Cambiar Consulting

Lock Collins Partner,  Talent Strategy Practice Leader

August 12, 2010

What value does a performance appraisal system bring to your company?  In my experience, very little, based on current practices.  Both managers and employees loath the process and it distracts everyone from their purpose.  I’ve been exposed to (and created) dozens of these processes.  Earlier in my career, I actually believed that the performance review served a purpose.  Considering the emotional toll it takes on all participants, not to mention the complete waste of time in correctly filling out the forms, it’s surprising that there’s not a revolt.

This is not to say that there shouldn’t be a linkage between the strategy of the company and the employee’s contribution to its success.  This can be done, however, in a much more constructive way.  The biggest stumbling blocks to effective employee feedback are that the typical manager does not think strategically and is generally a poor communicator.  Wrapping up the manager with forms and schedules is not going to improve the dialogue between the manager and the employee.

How about this: Ensure that the manager understands the strategy of the company (I know, what a concept…).  Then have the manager and the employee talk about their respective roles in support of that strategy.  Write this stuff down so it’s not forgotten.  This can be a rolling, “evergreen” set of discussions.  (The world of business is now moving so fast that to have a fixed twelve month cycle for performance measurement is just silly).  The manager and the employee are both accountable to each other to talk regularly about what’s going on and to review current projects as well as changing priorities.  If a manager can’t create this type of environment, then you need a new manager.

More later on tying compensation to this process.

For more information go to Cambiar’s Talent Strategy Practice and Lock Collins.

The ARF recently launched a major Research Transformation initiative, and has made a video that’s available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYfbjZmk2VQ

ARF has adopted a “wedding cake” as a framework for its new value creation model.  Think of it as Maslow’s hierarchy for Market Research.  The cake is terrific – it has seven layers, starting with Data Feeds at the bottom, progressing through Craftsmanship and Science to Synthesis, then to Communication, Storytelling and Taking a Stand, and ultimately to Inspiring Better Business Futures.  The only reason market researchers should get paid is for creating better business futures.  Research buyers must take the lead, and will need their suppliers to partner with them in order to deliver.

But as anyone who’s been to a few weddings knows, a great wedding cake doesn’t always lead to a great marriage!  So what does it take to get from the cake to successfull marriages that create better business futures?  One blog entry can only begin to address this, and a good starting point is the journey from researcher to consultant.  The journey requires a shift in how we define our purpose, in what we provide our clients, in how we define value, in how we work, and in our ability to influence others.  I organize it into four pillars – Mindset, Principles, Tools and Practices.

A consulting mindset is focused on making change happen, going beyond information to provide solutions and provoke action.  It measures value creation by the impact on client actions.  It’s not about lengthy PowerPoints - it’s about figuring out the important few things that the company needs to act on, and being the catalyst for action.

Consulting principles include understanding the different levels of client value, stakeholder alignment, empathy, collaboration, individual and organizational value creation, and more.  These principles don’t get taught to researchers progressing through the ranks – researchers are trained to operate independently, with a focus on technical mastery.

Consulting tools include problem/opportunity definition, the client value contract and delivery assessment, and solution development.  Learning these tools can ensure that research is better focused, with clearer expectations, and with higher level delivery.

Consulting practices include being a first mover, synthesizing knowledge & collaborating to leverage expertise, creating intellectual property, communicating for impact, and more.  These practices are far from commonplace among researchers today, but are well known to management consultants (who taught them to me!) and are essential for the new value creation model.

Client research departments who step up to the plate and embrace the consulting pillars can make a huge impact in their companies – those who don’t face being outsourced to research companies that figure out how to provide complete client solutions.”

Ian Lewis, Cambiar Partner

For more information on Ian, go to The Team section of our web site.

An interesting thing happened at this year’s UK Market Research Society Conference: attendees inducted someone into the Hall of Fame who had been dead for over 100 years. They decided to induct Charles Dickens as the grandfather of market research. Yes, that’s right, that Charles Dickens! Why? Because, they argued, he was a keen social observer, a meticulous data gatherer, an integrator of information and a wonderful story teller who tapped our emotions in order to bring us to understanding of his basic social insights.

But, more than that, Charles Dickens made an impact. He wasn’t just telling stories for the sake of telling stories – he was telling them so as to impact the conscience of the British public as to the grueling lives of the poor, the disadvantaged and the dispossessed. He gathered his data, integrated it, sorted it and then told us the story in such an emotional way that it still has impact to this very day.

When did your last research project have such an impact?!

It’s not beyond us, you know. We can impact (and have done so) if we want to. Take AIDS in Uganda, for example. Uganda has had a lower infection rate than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa for decades. Why? Because a research study – a story really well told – convinced WHO to sell condoms in small roadside stores rather than give them away in villages, thus imbuing them with value and caché. Or, on a more prosaic level, the success of tampons in Italy after a research company insisted that the CEO of a tampon company (which shall be nameless) actually visit the country and immerse himself in its female culture.

Research has the power to have a very high impact! So why does it persist in under-performing? And why does it have such low self-esteem? Jim Collins regards researchers as the unsung heroes of Good to Great and Built to Last companies! Why unsung? What is that we need to do to consistently deliver impact and become “sung”?

–Simon Chadwick