* Listening (see HearWhatYouSay)
	* If what the client is doing isn't working, tell them to do something else (''anything'' else).

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Yes; very much so.  [...on the "Listening" point.]
Something I learned early on...

	* Come up with some excuse to talk to all the department heads in private.  (We used "document the information flow through the enterprise," and had a CASE tool to help do this.)

	* Ask each one of them "what should be changed in this organization?"  And other similar questions.

	* Summarize and present these ideas to top management.  Odds are, most of these ideas are new to them -- in spite of being top items for their immediate reports.

Our consulting engagements were a lot easier and more successful once we started doing this.


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See also the WikiPage ConsultantWisdom and GeraldWeinberg's book SecretsOfConsulting.