Having completed ten years, I decided to write down ten Insight Dojo learnings, one for each year. These are subjective and apply to smaller, entrepreneurial and creative companies. Context matters. For instance, we would have gone bankrupt if we had followed the advice of Reed Hastings related to the success of Netflix 🙂. The learnings are given below:
1. Hire people as if for a band: In a small entrepreneurial outfit, every individual creates the culture. It is essential that the people one hires, however diverse, align on the same values and purpose. I find the band analogy helpful. There are so many talented musicians everywhere, but you need those who like playing your music, show up for practice, like hanging out with each other, and commit to sticking with you through tough times.
2. Work only in areas where you are distinctive and partner with other distinctive players: My friend George Whitmore, a brilliant jazz saxophonist and a coach, taught me to never be compelled to fill every bar whilst accompanying him on the piano. His advice was to be distinctive and surprising (e.g., coming in before or after a beat, changing the chord, varying the intensity), make space for other musicians, and stimulate their creativity. I internalised this metaphor for music and for Insight Dojo. This mind-set helps us choose what we should do and avoid, select great partners to collaborate with, and structure engagements where we can work well with other players and deliver impact for our clients.
3. Serve purposeful clients: When I say purposeful, I do not mean just having a lofty goal. It could be a pure business objective like growing sales 2X in a particular time period. Purposeful clients challenge us, make us grow, bring out our passion, allow us to demonstrate our effective chops, and ultimately provide an environment that is conducive to the implementation of the insights. And when the purpose has a benefit to mankind, for instance, advancing a scientific field, benefitting a patient group or creating a new sustainable technology, it is truly a rewarding experience.
4. Seek feedback and set up a learning network: I’ve always been in environments that depend on feedback, especially of a critical nature, for development, be it McKinsey, Shotokan Karate, or an eclectic mix of musical schools. When I founded Insight Dojo, I missed the guidance you get from colleagues and mentors who are committed to your growth. Overtime, we have created a system of getting regular feedback internally and from our clients. We also have a global network of other entrepreneurs and experts in a variety of disciplines who routinely provide an “outside-in” perspective about our practices, fast track our understanding of new technologies, suggest new ideas, and sometimes just hold us accountable to execute on our commitments.
5. Use adversity to discover your blind spots and grow: Setbacks happen, and often unpredictably. It could be something like the pandemic or sometimes even a positive event such as the disappearance of a big client due to an acquisition by another company. Every time, introspection leads to new creative ways of growing. The loss of the client built our business development muscle and ushered in some of our most stimulating projects. COVID-19 strengthened our digital capabilities, and helped us move substantially beyond Europe, and gain clients in the US and in Asia. Read more on this topic and Albert O. Hirschman’s “Principle of the Hiding Hand” in this lovely article, The Gift of Doubt, by Malcolm Gladwell
6. Recognise nonsense: These days, we are constantly subjected to many opinions, especially on social media, without evidence, intuition, or imagination. Even prestigious institutions seem to be under pressure to make provocative claims. When you dig into the methodologies and facts, you find that the inferences are questionable if not misleading. Scepticism combined with curiosity is an asset. It helps one innovate and adopt new practices and technologies more authentically.
7. Temper passion: Most people in entrepreneurial set ups are passionate about their work. Passion makes us create new things and go that extra mile to deliver impact. However, it can make one one-sided, over-reach many times, and cause burnout. Even though we pull out all the stops to deliver a quality product, we try to be mindful of the negative consequences so that we have greater balance and endurance.
8. Enjoy every day: Our work of discovering insight is naturally full of dazzling moments, e.g., whilst doing ethnography discovering an under-served need that could transform our client’s business or finding a non-linear pattern in quantitative data with a new analytical model. However, we do enjoy tasks that might be considered mundane, e.g., crafting a screener, running many iterations of multivariate analysis or watching qualitative interview videos repetitively. Our ability to spot insights is dependant on being curious, open, and happy whilst carrying out such tasks. Enjoying every day is a priority. When we do business travel, we work very hard, but ensure that we have allocated time to immerse ourselves in the local culture. Active pursuit of hobbies by Insight Dojo employees is highly encouraged. Read How to have a good day by Caroline Webb for more ideas.
9. Unlearn as much as you learn to realise your full potential: As an entrepreneur, you are likely to have a different vision of how things ought to be done. That will naturally lead you to reject certain practices you’ve learnt in your prior organisations. However, there are orthodoxies from your past that operate at a subconscious level that must be gotten rid of to realise the full potential of your vision. Reinvention requires letting go of your past. Watch this 30-second video by Joni Mitchell on reinvention
10. Always remember why you have founded the company: There are so many times, when we face situations where we have to make hard choices. Going back to the motivation for founding Insight Dojo immediately simplifies the decision and clarifies the choice. When we are guided by values, it is often unclear if the decisions we make are the best from a financial perspective, but the feelings of happiness and solidity make them worthwhile.