Can Market Research learn from High Performance professions?
What can market research learn from high performance in adjacent areas - sport, for example?
Working within an industry undergoing significant change through digital disruption, I'd say there's definite value in us Market Researchers observing and learning from people excelling in other professions.
Eddie Jones, the new and extremely successful coach of England's national rugby union team, is someone who has masses to say about high performance.
He took over an underperforming team straight after the 2015 World Rugby Cup, where English crashed out fast - the team hasn't lost a match since. Amazing stuff.
So: what's he doing to get such fantastic results? Lots - but I'll focus on one sentence from an interview he gave very recently to ex-coach Sir Clive Woodward published this week (http://dailym.ai/2ji6BYQ):
"If you create the right environment people will change. Most people are products of their environment"
It's encouraging, simple - a BE banality, maybe: the same bunch of folk can perform differently if the environments are changed, improved.
So: how many of our MR environments are "right", attuned to peak MR performance?
Reception areas, presentational templates, desk spaces, flexibility of working hours, team meetings, technology and software, career development options, - there's lots of aspects of a working environment that can contribute to getting the best out of us all, making us chirpy and conveying that enthusiasm to fellow workers and yes, clients.
Leadership is key. Eddie Jones is massively smart - and he talks completely jargon-free, which is refreshing, and likely to connect better. He's also a rugby guy to the core, having done nothing else all his life.
Why is this particularly relevant? Becuase I think the analogy between the English coach/ national rugby team and the community of market researchers is interesting.
There is talent abundant within our MR ranks; arguably, we are guilty of collective under-performance, or at least not punching above our weight.
If that talent is unlocked, thanks to successul "environment management", there's no reason why we can't be an in-demand discipline - data folk that have expertise in giving business advice. There are plenty of worse places to be professionally than "market research".
Are we doing enough? I'd love to hear from people with successful MR initiatives that have created "the right environment" - who knows, maybe Esomar might find room for it as part of their conference or seminar calendar.
Curious, as ever, as others' views.