Evenbreak, a social enterprise job board dedicated to matching disabled people with inclusive employers, discusses a few hidden disabilities and the things we should consider when working/engaging with people who don’t look or seem disabled, but are. This is one of a series of posts focusing on different aspects of disability etiquette.
Plenty of other useful content on this website.
In the post Covid world, we are finding that we are increasingly conducting meetings and presentations online – but how do you keep your audience engaged when they are in disparate locations and possibly subject to all sorts of distractions? This was a question posed on the e-group, and which generated a lot of helpful suggestions from the ICG Hive which we have summarised here.
ICG member Curtis Arthur is an experienced and accomplished loyalty analytics and consulting professional who has made a career of creatively making the most of low budgets and disparate pieces of information. Here he writes about how to maximise theuse of insights you already own.
The term Sweating the Assets originated in the IT environment over a decade ago. Variously defined as cutting costs, virtualising, or “getting as much use as possible out of what you already possess”*, it is as imperative in the Insights world today because almost all of us have been asked to do more with less, regardless of our company, function, or level.
The great news is that sweating insight assets, aka knowledge activation (taking insights beyond assimilation into actions), works.
Successes from my personal experience include:
The backbone for sweating your insights assets is creating order out of chaos – a knowledge system with all of your assets in a consistent, searchable, accessible format.
An important strategy is creating a one-page abstract of each project that includes relevant findings as well as links to the source materials and contact details. The abstracts are then complied into a meta-library which can be searched, skimmed, and quoted easily by anyone in the organisation.
This library can be created in SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, or another collaborative platform.
Note: Mike Stevens’s blog article 15 Tools to Manage and Analyse Qualitative User Research references larger scale tools but there are also easier solutions that are often just as effective at a fraction of the cost.
This webinar was presented by ICG member Iris Griffiths. Recording available below.
All too often in the market research industry, interpreting is an underused and undervalued tool in the market research tool box, being seen as just a bridge to cover the language gap. The process of finding and briefing an interpreters is also often patchy.
It can – and should be – a whole lot more than this. Using the right interpreters in the right way can add significantly to your project.
In this webinar, ICG member Iris Griffiths, a qualitative market research consultant, experienced conference interpreter and translator and a teacher of interpreting and translation modules for universities and courses, took us through;
She talked about Simultaneous Interpreting (RSI) and the changes in the interpreting industry which can be a benefit or a threat for market research projects. What are the advantages/disadvantages of having an interpreter “live” at a viewing facility vs. working remotely? There are many RSI platforms in the market that will enable researchers to get a bit more control of how they work with interpreters in the project.
In an ever-increasing globalised world, cultural sensitivity is essential. As more companies grow and the global market place becomes more accessible for small businesses, multinational and cross-cultural teams are becoming more common. This means that now more than ever, businesses who are looking to expand internationally need to be aware of the culture of their new market in order to succeed.
Culture is the beliefs, ideas, and social behaviour of a particular person or group within society. But how does culture affect international business? In a business context, culture relates to what behaviour is accepted as common practice professionally in a specific location, compared to another. What may be acceptable business practice in one country may be very different to the approach that is used by businesses overseas. Therefore, recognising how culture can affect international business is something that should be understood in order to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunication between colleagues and clients. Understanding culture also ensures that the business is presenting itself to its new market in the best way it can.
Businesses need to be aware that different cultures have different attitudes towards business practices.
Scandinavian countries such as Sweden emphasise social equality and therefore they tend to have a relatively flat organisational hierarchy. This relates to their informal approach to communication, and cooperation is normally at the heart of their organisations. In Japan, their traditional values of relative status and respect for seniority are reflected in their organisations as reflected in their clear organisational structure. This means that senior management command respect at all times and expect a level of formality from junior members of their teams.
These different cultural attitudes towards management can therefore make it difficult to define roles in multinational teams. Therefore, it is important for businesses to be aware of their target market’s cultural approach towards organisational structure, and clearly identify their organisations approach so that all team members can act accordingly.
Workplace etiquette is something else that businesses need to be aware of if they are working internationally.
The formality of address is another key thing to consider within international businesses when communicating with colleagues and clients form different cultures. Are they comfortable with being approached on a first-name basis or do they prefer titles and surnames? Asian countries such as China seem to prefer the latter, where as Americans usually use first names. Things such as formality of address may not seem that important, but if you get off on the wrong foot with a potential foreign client then that could ruin your chances of ever working with them in the future. Therefore, it is important for businesses to know that their level of formality will differ depending on the culture of the person they’re communicating with.
Workplace etiquette in some cultures also means they have a different approach towards workplace confrontation, rules and regulations, and working hours. While some may consider working long hours a sign of commitment and achievement, others may consider these extra hours a demonstration of a lack of efficiency or the lack prioritisation of essential family or personal time.
