Who Is Looking Out for Your Organization’s Interests?

Organizations often turn to consulting firms for help completing large-scale change initiatives, and most consulting teams include a project manager. As such, it can seem redundant for an organization to assign an internal project manager to a project in which most of the work will be done by consultants. Nonetheless, it is almost always a good idea to do so.

By Kevin Turgeon

6 May 2024

Successfully completing a large-scale organizational change initiative requires the work of numerous people with diverse and specialized skill sets. Many organizations do not have people on staff who have all of the required skills to successfully complete such initiatives, and organizations that do have such people on staff often need these people working on other things. One of the most common ways for organizations to acquire people with the skill sets required to successfully complete change initiatives is to contract with consulting companies.

Consulting companies often provide teams of people with specialized skills to organizations conducting complex change initiatives. Most consulting teams include a project manager who is responsible for ensuring the team completes their contracted work on timeline and budget. While this project manager is an employee of the consulting firm, they often work very closely with the leadership of the organization that hired the consulting team. In fact, it is not uncommon for this project manager to be the primary conduit for information between the consulting team and the leadership of the organization that hired them.

Since most consulting teams include a project manager, many leaders wonder whether or not it makes sense for them to also assign one of their own organization’s project managers to projects in which most of the work is being done by consultants. While it might seem redundant to do so, there are some very good reasons for leaders to assign internal project managers to such projects.

The first reason it makes sense to assign an internal project manager to a project in which consultants are doing most of the work is that doing so can significantly help the consulting team get their work done. A project manager who works for an organization is typically much more adept at facilitating work within the organization than an outside project manager. Internal project managers know who to go to within an organization to get things done, and they know how and when to escalate issues in order to keep them from becoming major risks. An external project manager typically does not have the organizational knowledge needed to move as quickly and adeptly through an organization as an internal project manager, and this can result in projects taking longer to complete and being more expensive than would be the case with an internal project manager assigned to the project.

Similarly, an internal project manager typically knows more about other initiatives that are going on in an organization than an external project manager. As a result, projects that have an internal project manager assigned to them are less likely to collide with other organizational initiatives than those projects that rely solely on an external project manager. Assigning an internal project manager to projects in which most of the work will be completed by consultants, therefore, not only increases the chances of success of the project the internal project manager is assigned to but also the chances of success of all the other projects the organization has underway.

Finally, internal project managers should be assigned to consulting projects to ensure the interests of the organization that hired the consulting team are always appropriately prioritized during the course of the project. While most project managers who work for consulting teams doing work for an organization sincerely want to meet the needs of their client, they are also intrinsically in a conflicted position. Project managers who work for consulting firms have to meet the needs of two masters – their consulting company and their client – and when it really comes down to it, their first priority is their own company. Assigning an internal project manager to consulting projects helps organizations ensure their best interests are prioritized in a project. While good internal project managers care about the needs of consulting teams working on their projects, their final allegiance is to the organization they work for, and this provides a valuable counter to the potentially conflicted position of a project manager who is employed by a consulting company doing work for an organization.

While it can seem redundant to assign an internal project manager to a project in which a consulting team is doing much of the work for an organization, there are several good reasons to do so. First, assigning an internal project manager to such projects can help these projects get done faster and less expensively. Second, it can help keep such projects from colliding with other initiatives the organization is working on. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it can ensure the best interests of the organization are prioritized throughout the project.