How To Be Insightful

A storyteller’s guide to developing the genuine insights that drive more impactful communication

Dramatis personaeMe

Don DraperAesop

Graham WallasAlan Turing

Tim Berners LeeTed Turner

Chris Donald

MEA story about …

Narrative Content

Consulting

DON DRAPERA story about …

AESOPA story about …

“Stories stick with us; they move us; they

persuade us to consider the constancy and

frailties of the human experience.”

“After a presentation, 63% of attendees

remember stories. Only 5% remember

statistics.”

Barriers to insightful stories

• Siloes

• Jargon

• Creative anarchy

• Tools, permission and confidence

• Multiple corporate personality disorder

Steve Girsky, GM Chairman

“Today, companies can no longer assume that inconsistencies in their stories will go unnoticed … Smart managers won’t resent the need to come up with a unified story. They will see the power of having one.”

– Harvard Business Review, July-Aug 2014, p.36

GRAHAM WALLASA story about …

The grandfather of insight?

What insight is

Mike Teasdale, Lowe“A glimpse inside the mind of the target audience, shining a light on a a possible

solution to the problem we have defined.”

• Increase chances of creative breakthrough

• Make creative process less painful, random

• Incite behaviour change

And what insight isn’t• Information, data, evidence,

analytics

• Casual observation (though many are)

• A universal human truth

Wallas’ four steps• Preparation

– “the problem is investigated, from all directions”

• Incubation– “not consciously thinking about the problem”

• Illumination– “the appearance of the happy idea”

• Verification– “the validity of the idea is tested”

Four STEP process

• Light bulb• Excitement• Conviction

• Test• Validate• Verify

• Frustration• Distraction• Subconscious

• Experience• Immersion• Analytics

SWEATTIMEOUT

EUREKA

PROVE

ALAN TURINGA story about …

TIM BERNERS LEEA story about …

Parlez-vous Boolean?

Little Big Data• The case of Tide and All, and Always

• The Cyborg approach: human-tech

• Integrate multiple streams, O-to-O

• Manual coding at scale via the crowd

Whether you’re in …… contract catering

… pharmaceutical marketing

… mass private transportation

… marketing performance management

TED TURNERA story about …

Four common analytics errors• Social media platforms create

insights

• Big Data is really impressive, insightful

• Automated analysis generates insights

• Machines understand sentiment

CHRIS DONALDA story about …

Four STEP process – Top Tips

• Be prepared• Think less to think more• Capture it all• How certain are you?

• Obvious?• r2 =/ causation• Data =/ insight• Eradicate false +VEs

• Exercise• Bath, shower, swim• Sleep, holiday• Dislocation

• Immersion to Blink!• Analytics• Human-tech• A TED a day

SWEATTIMEOUT

EUREKA

PROVE

And finally: Ogilvy’s 8 habits

• Courage• Idealism • Curiosity• Playfulness• Candour• Intuition• Free spirit• Persistence

SETESTETEPSPSETESP

Q&A