The Power of "WE"

As a Techni-HO it is important that after you have established the business relationship or John-to-ho that you quickly drop the mercenary image. Nothing will hamper your efforts as a consultant faster and more persistently than the realization that you are a "blood-sucking leech, making a living off the inefficiency of your host company" (which face it, YOU ARE). However, they don't need to know that.

For this it is important to adopt the method of WE-ism. In We-ism you will no longer refer to your host company, john, or client as "YOU". Nothing is more off-putting to the client than being told by some outsider that "YOU must do" or "What YOU need". It reinforces the fact that in the Win-Win contract your win is to get paid for the consulting gig, and not necessarily upon the success of the client. You are not in it together, you have "no skin in the game". This is a losing proposition.

What "WE" want to instill in our "customers", or "hosts", or "tricks" is confidence that their success is our success. That we have a stake in their ultimate success, and that we are in the same boat. That will never happen as long as you continually refer to them as "You" and yourself or your team separately.

Instead you will now say consistently "WE". Repeat after me: "We will implement a cross functional team structure," or "We will act quickly to find the root cause of the analysis," or "We will apply diligent data collect to identify ....". Getting the company logo tattooed on "OUR" buttocks might be going a little over the top, but not altogether off the mark for commitment that "WE" should make to "OUR" success.

The power of the "WE" must be part of "OUR" daily life.