Time to think – An introduction to Precision Thinking

Time to think – An introduction to Precision Thinking

Alex: Gareth, you and I have both worked with commercial teams for years and years. Helping them get better at what they do. And one of the things that we have really engaged people around recently is this notion of thinking.

Our Precision Thinking program really pushes people’s buttons and helps them think differently about how they build their relationships with their customers.

One thing that I have always found curious about this is that one of the barriers that people cite very often when they’re with us is that they don’t have time to think and of course, it’s ironic when you think about it. That’s when you think about it.

That, in fact, that thinking itself is likely to dramatically shake the way that they approach customers and the strategies that we build with the customers.

Talk to us a little bit about your experience with that, but maybe how we can overcome that barrier and be more successful.

Gareth: Yeah. It’s a very interesting observation. And, I think one of the things that when people first meet people and say, well, “how are you?” and everyone always says “I’m busy” And by the way, I’ve never really heard anybody say I’m really effective.

There is a difference between those two things. And when we’re talking about building customer plans or building brand plans or building a strategy for a company or a brand or whatever it might be. There’s a real big lesson here,

which is that’s rarely done in the day to day running of a business. The humdrum stuff that just keeps the cogs turning.

And how do I know that? Well, because the people who come on our programs,

when we run these programs, it’s almost like a sigh of relief. It’s the “ It’s really great just to take some time out away from the day to day” and step back and just start to reflect and think about what is it we’re trying to do? You know, what’s going on in their customers world or whatever it is they’re working on. So just

taking that time out is a really important aspect of just getting our brains in gear so that we can start to focus on “are we going in the right direction?”

Alex: So taking time out’s one thing. Okay. And totally sign on to that as an idea.

But how do you stop people from if you’re like reheating last year’s plans and twiddling it a bit rather than almost peeling back layers and saying, well okay, let’s look at it through a fresh pair of eyes. How do you get people to do that?

How can people watching this video get some inspiration about how to go about that?

Gareth: Yeah. Well, I think, first of all be very intentional about what you’re trying to do here and put some time in the diary be that a day or two days or whatever you think it’s going to take. Because thinking differently is rarely done solo and it’s rarely done in front of a PC screen.

I know from my own personal experience. I often have some of my best thoughts when walking the dog along the canal or something like that. So rarely do I have it in front of the screen. So, it’s getting people away from the day to day and giving them permission. So that they’ve got some time and almost permission to think differently. And I think that’s a really important point here because if you’re really trying to think differently about your customer or whatever, you have to take some time out, and I’d encourage, and we’re going to talk about it later. Getting some people around you to challenge each other as well.

So just taking a step back, getting some people together who can challenge your thinking, and therefore come up with some new insight and some new perspectives.

Alex: Okay. Great. So, I know we’re going to talk some about some tools in later videos, specifically to help people do that.

But the key thing here is actually make it important enough to give it the time. But actually, not doing it solo, that’s all I’m hearing here very, very clearly. So, getting the idea of bouncing ideas off other people and making sure that you’re co-thinking rather than thinking individually.

Gareth: Absolutely.

Alex: Thank you.