[adrianhoward]

Your paycheck is, occasionally, a burnt-offering to the gods of Trusted Third Party Opinion, just like it is sometimes a magical talisman against Blowback If This Goes Sour.

Worth it for that line alone. There's a special art in being the one who gets the idea through purely because you're a third party and not the internal person/team. Some of my happiest gigs are when I've ended up getting paid to teach management to listen to the team and implement their suggestions. Everybody wins ;-)