Why I Love My Security Badge Collection

I recently opened an envelope containing a new security badge issued by my client’s organization, a federal agency. The badge came with activation instructions and a long policy regarding my obligations should the badge be lost or stolen. While some might look upon badges as emblems of bureaucratic control, I treasure them. To me, my security badges signify a higher level of trust and partnership with my client.

As consultants, the trust of a client is what we really must value the most. Today’s news suggests that trustworthiness in the consulting industry is in short supply, making the value of trust that much greater. Of course, we strive to earn profitable fees and to receive positive references for future commissions. However, none of this is possible without first building a trusting relationship. I am an architect, so I routinely help my clients make decisions that commit large capital budgets. Through my firm’s advice and strategy, my clients proceed to knock down buildings, construct new ones, and affect their organizations for decades to come. When my client looks me in the eye, he or she had better have trust and confidence in the decisions they are about to make.

Nearly 20 years ago, authors David H. Maister, Charles H. Green and Robert M. Galford published The Trusted Advisor, still the most potent manifesto about building consulting relationships. The authors understand trust as something that happens fundamentally between individuals:

“The truth is, “institutional trust” is an oxymoron. We don’t trust institutions, we don’t trust processes, we trust people.”

My security badge is issued to me personally, signifying that trust and branding me as a member of the tribe. I am literally a card-carrying member of the client organization. I have keys to the kingdom.

In the case of one client relationship, my badge not only granted access to the headquarters facility, but also allowed me to register and escort guests. Within the facility, my access to areas of the building was wide-ranging (although not universal). It gave me the convenience to take myself up to the conference room, and also (should I dare) to wander into parts of the building in which I had no business.

As Maister, Green, and Galford acknowledge, “The potential of trust violation is always there in a trusting relationship. The choice on the part of the advisor not to violate that trust is what makes the relationship special.” This is indeed true. In the course of a complex architectural project, I make broad connections within the client organization and have access to critical information about the business. Safeguarding that information and following the communication protocols are ways that I continue to earn trust and instill the confidence that is needed for each project to thrive.

In large and complex commissions, many individuals in my firm may be issued security badges. This serves to deepen the relationship between my organization and that of the client. Increasingly, the boundary between the organizations is blurred and we become an integrated group working towards a common set of objectives. I aspire to reach this level in the relationship. Ross Dawson, the author of Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, identifies an “integration model” of client relationships, in which the consultant team becomes almost unrecognizable from the client team, so shared are their goals and values.

So I never look upon my security badges as a bureaucratic nuisance. They are membership cards—earned through service and commitment and symbolic of a trust relationship. I only wish that I had at least one headshot photo that I could be proud of!