The Power of Experts To Waste Time and Money

In projects there is usually an expert. It may be a consultant who has seen it all and done it all; an technical person who is a whizz on the latest technology, a technology manager who has read everything about the latest trends and keeps talking about 'the internet of things' or a 'service based economy' and occasionally  you will meet a user/customer experience person who has a box of tricks that they want to use regardless of whether they are appropriate or relevant. All are charming and all can be deadly when it comes to getting things done as they will not want to compromise the purity of their vision.

It's not that I'm against experts - use them properly and the project will sing and make quick progress. Get too many too soon and they will be writing reports and consultations and a large chunk of time and money will be used up with no evidence of a tangible project (see the HS2 project or the third runway at Heathrow).

You, the client may be persuaded but you must decide. You cannot outsource the decision making or the vision of the project as you will not be able to take it back easily.

The other thing about experts is that they cannot predict the future more accurately than anybody else. There are many studies in finance and politics where the results of experts have not beaten random luck or coin tossing by a significant amount. As Nils Bohr said "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."

What experts do have is an unjustified confidence about their predictions that a more cautious participant would not attach to their estimate. The architects and engineers of the last few financial disasters are people who have been recruited for their doctorate in physics or even a Nobel Prize in economics. Their uncrushable belief in their world models has resulted in some interesting studies in human behaviour (see Long Term Capital Management).

Use experts to get you to your goal but do not confuse their breezy confidence with their subject matter with their ability to deliver your vision. There are many projects that are stuck in quicksand because it has become obsessed with some principles that are not tailored for the client and the context. When you are trying to get things done within constraints then you need a combination of persistence, creativity and frugality to keep things moving.