Towards the end of each business year, everyone in corporate life starts to think about the success they’ve enjoyed during the past 12 months. Which objectives have been hit, which pieces of work have received the most praise, and which things haven’t gone so well? Will our line manager see those issues in the same way as we do? What will that mean for our performance rating? And what about our colleagues? How will our team members be assessed and rewarded? Knowing how our contribution is going to be judged will be top of mind for everyone towards the end of a period. But how the success of any project is going to be measured is also a determinant in what we focus on in the first place.
Management guru Peter Drucker said many years ago that “what gets measured gets managed” which many have adapted to ‘what gets measured gets done’.
Similarly, the second habit of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was that we should all ‘begin with the end in mind.’
That’s why I decided to make the 8th P of the Insight Leader’s Playbook, P for Performance.
Please could I ask you to reflect on a simple question:
Q _ Has your Insight team had a good year so far?
I hope you think it has! But what I’m really interested in is the thought process you just went through.
How did you evaluate whether your Insight team had enjoyed a good year?
What were the measures you considered? The types of evidence? Did you think about the outputs you can measure in this year, or the foundations you have laid for the next?
Please listen to find out more!
Topics Discussed
This is episode 78 of the Transforming Insight podcast.
If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.
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About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight
James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).
He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.
An entertaining keynote speaker, he has presented over 50 times at Quirk’s events, a global record, and has provided thought leadership in the UK, USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, India and the Middle East.
The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming corporate Insight teams, and its vision is to inspire and support every Insight leader to transform the impact of Insight in their organisation.
Resources:
If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org
Disclaimer
The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.
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