Smoking Brisket and Leading Long Engagements: A Masterclass in Patience, Trust, and Timing

Great brisket and great consulting have more in common than you might think. No, it’s not about starting a fire at 5am or justifying a morning beer. It’s that each brisket—and each consulting engagement—is a unique and fulfilling journey that will inevitably throw curveballs your way.

Smoking a brisket can take anywhere from 10 to 20 hours at low temperatures and almost always hits a phenomenon called “The Stall.” This is when the brisket’s internal temperature plateaus, sometimes for several hours, due to moisture evaporating off the surface and creating a cooling effect.

If you’ve smoked a brisket, you know the moment. You’ve seasoned it, stabilized the temperature, and let time do its thing. Then… nothing. The temp flatlines. Hours pass. Guests are on their way. Panic creeps in. You start using every one of your overpriced thermometers and don’t trust any of them. You explain to your spouse why you need yet another gadget. You open the lid 30 times, willing the stall to pass.

The stall—it breaks pitmasters and project leads alike.

I’ve seen the same moment unfold in long-running client engagements. Momentum fades. Stakeholder attention wanes. Progress feels invisible. Teams get restless. Clients get nervous. Leaders start second-guessing everything.

You may even hear, “Maybe we need to buy yet another software platform” (Yes, I do need 20 thermometers).

So what separates the pitmaster from the backyard griller—and the seasoned consultant from the one who panics and unintentionally derails the project?

Let’s break it down.

It’s the Simple Things

Great brisket starts with simple, fantastic ingredients. It’s just meat, salt, pepper (yes, I will die on this hill), smoke, and time. Small variations in any of these can compound over hours.

Consulting is the same. You need:

• A well-configured team with clear norms and expectations
  • Is this a high-moisture Wagyu brisket or a leaner choice cut?
  • How will the shape and thickness interact with the environment over time?
• Clear goals, requirements, and success criteria
  • Are you cooking for friends or Texas BBQ judges?
  • What time should it be ready?
  • What should it look and feel like before you pull it from the smoker?
• A steady, consistent process and tools you trust
  • If you trust your thermometers and fire, you can make smart decisions.
  • You need Plans A, B, and C if the cook is too fast, too slow, or goes sideways.

These aren’t new ideas. In fact, they’ve become clichés. Of course we need a good team, clear goals, and a repeatable process.

But in the stall? That’s when they’re forgotten. That’s when doubt creeps in and complexity multiplies. We’re human, after all.

Smoke Clean and Steady

At Intevity, we talk a lot about setting teams up for success, using common language, and leading with a “Human First” mindset. The stall doesn’t introduce new problems—it just amplifies existing ones. That’s why the setup matters so much.

When the stall hits—and it always does—here’s what separates calm confidence from chaos:

• Did you align on success criteria early?
  • Some swear by pulling the brisket at 203°F. But temperature alone isn’t enough—it has to feel It has to jiggle.
  • In consulting: Have you aligned on what success looks and feels like? Has the team experienced it firsthand?
• Does the team trust the tools and each other enough to stay the course?
  • Calibrate thermometers in front of everyone.
  • Run smaller, lower-stakes “cooks” before the big ones.
  • Don’t just have contingency plans—make sure people know them, and they’re ready to use them.
• Have you created a culture of progress and nimbleness?
  • You can’t start the brisket over.
  • It might not be perfect—but it can still be great.
  • Build in forks in the road:
    • After 6 hours, if there’s enough bark and smoke, finish it in the oven.
    • Too slow? Raise the heat or wrap in butcher paper or foil.
    • Too fast? Lower the heat or rest in a cooler.
    • Too dry? Make chili.

That’s the difference between controlled patience and frantic scrambling.

Read the Brisket, Not Just the Thermometer

Clear success criteria and measurement tools are important—but they’re not everything, sometimes it’s an intangible feel.

There’s a spidey-sense that comes with experience, and it applies to consulting just like it does to brisket.

We’ve seen it in projects over and over:

• You can smell when a team isn’t fully formed—just like you can smell dirty smoke.
• You can see when success criteria are wrong—like when someone probes the meat in the wrong location with the thermometer
• You can tell when someone is confident with their spreadsheet or code—like someone picking up their tongs and clicking them 2 times

And you can sense when a deliverable graduates from good to great—not just by the numbers, but by instinct. By knowing that a brisket isn’t automatically great at 203F, it has to look and feel a certain way.

That’s why shadowing, modeling, and using fractional expertise matters so much.

Back in the day, pitmasters and consultants guarded their secrets. But those days are fading. A recipe alone won’t get you there unless you have:

• The right ingredients
• The right mindset
• The right discipline and culture

The Stall Isn’t the Problem—It’s the Test

Just like brisket, long-term consulting isn’t about brute force. It’s about:

• Setting up right
• Staying calm when things get quiet
• Knowing when to flex, pivot, or wrap it and let it rest

It’s also about trusting your people and letting the process work—even when it feels like nothing is happening.

When you get this right, you don’t just “finish the brisket.” You create something memorable. Something worthy of another invite, another engagement, another seat at the table.