IMPACT: Journey from Researcher to Consultant
An insight is not an insight unless it leads to action.
Premise
In so many Insights functions today, CI professionals are being asked to go beyond just the reporting of results to acting as internal consultants on issues such as ‘what do the results mean for the business?’, ‘what does this mean I should do?’ and ‘how do I act on this?’.
Principles
In order to be able to answer such questions, the researcher needs to take on the role of trusted advisor and business-savvy consultant. In order to do this, he/she needs to first understand the real business issue that is being addressed, not just the issue as is currently being articulated by the stakeholder. They also need to have won the trust of the stakeholder, have credibility with them and demonstrate real knowledge of the business. Finally, they need to know how to activate the insights that they provide and enable their stakeholders to take action.
Program
The program starts with discussing what it means to be a consultant. It then moves to deciding how to prioritize stakeholders and then truly understand them both as colleagues and as people. We discuss the four levels of consulting service and what that means for understanding what success would look like for the stakeholder. From there we move into specific tools and approaches used by consultants in order to really understand the business issue and what it means personally to the stakeholder as well as to the organization; the roles of empathy and appreciative enquiry; how to craft the resultant story to the various audiences; and how to enable activation.
End Result
Participants are equipped not only with an understanding of what it means to be a consultant but also the key tools and approaches that enable them to be successful in the role.
“Thanks for the exceptional job with the training! The whole curriculum built nicely, and it benefited everyone across teams and levels!”
Director, Consumer Insights
Major beverage company