Very interesting information from Nick Carr:

Pacific Gas & Electric Company last month began paying corporate customers to reduce the number of servers they run. The giant California utility, reports Larry Dignan, is giving companies cash rebates for using virtualization software to consolidate their applications onto fewer servers. The rebates typically amount to between $150 and $300 for each server removed and can add up to as much as $4 million per site. Speaking at a conference today, Diane Greene, president of VMware, the leading virtualization vendor, said that “several other power companies” are considering launching similar programs.

I think this is a great move and look forward to more companies thinking about the impact on the environment.

The latest issue of ChangeThis is available online. I encourage all readers who are interested in thinking — truly thinking — about their career and life to read ChangeThis.

I had the good fortune to have lunch with someone who reminded me of a very important element of consulting. Its all about change.

Many of the elements about a client situation are obvious when viewed with an outsider’s perspective. The outsider (consultant) is not burdened with internal politics, history, or other detritus.

When the outsider presents information to the client, it often involves change. For example, I may notice there’s a bottleneck in information flow. When I present this to the client, he/she may accept the information and agree. But, when it comes to making the change, the client may determine there bottleneck is not that important.

Whether the client takes action toward the problem or not, a seed has been planted. The client and/or the consultant can nurture or ignore it. If nurtured, the problem will be addressed. If ignored, change may never occur.

(As a consultant, it is inherent to help clients understand the impact of acting on a recommendation. Alternatively, if the client does not act, what will occur? Nothing, something significant? This is where consultants nurture seeds!)

What I remembered is this: sometimes it takes a while for a seed to pop out of the ground — nurtured or not.

Many consultants put our heart into our work and suffer a bit of sadness when a client does not immediately act on our recommendations.

Some type of clients are slow to react to our recommendations. This is often true when working with strategy-oriented, cash-rich, and/or bureaucratic clients.

A client who calls a consultant about strategic direction may be one of many called in for opinions. Clients, after the engagement, then process the information provided by the consultant(s).

Cash-rich clients may not see the need to move quickly on a recommendation. Things are good now. What if the recommended change caused us to risk our current cash position or cashflow?

Bureaucratic firms…well, you know people don’t like to change. Add layers of process and rules on top and you’ve got a tortoise.

When working with firms, I know I’ll remember the lesson.