-   Courses Next Spring

Welcome to the tenth edition of 5-Minute Insights, the e-mail newsletter from Steve Wills and Sally Webb at Customer Insight Solutions (CI Solutions). We hope that in the few short minutes that it takes to scan the key messages, you will find snippets that are both informative and stimulating. If you want to find out more, we have provided links to longer articles for some of the insights.

INSIGHT IN PRACTICE

SEEING IS BELIEVING

Maintaining close relationships with colleagues, internal clients and suppliers is accepted as a vital part of an insight role. But how do you do that in a world dominated by remote communication (email, text and phone) when these can lead to people being seen as “distant”?

The answer is that one meeting goes a long way! Have you noticed how much easier it is to sort things out with someone you’ve met – even if only for a few minutes by the coffee machine or at their desk?

With so many new ways of communicating, it is surprising that little research has been done into the best ways of communicating within companies. But an article in The Economist referred to work done by Philip Evans from the Boston Consulting group, which showed that trust is the key. And a single short meeting is the most effective way of establishing that trust.

Once you have met someone, then the trust that builds will last a considerable time, and will make phone and email communication that much easier. All you need to do is just go out of your way from time to time to renew the face-to-face acquaintance, and the rest of the time you can use ‘remote’ forms of communication without problem.

To find out more please click here.

YOU MAKE ME FEEL 'BRAND' NEW! 

A successful company needs to be able to recruit and retain the best people. Here are three keys to achieving this goal:

1. Build a strong employer brand that is nurtured and promoted so that your organisation becomes an employer of choice. This is important not only at the organisation level, but also at your insight team level.

2. You can help the process by effective networking. Use any opportunities to network – at meetings, courses, conferences etc. – by adopting a positive outlook and attitude, and spreading the word that your team or organisation is a good place in which to work.

3. Some companies use viral marketing to help with recruitment (e.g. networking before a vacancy arises). One example is Wagamama, which encourages its employees to hand out business cards to friends and contacts, with the hope that people who might want to work for the company will get in touch at the appropriate time.

Overt viral marketing may not be appropriate for your insight team, but subtle networking may help you to build up your team in the long term. To discover more, please click here.

POLITICAL PETE

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.

Political Pete

Pete is a competent senior brand manager who is politically astute. He is very good at dissociating himself from things that might go wrong, but always seems to get involved with success stories. Unfortunately, he is all too willing to bend the truth if it helps him to achieve his goals. When it comes to insight, he is likely to commission and use it to justify decisions that have already been taken.

Pete needs to be carefully handled:

• If he adjusts the insight message without really affecting it, humour him and go with it.
• If he massages the facts and produces a genuine distortion, but the affect is not bad, then discuss the issue with him in private.
• If he seriously distorts the message, you have to speak up: ultimately your first loyalties are to the organisation that employs you. But act carefully and diplomatically.

Most importantly, talk to Pete. Make it clear that you have a professional obligation to ensure that information is not mis-represented. For a few more thoughts about Pete and how to handle him, click here .

DEVELOPING SKILLS

Whatever your insight problem, ‘Diamond Thinking’ offers a useful way of analysing it. It enables you to address the issue in two quite different stages.

The top of the diamond represents ‘divergence’ – you start from a given point and think around the issue, as widely and as openly as possible. Only then do you start the second stage (the bottom of the diamond), which represents convergence – taking what you’ve got and boiling it down to an agreed conclusion.

The key is to recognise the phase you are in and to apply the right approach at the right time. A full project will typically require many elements of diamond thinking. Some consultancies teach a five diamond approach, with a separate diamond for entry, diagnosis, visioning, implementation and evaluation.

So why not try Diamond Thinking yourself? It can be a very useful approach for structuring your thinking. For more details, please click here.

HOW DOES THIS GRAB YOU?

If you want your insight messages to have real impact, you need to grab your reader’s attention from the start:

• You need a powerful headline, followed by a first sentence that sums up your key message (if at all possible).
• Think about the style of writing you use – it should be informal and catchy (closer to the style of the Daily Mail or Express than that of The Guardian or The Times.)
• People are pressed for time, so your emails or summary reports need to be punchy, clear and to the point. 

Helen James of Insight Partners is an expert in this type of writing, which is why she is one of our chosen course leaders. The next open course in London is on Thursday 3^rd April 2008. Helen also runs training for in-house teams (see our website for more information).

To delve deeper into the art of introducing impact into your writing, please click here.

TIP OF THE MONTH

FUTUREWATCH

One important aspect of insight involves looking at the future and trying to envisage what’s in store. Why not stimulate your thought process by watching a video on this subject? You can find it on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U. The video comes from the US, so it is US-biased and is also aimed at influencing education policy. However, we feel that anyone involved in insight could get some useful ideas and pointers from it.

TRAINING

Following very encouraging feedback from our courses this year, we are now taking bookings to repeat them in London in the new year, and running them as in-house courses.

Insight management: from vision to reality: 5th Feb 2008
Sharing the vision of good insight management, with key processes and skills to help you on this journey.

Commercial thinking: 13th Mar 2008
Enabling you to present your proposals and recommendations in £s not %s, to raise your profile and impact with marketing colleagues, finance and the Board.

How to communicate for maximum impact: 3rd Apr 2008
Hands-on training to increase the impact of all your written insight communications, from emails and presentations, to reports and newsletters.

Click here for more details, and to book

FEEDBACK

We want 5-Minute Insights to be as useful as possible. That's where you come in!

Please email us at feedback@cisolutions.co.uk with any comments you have about its content, its style, or with requests for items that you would like to see.

If you have a difficult problem that you are having trouble solving - such as a Marketing Director who insists on ignoring unwelcome insights; or an issue that is challenging your team on the journey towards insight - please let us know. If we can make helpful suggestions we will, and if several people have a similar problem, we will write an article for 5-Minute Insights.

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