What I decline
5 kinds of work I turn down, with the reason.
01
Redundancy programmes
If the plan is already to cut people, you do not need an outsider to legitimise it. I will not be the reason it looked considered.
02
Anything where the answer is decided
Being hired to produce a report that agrees with a decision already made is a waste of your money and my week.
03
Software selection
Your process is broken and a system will encode the broken version. Fix the process, then buy something. I will not run a vendor bake-off.
04
Companies under about ten people
At that size the operation is a person, not a system, and my week costs more than the problem. Ring me in two years.
05
Board-level advisory work
Not what I do. I work where the work happens, which is usually two floors below where I would be invited.
If your problem is on this list, ask anyway.
Sometimes what looks like one of these is actually something else, and a five-minute call settles it. What will not happen is me taking the work and privately deciding it was fine.
Describe the problem