Business Architecture
There is often a tendency for companies to prioritize action and delivery over planning and analysis. More "Deliver the widgets!" and less "What does our company actually do?" This can be seen in places where decision making is driven by technology and timelines instead of desired business...
-
Episode 45: The 2021 Christmas Special
Well. 2021 is finally over. Did you learn anything? Will you do anything different with your career in 2022? If not now, then when? For our annual Christmas Special, we wanted to chat about careers in consulting. Not just for folks thinking of maybe entering the field, but also for those who are…
more -
Episode 44: The One About Ethics in Consulting
In our connected world of technology, the ways in which we engage with businesses and clients can have a big impact. And as we've seen with the ways in which our public and private data is used by companies like Meta, not all impacts are positive. Some are downright manipulative. How does a…
more -
Episode 43: The One About Sustainability
Consultants often help clients think about complex problems with few easy answers. There are almost always trade-offs to be made, regulations to follow, expenses to incur all while trying to run a business and make a profit. One of the most complex issues involving tough decisions is around how...
-
Episode 42: The One About The Future of Consulting
If I were to only read my LinkedIn feed, I'd think every industry is being disrupted all the time, every day... Certainly a search for "future of consulting" yields plenty of opinion along with thought pieces about new business models and such. Many of these results are a bit frenzied, foreboding...
-
Episode 41: The One About Job Cycles
Is it The Great Rebalance? The Great Reshuffle? The Great Resignation? The Great Discontent? To read about it, companies are really struggling to find workers these days. Clearly there aren't enough people that want to work. We think that's just a load of codswallop. There was a recent LinkedIn...
-
Episode 40: The One About Entrepreneurship
The model entrepreneur gets up one morning with a great idea, quits their job and boldly strikes out on their own... single-handedly building a great company from nothing, attracting flocks of clients, finding happiness and peace of mind and easily striking it rich. Modern-day gold rush. Except...
-
Episode 39: The One About Young Consultants
Consulting may be an old profession (the second oldest?) but no one can argue that it hasn't undergone tremendous change over the past 20 years. It makes sense, after all. Consulting reflects the business technology challenges and opportunities that clients are experiencing. And there's been...
-
Episode 38: The One About Mentorship
I used to think that if I could just clone myself a few times I might have the most perfect team and we'd produce the most perfect slides... Aside from that likely being a disaster, I used to think that's how mentorship worked. I mentor or coach someone to do things in the method of whatever firm...
-
Episode 37: The One About Return to Office
Well it looks like things are getting back to normal. Everyone should just go back to doing things like they did prior to Covid. All will be as it was… Or not. As the case may be. Have you heard the predictions for an imminent return to normalcy? Are you excited by the prospect of everyone…
more -
Episode 36: The 2020 Christmas Special!
Welp. Glad this year's over. Perfect time to pour a drink, to be honest. It's also a perfect time for the third annual Christmas episode of the Consultants Saying Things podcast! It's great filler for that hole in spacetime between Christmas and New Year's. Join the full crew of Consultants…
more -
Episode 35: The One About Recruiting
It's been a rough year. Companies have downsized and a maybe you've lost your job. You've sent out dozens or hundreds of resumes, worked your network. What now? Consultants are maybe more used to searching for the next gig, but even for them, times are tough. And for the companies that panicked...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
TOPICS IN THIS SHOW
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
We saw the need for some direct talk about some of the topics we’re encountering in daily work as business and technology practitioners. This is everything you wanted to know... the REAL deal... about consulting. We talk about the stuff that our clients care about and that consultants everywhere deal with every day.This podcast is about business, people, technology and the intersection of the three.Check out the website or Youtube channel for more stuff.
HOSTED BY
Chris Lockhart
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Consultants Saying Things have?
Consultants Saying Things currently has 84 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Consultants Saying Things about?
We saw the need for some direct talk about some of the topics we’re encountering in daily work as business and technology practitioners. This is everything you wanted to know... the REAL deal... about consulting. We talk about the stuff that our clients care about and that consultants everywhere...
How often does Consultants Saying Things release new episodes?
Consultants Saying Things has 84 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Consultants Saying Things?
You can listen to Consultants Saying Things on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Consultants Saying Things?
Consultants Saying Things is created and hosted by Chris Lockhart.
URL copied to clipboard!