Consultants Today: Beyond Capacity Building to Strategic Specialization
There was a time when the working assumption in consulting was straightforward:
Bring us in, build something, train your team, and then we step out.
But the world we work in now is different. Organizations operate in environments where challenges are:
Rapidly shifting
Technically complex
Resource constrained
Multi-system in nature
So the model of consulting has evolved — and so has Pathfinder Collective’s approach.
Today, consultants don’t just build capacity that internal teams eventually take over. They also provide specialized, high-impact services that many organizations never need to replicate internally.
These aren’t gaps you fill forever — they’re gaps you solve strategically.
The Old Model: Fill a Gap, Transfer the Skill
In the traditional model, consultants help organizations:
Build new systems
Create internal workflows
Train staff to take ownership
Leave once internal capacity is established
This still works — and we still do it — when organizations benefit from internal ownership of a skill or function.
The New Model: Strategic Specialization and Sustainable Outsourcing
But not all necessary functions are ones you should—or realistically could—build in-house.
Some bring value only when they remain external:
High-level standardized trainings
Sector-wide workforce readiness programs
Deep compliance or subject-matter updates
Specialized facilitation that crosses systems or sectors
Take Homeless Solutions Consultants’ Workforce Readiness Training as an example.
Designed for all 8 of Oregon’s homeless response systems, this training:
Brings frontline experience and trauma-informed skills into staff from day one
Creates shared baseline knowledge and language across agencies
Supports hiring and retention directly
Preserves organizational knowledge even as staff turn over
Works at scale across rural, distributed systems
Is built and delivered outside internal teams, not meant to be fully internalized later
This kind of work isn’t a function most organizations should replicate internally. It lifts performance, improves outcomes, and strengthens systems — without requiring every organization to build its own training department.
And that’s the point.
Capacity Isn’t Only Internal — It’s Strategic
Consultants are still capacity builders — but not all capacity belongs inside your org chart.
Instead, consultants can provide:
Standardized workforce training that builds strength across roles and systems
Sector-level expertise that evolves faster than internal staff can onboard it
Cross-organizational alignment where collaboration matters
Technical support for specialized challenges that occur intermittently
For many organizations, owning every function internally isn’t efficient — or necessary — to be excellent.
How Pathfinder Approaches Consulting Today
At Pathfinder, we work across both models:
When capacity should live inside your organization
We help build it — with documentation, training, and durable systems.
When a function is better served by a specialized external partner
We help you access that expertise — while making sure it aligns with your mission and strengthens your team.
What doesn’t change is our north star:
We focus on outcomes — not hours — and on strengthening systems — not dependencies.
Successful consulting shouldn’t be about prolonged engagement.
It should be about strategic impact — whether that impact becomes internalized or remains best served as a specialized collaboration.
By Matthew Vorderstrasse, M.A., PHM.