If you really want to know what’s going on in your company, or if you want to increase your profile and/or your influence, try a largely forgotten but very useful strategy - management by walking about (MBWA). This can be useful for finding out more about both your own team and your key stakeholders, and what’s going in the company.

It’s easy and it won’t cost you anything apart from a little time – but it could turn out to be a very useful investment. Here are just three quick ideas:

• Go and see someone rather than email them
• Take a different route to the car park, the canteen or the loo.
• Use a different coffee machine or water cooler.

You will see and hear what’s going on and catch a few more informal conversations. It may sound too easy to be true – but why not try it out today? 

For one or two more tips on how you can ‘walk the talk’, please click here.

A STRATEGICALLY TACTICAL BUDGET ...... 

Handling budget cuts can be difficult, and can also give rise to battles. But how can you be sure that you can keep a budget for the most valuable work? One answer is to separate out different types of work into tactical and strategic:

• Tactical work – this may be of lower value but is easier to identify
• Strategic work – this tends to be more ‘hit and miss’, but can potentially make a huge difference to a company

When budget cuts are needed, the tactical work is often the last to be cut (because it is easy to evaluate), at the expense of strategic work. However, by simply splitting your budget into the two different areas, any cuts are more likely to be proportionate in both. Having strategic work as a separate line will force you to think very carefully before cutting it – because its potential overall value is so high.

For more information, please click here.

AMENABLE AMY

This is the latest in a set of 'pen portraits' of different types of internal clients, and the issues you may need to address when working with them.

Amenable Amy

Amy is a Marketing Executive in the brand team. She’s a very sweet, likeable and positive person, but she always tries to avoid conflict and doesn’t like saying anything remotely critical. This means that she won’t say when something is wrong, even when she really should say something. This can cause several problems:

• She would rather accept something sub-standard than risk upsetting someone.
• She avoids questioning the needs of her superiors when they ask her to do something that she’s not sure about – which can lead to poor briefs.
• Other members of the team may get things wrong without even realising, because she doesn’t correct them.

You can help Amy to be more objective by asking her to give factual ratings rather than judgmental opinions. If her briefs are unclear, get clarification from the key people involved – but do this with Amy. When presenting results or ideas, ask for her thoughts if you want to reinforce the positive aspect of any part of the work where you feel you need some extra support.  

To learn more about how to handle Amy’s sweet but soft nature, click here.

Next edition - meet Green Gordon ...  

DEVELOPING SKILLS

If you don’t use Mind Maps®, you’re missing a trick. They provide a great way of capturing and recalling thoughts and ideas, and they harness the power of both sides of the brain – the logical side and the creative side.

Tap into maps
Tony Buzan developed the concept of mind mapping to help people to learn and brainstorm more effectively. Over the years, he was written numerous successful books on the topic, including “The Mind Map Book”, “The Ultimate Book of Mind Maps”, and “Mind Maps at Work”.

Mind Maps are a visual alternative to writing notes and lists, which can restrict creativity. Buzan claims that mind mapping taps into the power of the unused parts of the brain.

Ultimately, Mind Maps help you to organise and clarify ideas, solve problems, plan and communicate. For a more detailed explanation, please click here.

A BRIEF RUNDOWN

The project debrief is a crucial part of an Insight team’s activities and is probably the most public part of the team’s role. If it’s run well, everyone wins, but it can often go wrong due to poor management, insufficient time and planning, reliance on false assumptions or a failure to manage expectations.

There are three key ways in which you can help to make sure that your debrief is a success rather than a disaster:

• Managing the internal client – Ensure that the brief and the objectives are clear from the start, and that your clients don’t move the goalposts.
• Managing the supplier/agency – Be prepared: brief the agency on the background, the project, and the internal clients. Specify all your needs beforehand, including the type of outputs and the presentation material needed.
• Managing the internal event – Ensure that a suitable room is available, as well as all the equipment you will need. Invite the key people in good time. Ask the speakers to be there well before the start.

For a closer look at the actions you can take, please click here.

TIP OF THE MONTH

The Image of Success

The quality of documents and Powerpoint presentations is rising all the time. One feature that is continuously improving is the use of photographs. But how do you source good quality photos?

One of the best sources of free pictures is Google Images. It’s easy to overlook the word ‘Images’ above the main Google search box. All you need to do is click on the word and then enter the name of the subject matter in the search box below it.

If you need better quality images (for which you may have to pay), try www.istockphto.com or www.gettyimages.co.uk. The images here are typically 250kb jpegs, so they should be fine for presentation purposes. Another very useful website that contains links to a vast array of images is ‘Finding Images Online’ (www.berinsteinresearch.com/fiolinks.htm). Happy hunting!

To find out more, please click here.

TRAINING

After the success of our first training courses we are pleased to announce the dates for the next set:

Wed 19th Sept 2007   -     Insight Management - From Vision to Reality
Thu 4th Oct 2007        -     Commercial Thinking
Thu 1st Nov 2007        -     How to Communicate For Maximum Impact

Please book now to be sure of a place.  Click here for more details

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