After a few months of no new content, faithful readers of WomackInsight.com (all seven of you) have probably given up and decided the site is dead. While an enormous opportunity to work on a special project along with some personal demands led me to neglect the site in recent months, I can assure you rumors of death are exaggerated.
And what better time than January to restart things, right?
Last year at this time, I had a little fun with all the predictions about important marketing research tools coming in 2011 and posted my own prediction: The Most Important Marketing Research Tool For 2011 And Beyond.
In case you don’t want to read that post (or read it again), I’ll tell you that I suggested brains are the most important tools for the future of the marketing research and insights world.
I’m not backing down on that prediction. I still believe the greatest tools we have at our disposal are our brains. I will, however, add one twist to this for 2012. That twist is the addition of effort to the equation. That is, brains plus effort equals the most important tools for the future.
I’ve been reading some interesting work on the role mindset plays in performance and achievement. It is an oversimplification, but much of the research indicates praising effort (with employees or students, for example) instead of or along with praising ability is key to continued success and greater achievement. Here is a good introduction that includes a quote I love: “We are what we work to become.”
So, what mindsets stand in your way? Our profession is full of very capable, intelligent people—there are lots of good brains out there and I am going to assume you own one—but what kinds of thinking limits your effort? How does your mindset limit your employees, your colleagues, your suppliers?
Technology, economic conditions and turbulent business environments add up to some interesting challenges for marketing research and insights pros—now and for the foreseeable future. But with all this change and turbulence comes many opportunities. What will we make of them?
What will we work to become in 2012 and beyond?
kathryn korostoff
/ January 9, 2012I wonder if this mindset idea is at the crux of a paradox I often observe in our industry:
*Agency side colleagues tell me they want to do more with innovative methods, but their clients balk at actually funding such projects
*Client side colleagues tell me they want to try new MR methods, but end up doing so in-house (if at all) because their agency partners are not giving them compelling options.
(Obviously these are generalizations, and exceptions exist–but the above statements do capture what I most often see.)
admin
/ January 9, 2012Thanks Kathryn. Interesting and I’m guessing you are on to something. I’m sure there are many others, but I keep thinking of two common mindsets in our world that are big contributors to limitations. Oddly, they seem (to me at least) to come from opposite ends of the spectrum.
One might be called the minimizer….limits by narrowly defining what “we” are (“we just collect the data…”). The other is purely driven by arrogance (“we have seen and done everything and nothing new is relevant–we figured out the best way long ago”).
Grace Hughston
/ January 18, 2012Hey Dan! Love the new addition to the 2012 prediction, but I have to say: while effort may be an important factor, does it outweigh results?
I had a professor that emphasized the difference between effort and results. While effort is needed in order to gain results, it does not always correlate to produce results. For example, one may put in a lot of effort to a project, yet they don’t see any results.
Just chiming in because I’m curious what your thoughts are on whether your new addition to the most important marketing research tool.
Grace
admin
/ January 18, 2012Hi Grace! Glad you found and enjoyed the post and thanks for the great question. I don’t mean to indicate that effort should replace results. Instead, I think effort (eventually, at least) equals results. Most of the research I’ve reviewed is related to failure and how we handle it…and we do all fail at some point (some of us many times). In short, those who have been recognized only for their outstanding abilities may tend to give up and move on when they fail–since their brillance didn’t deliver immediate results they assume the task at hand must be impossible. Those who have also been recognized for their effort realize they may just need to take another approach and work a little harder.
I’ll be the first to admit I think we often take the “everyone gets a trophy” philosophy too far. I think this is great at very young ages, but at some point most of us have to admit we will never hit the big league curve ball. That’s the short story on my Brains (ability) plus Effort philosophy. The combination is much more powerful than either by iteself.
Grace Hughston
/ January 23, 2012I completely agree Dan!