The Insight Leader’s Playbook: how to bridge the intent to be transformative and being transformational
Insight Leaders are more likely to develop a playbook if they know the best practices and how it can help them succeed. Fortunately, best practice for insight success is James and the Insight Management Academy’s remit.
In 2020, The Insight Management Academy’s James Wycherley wrote the book Transforming Insight: The 42 secrets of successful corporate insight teams.
Fast-forward 5 years and James has recently written The Insight Leader’s Playbook. Over two articles, we’ll look at what James’ latest – and fantastic – book teaches Insights Professionals.
Firstly, we’ll look at the book’s more obvious, explicit learnings. And then the learnings which are more subtle. But no less important.
Bridging the gap between intention and action
After writing Transforming Insight, James noticed an elephant in the room. He had just delivered 42 practical tips on how Insight Leaders could transform their teams. But in his words:
Unless there was at least one Insight Leader within an organization who could organize themselves, their own time and energy and had the ambition to actually transform their Insight Team, then there was a danger that what we had was descriptive rather than transformational.”
Enter the Insight Leader’s Playbook.
What is an Insight Leader’s Playbook?
Inspired by Chris Ronzio’s book The Business Playbook, James had a thought. That there are parallels between how you transform a business and how you transform an Insight Team. And if Insight Leaders could document and develop ideas for their team in the form of a playbook it could be the catalyst for transformation.
Insight: all work, no play(-book)?
Insight Teams are often “being reactive” and “putting out corporate fires.” Was it realistic to think time-poor Insight Leaders had time to develop a playbook for transformation? Especially if they had to start with a blank sheet of paper? With no structure? With no inspiration?
Insight Leaders would be more likely to develop a playbook if they had some direction about what the best practice for one was and how it could help them succeed. Fortunately, best practice for insight success is James and the Insight Management Academy’s remit.
P is for Playbook (and much more)…
To help Insight Leaders develop their own insight playbook, James provides a nine-part structure:
Defining insight’s purpose
Improving insight’s profile
Developing your insight people
Working with insight partners
Setting insight priorities
Refreshing insight products
Perfecting insight processes
Assess insight’s performance
Making transformation personal
For each of these areas, James provides Insight Leaders with a range of tools. The questions they need to ask themselves. How to assess where an Insight Team is today vs. where Insight Leaders want it to be tomorrow.
Weaved into all the above is contributions from Insight Experts and current Insight Leaders from an array of well-known businesses as James sought “involvement from the rest of the IMA membership” throughout. And if this wasn’t inspirational or educational enough, each section directs you to further reading and listening materials.
Room for two more P’s? (Practice and preaching)
When anyone authors a book that’s aimed at a time-poor audience. A book that emphasises the importance of being influential. That highlights the need for clear communication. The author is signing themselves up to write a book in a consumable, persuasive and clear way.
James has written The Insight Leader’s Playbook in this manner. The chapters are succinct. By forcing you to ask yourself questions, the content makes you think harder and more provocatively. And each chapter ends with the key points to consider.
And room to slither in a C perhaps?
But the largest potential rod for its own back The Insight Leader’s Playbook makes for itself is that it’s a book about change. Because as James rightly says:
If we don’t take responsibility for change ourselves, someone else will change us”.
That means The Insight Leader’s Playbook needs to inspire its reader to make changes. That’s why each ends chapter with the ADDERS checklist. This ensures you think about the topic in each chapter in terms of:
Your Ambition for it
The Deliberate Design & intentional decisions that’ll help organise your activity
The Daily Disciplines/habits that you’ll need to adopt if your actions are to align with your design
How/when you’ll Empathetically Engage with others
When you’ll Reflect & Refresh you/your playbook
But most importantly: what Simple Steps will you take this week to get started?
The Insight Leader’s Playbook’s stated and obvious learnings for Insight Professionals are plentiful. And if you’re in the business of impactful, influential and transformative insight – which I hope we all are – I’d encourage you to get a copy here. And to subscribe to the Insight Management Academy’s podcast.
Jack Miles
Editor in Chief at Research World, Colaborator at EsomarJack specialises in quantitative research for international clients across an array of sectors. These studies have led him to work with brands such as Jaguar, Navistar and Volvo. His main research interests are brand research and consumer trends, with a focus on quantitative methods and the use of statistics to derive solid strategic planning for clients.
He has a particular focus on developing creative ad-hoc quantitative methods that use a range of data sources. He can also be found writing papers for a range of well-known publications such as Admap, Huffington Post and Research World.
Outside the office, Jack can be found training in martial arts, in which he holds a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwon-do, and partaking in various endurance sports.
