In a continuation of the theme in part 5, Danny looks at how to measure performance in a meaningful and useful (actionable) way.
He says, for example, “What is the point…of knowing that each individual employee receives on average 5.5 training days a year. So what? Could you get a similar impact with fewer training days…doing something else?”
It contains more useful questions, tips and tricks if you’re a manager or help to manage talent. You can find all the previous episodes here.
Our article in the Sep ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.
Sony founder, Akio Morita, once said: “Curiosity is the key to creativity.” So, given how curious researchers are, we decided to speak to some client-side researchers to discover ways in which they have used creativity to amplify the value of research.
The Listener
Dr. Simon Roberts, Lead, Design/Social Science, Digital Health Europe, Intel
CONTEXT
Roberts is a well known anthropologist and works at chipmaker Intel. His position probably triggers a few questions. Is he a researcher? Well, yes. And a designer? Well, sort of. Because he sits in an R&D role where as well as carrying out the research bit, he’s also responsible for acting upon the research, making sure key insights find their way into products. He refers to this dual role as a mix of hard impact (creating new products) and softer influence (evangelising insights and ideas within Intel). A combination of military man and diplomat.
CREATIVITY
An issue every researcher regularly faces is how to draw out juicy insights from raw data. In ethnographic circles, Roberts refers to this as ‘ethnographic liquidity’ and he’s keen to understand “how ethnographers can create traction for their work in organisations” in an age where audiences are overloaded with information and communication. It’s important, he says, for researchers to feel they are listened to.
Roberts’ solution has been to turn some of his findings and insights into well-produced booklets and brochures, something he did for a recent global ageing study with hundreds of in-depth interviews: “Let’s put it all in a booklet and make sure that every person in the organisation for whom this is relevant gets a copy on their desk. We can also use it externally to tell a story about our work.”
Pop here for the rest of the article – available only for a limited time – and do subscribe to Research World magazine.
Dan Pink speaking at this year’s TED Global in Oxford.
He takes us through a wealth of evidence – built up over four decades – which demonstrates that financial incentives tend to focus the mind and as such only tend to be productive on left-brain tasks, i.e. “problems with a clear set of rules and a single solution.”
In contrast, when financial incentives are offered to people to solve more right-brain tasks – those that are more conceptual in nature and require greater use of cognitive power – the incentives actually make the problem harder to solve because they narrow the focus when the solution tends to be on the periphery and so the solver needs to be thinking more holistically and laterally.
The issue, says Pink, is that we’ve known about these flawed links between problem-solving and financial incentives for decades, and yet despite that they endure. And more and more of the work we do is shifting to right-brain thinking as we delegate the routine, rule-based stuff to computers and outsourcing agents.
The solution: offer incentives based on intrinsic motivators. Specifically, autonomy (e.g. Google’s 20% time), mastery, and purpose.
After the brief hiatus, we’re back with Wain’s World!
And in part 5, Danny looks at the tricky area of performance management which he says is “more than the dreaded annual appraisal!”
As always, this is just 2-3mins long and contains useful tips and tricks if you’re a manager or help manage talent. You can find previous episodes here.
Part 4 of our series on developing talent. In this episode, Danny looks at building trust – which he categorizes as part credibility, part reliability and part intimacy.
Just spend 2-3mins watching to get some useful tips and tricks if you’re a manager or help manage talent. You can find previous episodes here.
John Kearon, Chief Juicer at BrainJuicer, explains how he is turning research on its head by shifting the focus from asking people to explain their own behaviour, to using peoples’ innate social abilities to comment on the behaviour of others.
A pioneer in the use of wisdom of crowds in research (since 2004), he also reveals the results of experiments in mass ethnography, mass anthropology and co-creation.
Filmed at the BrainJuicer/HSBC London Summerfest in June 2009 (disclosure: we produced the vid).
This week, Danny Wain looks at how to draw inspiration from Google to innovate in HR and talent management.
Remember, each episode is a mere 2-3 mins long, short enough for the busiest managers or talent folks. And do drop us a line if you’re interested in sponsoring this series.
You can find out more about what Danny does here. Next episode goes up next week.
Faris Yakob, EVP and chief technology strategist at ad. agency McCann Erickson, takes us through his six rules of social media engagement which he believes brands should follow to offer something more meaningful and powerful to people.
Filmed at the BrainJuicer/HSBC London Summerfest in June 2009 (disclosure: we produced the vid).
Two-and-half years ago we did this podcast with Danny Wain who, at the time, was in charge of learning and development at research firm RI.
Ever since then we’ve wanted to capture his considerable experience on how to get the most out of talent and share it with you in bite size chunks, something we can finally do today. We’ve filmed seven episodes which we’ll put out weekly (with a hiatus during August).
Each episode is a mere 2-3 mins long, short enough for even the busiest managers or talent folks out there (that’s right, these are aimed at anyone with line management responsibility or whose job spec involves nurturing talent). Moreover, the series will cover all sectors, not just research.
The series begins with a look at ways to make a business case for learning and development. Next week we look at how you can take advantage of Google’s approach to innovation. And then we’ll tackle some other challenges including persuasion, trust and measurement. All good stuff
This initiative has involved a significant amount of our time which we’re bringing to you free. So if there’s any potential sponsors out there who’d like to support this effort plus get your name in front of a bunch of thought-leaders, drop us a line as we’d love to work with you.
By the way, Danny’s now set up his own talent and learning and development consultancy, do check it out.
As always, we hope you enjoy this. And do please share this with as many people as possible through twitter, Facebook, email etc.
Welcome to ResearchTalk where we share some of the most innovative ideas and thinking in marketing, research, psychology and management. We hope you find it useful, inspiring, or merely entertaining.
ResearchTalk helps companies of all types produce engaging content for marketing, pitches, debriefs, research activation, events, etc.
Our tools of choice include podcasts, documentaries, animations, webinars, workshops and feature articles.
We've worked with some of the most innovative names to add a bit more pizazz and potency to their communication and engagement efforts. More than likely we can help you too. So do please get in touch.
Some examples of our work (we can't show the complete spectrum of our work due to confidentiality)...
Our article in the Sep ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy 
Podcasts
