There is a difference between information and insights. Accessing good data is becoming easier with a good search engine and the internet, but reaching insights requires a genuine curiosity; a team must be interested and willing to tinker. Insight is what moves a team to action.
A team's goal is to figure out why data is behaving in a certain way. Good analytics bring data to life. The data needs to be pushed and pulled by different forces. The team's job is to understand the forces pushing the data so that insights can be gleaned and plans built.
Data has movement. It tells a story. A team has to figure out what the story is and why the story is being told.
Gut instinct is rarely arbitrary. Gut instinct is built on truth, experience, history and perspective - a composite of the person. The right composite leads to insight. Even intuition is based upon understanding how things should work or taking into account more than the traditional data set.
"TEAM Renaissance" is a simple model of a highly effective team. The book, "TEAM Renaissance: The Art, Science & Politics of Great Teams," is a collection of stories, specifics and immediate takeaways built around the Team Arch. Complementing the text, the Team Renaissance Survey is an interactive tool that assesses the strengths and weaknesses of a team.
Simply put, the biggest challenge most teams have in forming sharp insights is that they become complacent and stop looking beyond their own four walls. In essence, they lose perspective because they hear opinions from the outside less and less and are told what they want to hear more and more.
Teams need to get familiar with noticing the arrival of fresh thoughts. The insights will take care of themselves. If you are focused on trying to create an insight, you are actually working your mind, and this will interfere with insight generation.
Instead, get comfortable with inviting fresh thoughts in. Listening for fresh thoughts is akin to reading a book, watching a play, or listening to music. Odds are that one of these fresh thoughts will be an insight. The better you get at pointing your awareness in the direction of freshness and the unknown, the more likely you will hear the insight when it arrives.
A deep and sharp insight into a problem permanently changes the way we look at it, and when we have a new perspective, a clear solution will present itself, often in days or even hours. Listening for insight is simply about being present and reflective. It's a very natural, maybe even our most natural, way of listening, but it can be awkward for many of us to empty the chatter in our heads and look instead for fresh thoughts.
Reference: Richard Spoon: Team Renaissance: The Art, Science & Politics of Great Teams, 2013 and Coach2Coach e-newsletter, April 18, 2013.
Business Tips
Sharp Insights with Present and Reflective Behaviour
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- Parent Category: Business Tips
- Category: Team Development
