Motivating your superiors

to act on your advice

Simon Berglund
Analytics8 provides objective, independent, best-of-
breed Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
Services, leading organisations to
sustained, measurable success.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
1
Why am I presenting?
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
2
Is this your situation?
You have the data, the systems to house it and move
it, the processes to govern it, the applications to
analyse it, and the skillful application of it all to
generate insights that fuel advice.
But your advice is ignored
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
3
Why is advice ignored?
Politics
Socio-demography
Insufficient ability to persuade
Persuasion:
process of inducing someone
to do something
through reasoning
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
4
Pre-meeting - Understand them
Motivations
Personal style
Level & intensity of influence
State of Mind
Role in the decision process
Timing
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
5
Pre-meeting - Motivations
Business Result
Revenue
Profit
RoI
Stockturn
Error rate reduction
Personal Reward
Enhanced reputation
Promotion
Feeling of contribution
Restored credibility
Bonus
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
6
Pre-meeting - Personal Style
Numbers vs Conceptual
Visual vs Audible
Pensive vs Expressive
Remote vs In-person
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
7
Pre-meeting - Level & Intensity of Influence
What is their real level of influence, i.e. in an absolute
sense?
What is their intensity of influence, i.e. is it direct or
referred?
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
8
Pre-meeting - State of Mind
We need to do something.
We should do something.
No pressing need to do anything.
There is no need to do anything.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
9
Pre-meeting - Role
Optimus
Technical
Business
Consultant
Guide
Partner
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
10
Pre-meeting - Timing
Morning vs Afternoon
Lunchtime jogger
EoM
Results announcement
Racing off somewhere
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
11
In-meeting Flow
Get their attention first by starting big
Ive found a way to
save us / make us an extra $xxx a year
fix that problem we have with the
double our stockturn.
Show you understand the background.
Present your rationale.
Present the timetable for it.
Explain the financial impact.
Confirm their permission to proceed to the next step.
Ask them is there anything they think you should be
considering as part of this initiative.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
12
In-meeting Be attentive
Be prepared.
Present confidently.
Maintain eye contact.
Have proof for all statements.
Discrete mirroring creates connection.
Watch their body language.
Looking bored?
Do they look like they want to ask a question?
Distracted?
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
13
In-meeting Initial Reaction
Be well prepared to handle the following reactions:
Agreement
Objection
Indifference
Scepticism
Rejection
Play out all the potential reactions before the
meeting and have responses ready
We make data foundations analytics ready. We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
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Agreement
Present your next couple of steps.
Confirm their acceptance of those steps.
Thank them.
Walk out.
Confirm that understanding in an eMail.
Discreetly attribute some credit to your boss as you go
through the process of implementation.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
15
Objection
Fully understand the objection by questioning.
Address the objection with your prepared response.
Confirm they understand and accept your response.
Move on.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
16
Indifference
Your proposal is not compelling enough in their mind
so you must work to
increase the negative tension
between the current state and your end state.
Ive spoken to such-and-such and it turns out that
Were you aware that
Compared to XYZ company, we are
and this has been going on for some time.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
17
Scepticism
Offer proof sources
Respected
Same industry
Same sort of problem
Only offer if they are engaged.
Generally no more than 2
otherwise its value is diminished.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
18
Rejection
Accept it.
Learn from it.
Where in the argument did you lose them and why?
Identify and eliminate the weaknesses in your approach to the argument.
Identify (revel in!) and augment the strengths.
The better you get, the more you will be respected as a
learned advisor and the more closely you will be
heeded.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
19
Final thoughts
Stay on message.
Preparation prevents anxiety.
Are you the right person to sell the idea?
Credibility briefings.
Practise with a tough peer.
Ask for a bite-sized yes.
Make sure your role is clear and known.
Gender / cultural sensitivities.
Contribute without expectation.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
20
How we can help you
Try our unstructured data analytics platform.
Free workshop to understand how to create an
agile and resilient data foundation.
Learn how to supercharge your data
warehouse.
Join us at Data Modelling Zone.
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
21
Simon Berglund
www.analytics8.com
1800 463 656
www.linkedin.com/in/simonberglund
We are experts in remediating data foundations; making them ready for reliable analytics.
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