By Alexandra Piatkowski

Some people get frustrated with consulting because they’ve seen it focus on the wrong things and not make the desired impact. But here’s the reset:

Consulting isn’t supposed to be about echoing ideas. It doesn’t have to be about repeating the same playbook. It can be a real support system that helps teams grow, improve, and deliver more impact.

When it shifts from speaking for communities to building strength behind them, consulting becomes something much more useful.

At Piat Public Health, that balance drives how we work.

The real experts were always here

Community health work succeeds because of people who already know the place best:

residents who live the reality,
local healthcare teams who see the barriers,
public health teams who track the patterns,
and community groups who build and hold trust.

Consulting isn’t supposed to be about replacing that knowledge.

It’s supposed to be about helping those experts do more with what they already know.

And it doesn’t have to be about dropping big documents and leaving. It can mean staying long enough to build real capacity, shared systems, and new ways of working that actually help.

How consulting can have issues — if it forgets its place

It’s fair to say consulting can struggle when it:

moves too fast without listening;
repeats the same ideas everywhere;
or gives advice but doesn’t leave tools or methods for teams to use.

But again: that’s not what consulting has to be.

Our approach: listen deeply → add new ideas → build long-lasting capacity

Here’s how we work differently:

1. We listen first

We start by understanding:

What makes this community different?
Which challenges are shared, and which are unique?
Who is often left out of the conversation?
Who does the community already trust?
And what support do partners need to act on their own data and ideas?

This keeps solutions real and rooted — not recycled.

2. We introduce better ways of working — carefully

Communities don’t need flashy trends. They need practical upgrades.

So we introduce new ideas only when they:

make teamwork smoother across organizations and sectors;
save staff time;
deepen engagement without breaking trust;
or strengthen how coalitions make decisions together.

Think of it like: you’re leading the work, we’re making the path easier to walk, together.

3. We increase capacity, not dependency

That includes:

co-designing surveys, interviews, and focus groups with communities so the questions reflect their reality, not ours;
creating action plans that local teams can actually run, step by step, without needing ongoing outside support;
recruiting stakeholders through trusted relationships, not cold outreach or generic lists;
making every plan realistic and doable, grounded in local resources, timelines, and constraints;
building simple improvement check-ins and feedback loops into the process so partners can adjust, learn, and keep moving forward — without carrying the work on their own.

4. We amplify community ideas — without becoming the voice

We help turn local expertise into shared direction that the whole coalition understands, so ideas move across community lines with power and clarity.

5. We leave partners stronger

Not just informed — better equipped, better aligned, and ready to lead bigger work together.

The test we use to measure our impact

When our formal support ends, we don’t ask, “Did it sound impressive?”

We ask:

“Are they stronger than before? Can they do more with what we built together?”

If the answer is yes, consulting is not dead. It’s doing exactly what it should.

Why this balance matters

The best community health progress I’ve ever seen comes when:

people lead with lived experience;
partners work together on shared challenges;
and consulting sits behind the scenes to boost capacity, add new ideas with intention, and create systems teams can keep using long after the consulting contract is complete.

Because consulting shouldn’t be about optics or shortcuts. It should be about real, lasting support — strengthening communities by building on what they already know and adding expertise that expands what’s possible.

Ready for a fresh consulting approach? Book your FREE discovery call with us today.

Is consulting ‘dead’? Only if it never helped you build anything real.