Ask Slashdot: How Do You To Tell Your Client That His "Expert" Is an Idiot?

Esther Schindler writes "It's a danger for any consultant, and for most inter-departmental internal project staff: To get the work done, you need to work with someone else who supplies expertise you lack. But when the 'expert' turns out to be the wrong person how do you tell the client (or boss) that you just can't work with that individual?"

Comments

Re:You Don't

[icebike]

. If they have an "idiot" as an "expert", this speaks a lot about them and they probably need your help quite a bit.

Seeds of wisdom right there.

They brought in a consultant. That consultant tends to have more believably right off the bat than the local staff.**
Chance are they already suspect or know he's an idiot, or the people he works with know this. If he could get it done
by himself they wouldn't have hire you.

Test the water, tell them this other guy or that other gal would be
a more appropriate assistant, and you don't need to tie up their *cough* expert.

If you get stuck with him anyway, Treat him like a gofer, find him some busy work out of the way.

Or just tell them he doesn't have the skillset needed.

**(This is almost a universal truth. You can quit your job, and come back as a consultant and the same management will fall all over itself doing what you recommend. You just have to give them long enough to forget you recommended the same damn thing as an employee).