I found that's not so straightforward for consultants like me, because the manager that brings you in is embedded in the "layers," directly in the information path. People-skills were not my forté.
We got lucky. I got hired into a project that started out in research which had/has a very loose management. It's the only part of the org structure where shit flows uphill. That gave us quite a bit of leeway in terms of establishing a cross cutting team. We've since been transferred but so fair the culture seems to be holding.
