I do a good bit of media training. For one federal contract, I have visited and spent a better part of the day with community-based organizations. I help them develop a communications strategy and then conduct media training. If I had a nickel for each time I heard, at the end of the day, “We were dreading this, but this was fun, just terrific” (or something like that), I’d have a lot of nickels. I like to think I’m pretty good. But I’m wondering if it’s more that most consultants just plain stink.

Perhaps it’s because when I visit, I listen. I never show up with a projector and PowerPoint. I don’t pass around handouts. I don’t stand up and give a lecture. That would be easy. I do something much harder. I lead a discussion. I listen. For a consultant, that’s risky. It means I never know where the conversation will go. It means I am never sure that I will have something to offer the group I am working with, never sure I will have the answers. It means I’m nervous starting every session.

But I guess it means I don’t stink.