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Article in Economist 17th March 2008
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Take me to your Leader!
Leadership principles for Insight teams
Meet the Team Member - Party Animal Pete
Very outgoing expresser
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War-Gaming, Scenario Planning and Workshops
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'No' Can Be a Very Positive Word
Be proactive, not reactive
Insight teams are usually committed to giving good service to their internal clients. However, many end up on a treadmill of reacting to demands that become ever more frequent and more urgent. You are always delivering, but you never have time to stop and think and plan. You probably take on too many projects, some of which are very worthwhile but others of which add little real value.
Learn to say ‘No’
So, how can you break this vicious cycle? You need to be in control – and this sometimes involves saying ‘No’. Firstly, you need to stop and make the decision to become a proactive team. This means developing a plan, which means that a member of your team will need to set aside some specific thinking time, away from day-to-day demands.
Learn to plan
The planning will involve:
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Making a rough assessment of the potential value of each requested project
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Prioritising the most important items and making sure that they are carried out effectively: this will help to raise your profile. Prioritise ad hoc requests by asking:
o Why do you need this information?
o What decision(s) will it direct or support?
o What decision would you make without doing the research/ analysis?
o What’s the risk of doing that?
o What’s the business impact of those decisions (£1,000s, £10,000s, £100,000s or
£ millions)? -
Learning to say ‘No’ to the least valuable requests. Take a risk that internal clients may go off and commission bad research. Don’t waste time repeating similar projects.
If you would like to explore ways of enhancing your insight management and its impact within your company, join our special course:
Insight Management: from vision to reality – This course aims to help you to plan your journey from research and analysis into insight. It is designed for managers who want to improve their insight management and increase its impact within their organisation.
Please click here for further information.
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