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Jul

6

Research Dis­missed!

July 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Writ­ten by: Lee on July 6, 2009.

ResearchMany times, I have sat in a research pre­sen­ta­tion and the out­comes dis­missed (behind closed doors) because they con­tra­dict management’s per­cep­tion. I have seen exec­u­tives walk out tak­ing from the research that which agrees with their views and dis­miss­ing that that dif­fers.
Is this dan­ger­ous or correct?

These exec­u­tives have worked in their busi­ness and know their indus­try and usu­ally have years of expe­ri­ence. They know what makes sense and what doesn’t. After all research has been wrong. I have seen qual­i­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive research dis­agree. This leaves exec­u­tives almost dis­trust­ing research. I have also seen good inten­tioned research turn out wrong through a lack of under­stand­ing of an industry.

If sound method­ol­ogy was used and the researchers have a good under­stand­ing of the indus­try and the busi­ness the research is con­ducted for, a 95% con­fi­dence level is pretty con­vinc­ing. Exec­u­tives should seri­ously inves­ti­gate the results they dis­agree with rather than put their head in the sand.

Hav­ing a good research agency or research depart­ment who has expert knowl­edge on what method of research to use, how to design solid ques­tion­naires with­out ambi­gu­i­ties and lead­ing ques­tions and what sam­ple size and tar­get seg­ment to probe should go a long way in ensur­ing the 95% con­fi­dence is just that.

It is impor­tant to explain, in non-technical terms, all the mea­sures that were under­taken to ensure the con­fi­dence level and mar­gin of error is accu­rate. This will not guar­an­tee belief. I would even encour­age pre­sen­ters to probe for dis­be­lief to dis­cuss uncer­tainty in the open and hope­fully build trust and a stronger rela­tion­ship with your client, whether inter­nal or external.

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