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Take A New Look At Insight: Think like a..... Chef

This 'take a new look series' investigates how other professions can teach us some valuable lessons. This month, we take a look at chefs.

Being part of an Insight team has some great similarities with being a chef. Insight personnel piece together many different types of information to build pictures. They then have to make them interesting and informative so that colleagues will actually act upon the information. In the same way, chefs bring together loads of ingredients to create great dishes that people will hopefully want to eat and ideally will remember.

 
The ingredients of success
 
So what can we learn from a chef? With any good dish, there are four keys to success:
  • Sourcing the best ingredients
  • Great preparation
  • Keeping it simple, so that the flavours shine through
  • Perfect seasoning – with just a bit of spice when needed!
The ingredients part is the most obvious. Clearly in insight, if your data sources are flaky, the final result will also be flaky! The same applies to the ingredients sourced by a chef.
 
Be prepared…
 
Probably the biggest lesson we can learn involves the preparation element. When you go into a restaurant and order roast pork, beef Wellington or fish stew, how are they able to serve it in 20 minutes when these dishes often need an hour or more to cook - let alone prepare?
 
The answer, of course, is that chefs plan their menu and then spend considerable time pre-preparing as much of the meal as possible so that the final article comes together very quickly. In the same way, Insight personnel are often suddenly faced with a large problem that’s just hit the business and the Chief Executive might say: “Give me a full briefing on XXX!”.
 
If you consciously spend time piecing the information together as it arrives – resolving inconsistencies, maintaining ‘fact packs’ on each aspect of the business etc. – it will make it much easier for you to build a briefing on whatever issue arises.
 
Sweet and simple
 
The third lesson we can learn is to avoid over-complicating issues. One of the most common mistakes made by contestants on Masterchef is that they try TOO hard - and create dishes with just too many flavours, which compete against each other and therefore don’t quite work.
 
So, be selective about the information you present. Yes, look at everything - but don’t present everything. If 20% of your information conveys 80% of your message, then concentrate on that part, as it makes it more likely that people will take it in and understand it.
 
The spice of life
 
Finally, everyone knows that seasoning can make or break a dish. And sometimes the right spice is the element that makes someone say: “Wow!” The same principle applies in insight. A lot of our data is necessary, but it isn’t necessarily exciting! So just stand back and ask two questions:
  • “Does this give the overall flavour of what I want to present?” A little emphasis here and there on a few key points will often do the trick.
  • “Is there anything in here that will give it a little extra zing?” Sometimes, something like a short video of a customer or a clip off YouTube can transform a presentation from just being professional to being truly memorable.
So – get cooking!
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