When you hire outside consultants, you have a portrait in your mind of what it will be like to work with them and what results you would like them to generate for you. Like other meaningful relationships in life, client relationships may be two-way streets, but they’re also unequal in a critical way.
Here’s the inequality. It’s not your job to understand consultants. It’s their job to understand you. To a great extent, that also applies to your relationships with the lawyers in your firm, who are your internal clients. This awareness of all clients is one of the most important skills a communications practitioner can develop. It defines that elusive and misused concept called "partnering."