Communication plays an important role in international business, and sometimes effective communication can be the difference between succeeding or failing in a new market. Effective communication is particularly important for international businesses as there is risk of your messages getting ‘lost in translation’. There are several things that need to be considered when looking at how effective your business’ communication is at an international level.
The first thing that should be considered when looking into communication is any language barriers that may hinder the communication between you and your new market. However, this goes deeper than just the language that is used to communicate, it’s how the messages are conveyed that’s important. Language barriers not only relate to people speaking different languages, but also to the different tone used within those languages. For example, in countries like the US or Germany, it is common for people to speak loudly and be more assertive when sharing ideas amongst colleagues. However, in countries like Japan people typically speak more softly and have a more passive tone when making suggestions to colleagues.
Another thing to consider are the basic customs, mannerisms and gestures that are commonly accepted in that culture. Behaviour that might be commonplace in one culture could be unusual or potentially offensive to a client or colleague overseas. Professor Jean Vanhoegaerden gives the example of a business handshake being the norm in European and US cultures, but in some Middle Eastern cultures handshakes are seen differently.
Businesses who are looking to operate internationally need to be aware of language barriers, tone and body language. Cross-cultural communication can be a challenge, but approaching cultural differences with sensitivity, openness, and curiosity can help businesses succeed internationally.
Don’t let an international deal fall apart due to cultural misunderstandings: businesses should do plenty of research and be open to new cultural experiences and expectations when doing business across borders. Businesses aren’t alone in this process, translation and localisation servicescan help businesses communicate internationally ensuring they have the best chance at succeeding in new markets.
Language Insight
info@languageinsight.com
+44(0)1772 252333
Recruitment company Cleverism has recently written an extremely interesting blog entitled ’18 best idea generation techniques’.
The blog which outlines the three stages of ideation, and then goes on to look at 18 idea generation techniques that can be used in workshops to inspire and challenge and that are engaging and fun to do.
Cleversm says ‘Ideas are things that come and go and fairly frequently too. However, the really great ideas usually spring unexpectedly in moments of inspiration. It becomes easier to come up with great ideas when we free ourselves from the mundane, everyday, conventional thoughts that take up the thought space in our brain’.
The three stages of ideation are;
The article then goes on to outline 18 different idea generation techniques – some of which are familiar (brainstorming, mindmapping, role playing) and some of which are less familiar (SCAMPER, synectics, morphological analysis, reverse thinking).
Useful ideas here for both enabling technques within groups, but also for client workshops and co-creation sessions.
Read the full blog here.
To mark the Year of Health and Wellness, the International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) teamed up with Altiant to bring a unique piece of research solely focused on affluent and HNW individuals’ views on the latest big travel trend.
Covering the US, UK, China and France, this research counts more than 600 interviews from individuals with Investible Assets (IA) median over US$650K and Household Income (HHI) median greater than US$250 . This research gives tangible insights into how this hard-to-reach population view the industry, their expectations and intentions towards this growing market.
The full report is availble, with kind permission of Meryam Schneider of Aliant, on the right, but here are some key findings;
As we know we are moving into the 'experience economy' – so it is likely that the trend towards, and demand for, this type of experience will only increase. Interesting reading and some good comparisons across regions.
Plus the usual presentation dos and donts…
Technical checks
Useful resources:
Many thanks to everyone who contributed…
From April 2019 VAT-registered businesses with a taxable turnover above the VAT registration threshold will be required to keep digital VAT business records and send returns using Making Tax Digital compatible software.
You will be able to ask questions during the following live webinar using the on-screen text box.
Making Tax Digital: This webinar provides an overview of Making Tax Digital (MTD) including digital record keeping, MTD compatible software, signing up for MTD, working with agents and submitting VAT returns directly from the business. HMRC are running loads of webinars during March in the run up to the deadline to help businesses.
HMRC’s YouTube channel has short videos to help you including:
Following a recent egroup exchange, Tanya Squires put together an outline of the types of information that you may want to include in your response … and some other members also made some suggestions. We have collated the responses here.
Bascially, you need to show that you are ensuring that any data is held/transferred securely and compliantly. You need to show that you are aware, that you have thought about it, and that you act in accordance with GDPR. YOu may want to consider including the following information;
Other resoursec include the ICG webinars which are still available to watch, and also a simple Goggle search for 'Data Protection Complience Statement' which will bring up various bits of boilerplate which may give you some more ideas. Also, look at the websites of the large research agencies for their response/ documents – they will probably be too complex for a small agency, but will give you some idea of how to go about it.
Note: this list was put together in Feb 2019. It is not exhaustive, nor is it meant to constitute formal 'advice' or 'guidance' in any way – it is purely a starting point for your thinking.