What is an insight?

Partners push consultants to create unique insights, but consultants struggle to understand what that actually means. Let's explore this question.

‘We don't need your help! You don't know our business.’—a senior client told us at the beginning of a four-week project.

‘Well, what a great start!’ - I thought, as a responsible partner for this project.

It's always 'fun' to work with a resistant client. But, the CEO commissioned this project, so we had to proceed.

The client, Chris, was one of those 'know it all' characters. He never listened and could outspeak anyone. A smart guy but difficult to work with.

He was skeptical of consultants and never missed an opportunity to tell us that.

So, I was determined to prove him wrong.

Clients were not cooperating and were slow to provide data.

Three weeks into the project, the team struggled to generate meaningful content.

This was not good news.

I didn't want to fail and prove Chris was right about us consultants.

We badly needed a breakthrough.

I leaned on one consultant to find unique insights. He was smart, curious, and fast at producing great outputs.

One day, he approached me all excited. He had found irregularities in the product sales distribution in one of the regions.

It looked really weird. In one month, the whole region started selling one product that was not even allowed to sell.

The most logical explanation was that it was a fraud. They used a loophole in the rules to boost sales and meet their commission quota.

Chris was speechless when we showed our findings.

I never forget that meeting.

He turned to his lieutenants for validation. They confirmed that the findings were correct. Fortunately, we had shown them these findings in advance.

Chris went ballistic, blaming his team for poor management. It became awkward.

As a result, Chris changed his demeanor towards us. He started treating us with more respect and listened to our advice.

That was the power of a game-changing insight.

Needless to say, that consultant became a high performer and got promoted very fast.

Fast forward one year.

I left McKinsey to coach consultants on how to succeed in this profession.

I teach many useful skills, but one of the trickiest skills to teach is finding unique insights.

When my clients ask me what is an insight, I like to give them my definition:

‘A piece of information that is unexpected and of significant importance.’

The insights you generate must be unexpected. Otherwise, clients will think you are saying obvious things. And it must be significant and relevant to the problem at hand. Otherwise, it will be just weird information.

But, consultants struggle to generate those insights when it comes to real-life work.

It's hard to do something when you have never done it before.

That is why I coach consultants through practical exercises.

In the Hero's Journey, consultants solve tough consulting problems. These are hard exercises resembling real-life problems they might face in their consulting work.

Then, when they create their outputs, I show them the best benchmark in this exercise.

It just hits differently to see the outputs of others.

They internalized the problem. They worked at their maximum capacity.

But then, they see how others have done it much better.

This expands their ambition and imagination of what they can do.

It’s also the best way to explain what an insight is.

I ask them, "Do you see the insight in this specific example?"

Very often, consultants produce descriptive outputs. Just reporting on facts without pushing the thinking.

But, in a benchmark, they can see the difference.

With this approach, they will push their quality and insightfulness to the next level when they solve their future problems.

If you are an MBB consultant and struggle with problem-solving and finding unique insights, I want to speak with you.

Book a Free 1-1 Consultation to discuss how I can help you with my coaching program. There is no commitment, and you can ask me any burning questions in a risk-free environment.

Read this post to learn more about the Hero’s Journey coaching program.

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