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Issue 18 - October 2008 CONTENTS - Surviving The Storm - Progressing through the recession - Get Your Message Across - With slide headings - Meet The Team Member - Get It Right Gordon - Three Sides Of The Coin - Exploring ideas thoroughly - Making A Habit Of......Thinking Win:Win - Spring courses - Book now?
INTRODUCTION Welcome to the 18th 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 SURVIVING THE STORM
This is because you are in a unique position to be able to identify the key threats and opportunities that face your organisation. Survival – for yourself, your team and your company – depends upon being well prepared and focused on the future. September’s edition of the Harvard Business Review suggests that you can help yourself and your company by:
Try and develop a strategy for riding out the storm - and maintain a positive attitude throughout. In this way, you could help to safeguard your job whilst also helping your company to survive. Please click here for more details.
GET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS
There are three good reasons for this:
So, if you want your PowerPoint presentation to deliver messages that have real impact, start it off with a summary. Then tell your story through your headings (illustrated or demonstrated in further detail as required) and finish with your conclusions and recommendations. MEET THE TEAM MEMBER - GET IT RIGHT GORDON During this series, we are looking at people who typify four different styles of behaviour. We will use two examples of each style: one whose approach has more impact upon other people and one that has more impact upon the task in hand.
Get It Right Gordon The style The substance The solution DEVELOPING SKILLS THREE SIDES OF THE COIN
Edward de Bono in ‘De Bono’s Thinking Course’ suggests using a simple but powerful thinking tool, called PMI (to signify Plus points, Minus points and Interesting points). This is designed to ensure that any topic is thoroughly explored, cutting through any pre-conceptions:
The proper use of PMI can often completely alter the decisions made about the relative merits of a specific idea, tool or method. The key is to practise it regularly. To find out more about how to do this, please click here.
MAKING A HABIT OF.....WIN:WIN This is the fourth article in our series based around Steven R Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
There are two main applications of this habit for an Insight team:
For both types of clients, this habit is ultimately all about agreeing ways of working that suit and benefit both parties over the long term. For further information on how you can start to develop an effective ‘win-win’ attitude, please click here. TIP OF THE MONTH STRATEGIC INSIGHTS If you would like to know more about how to develop effective strategies, try visiting http://interactive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/strategy/survivalguide/. This website includes some detailed and informative pdfs that you can download. Although the site has been specifically written for the public sector, many of the suggestions it gives are applicable on a much wider scale. The site provides a very good and practical roundup of mainstream strategy techniques and ideas that are used all of the time in commercial business. Although many of the examples aren’t particularly relevant to Insight teams, the guide is really useful - both for reference and general learning. TRAINING Our 3 main courses (below) will now run again in the Spring - so let us know if you are interested and we'll keep you informed of dates: Insight management: from vision to reality: Commercial thinking: How to communicate for maximum impact: Click here for more details
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. If you would like to pass this newsletter on to your colleagues, please feel free to do so. Equally, if you know anyone who would like to be added to the mailing list, please let us know. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here. |
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A recession brings many pressures, but it can also be a time when Insight teams can make an even more important contribution to the welfare of the company.
Whenever you’re preparing PowerPoint slides, try and use your headings to tell your story. If you simply use them as titles (e.g. background, methodology, results, brand awareness etc.), you’re missing a trick. The top of each chart gives you an opportunity to state your key point. Don’t just leave it in a box at the bottom of the page.
The difficulty with many insight projects lies in keeping an open mind. True insight involves exploring a range of different possibilities. But how can an Insight team maintain real objectivity when they might already have their own strongly formed ideas on a particular issue?
This habit is all about adopting a positive outlook. To make it work effectively, both your team and your internal/external clients need an appropriate attitude. You will also need to agree some basic principles of working that will suit both sides.
