TABLE OF CONTENTS When the internal consultant's work is done The same should not be said for the work effort
It is true that a successful change initiative has no end. However, it is not true that the work of the internal consultants on that initiative must continue on forever. If this were the case, you would only get to work on one initiative for your entire career this makes no sense. Therefore, at some point in time, the internal consultants' work needs to be completed; they need to move on, leaving behind a viable product that will add value to the business over the long term.
Consider a reliability change initiative designed to institute preventive maintenance practices into a plant site. You and the team you are supporting developed a detailed scope and, with a great deal of effort, have deployed a very comprehensive and apparently successful preventive maintenance process. When you and the team review the new work processes in place at the plant, you can clearly see that everyone recognizes the value of the preventive maintenance initiative. They are actively practicing the processes that they were taught in training.
From these observations you, your team, and the client (the plant manager) determine that deployment was successfully completed. In fact, the plant manager, who is very pleased with the outcome of the work effort, takes you and the team out to a very expensive dinner. At this point, it is time for you to move on to your next...
