Episode 17: Improving stakeholder relationships
In this episode James looks at how successful Insight teams become trusted advisers.
In the last episode, Lisa and I were discussing how we would never influence any group of people before we had taken steps to better understand them. We thought that many of our teams could improve the insight they had regarding the internal audience for their work.
But having taken steps to better understand decision-makers in general, and our key stakeholders in particular, we then need to put those insights into action.
So far in our podcasts, the steps we have explored to transform Insight have focused mainly on whole-team mindset and whole-team behaviours. This next step is also one for the whole team to embrace, but the nature of the challenge itself is probably more personal than most of the ones we’ve looked at so far. It could well be the biggest challenge yet for some of our colleagues.
So how do the most successful corporate Insight teams improve their relationships with stakeholders? Please listen to this week’s podcast to find out!
Topics Discussed
- A more personal challenge for our colleagues (1.41)
- Learning from the Trusted Adviser book (5.47)
- Where do Insight professionals have natural strengths? (7.11)
- The need to take a few risks (10.20)
- Are we sometimes too defensive? (11.30)
Highlights
- “The perfect advisers are people we like and who we also think are more knowledgeable than us on the subject in question. Our opinions are often shaped by theirs without us even realising it. In the language of behavioural science, we all constantly buy the messenger, not the message.”
- “The way that influence operates in the workplace has far more in common with the way it works in our personal lives than we often assume. People buy from people just as much between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday as they do in their home life at the weekends.”
- “As knowledge workers, it should be relatively straightforward for us to find ways of demonstrating our credibility, but the key question is whether we can demonstrate an ability to translate our technical competence into customer and market understanding that helps to solve business problems.”
This is episode 17 of the Transforming Insight podcast.
If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.
You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.
About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight
James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East, and regularly hosts the IMA’s Insight forums - London, Manchester, UK Online and US Online.
The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.
Resources:
If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org
Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com
Disclaimer
The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.
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