Your external consultant is a bottleneck. Don’t just escalate—integrate.
A few weeks ago, one of our most important projects hit a wall. The problem wasn’t technical debt or unclear specs. The problem was waiting—waiting on a consultant for answers, data, and decisions. We sent emails. We chased updates. Progress stalled.
So, I stopped treating the consultant like an outsider. I treated him like a team member. I gave him direct access to our Slack. I invited our CTO to the shared channel so nothing would get lost. We added him to our demo schedule.
The result surprised me. Suddenly, he understood our context. He saw blockers the moment they happened. We gave feedback straight away. Decisions flowed faster. Work moved again.
If you depend on an external partner, stop siloing them. Bring them inside your daily flow. Make them part of the team—at least for the duration of the project. You cut friction, raise transparency, and share real ownership. Your team moves faster. The consultant works smarter. Everybody wins.
I learned: don’t escalate dependencies—involve them. It’s the fastest way to unblock your team and ship real value.