The Indiefield Blog

Clients and staff make irrational requests all the time. That doesn't make them unreasonable. If satisfying their request moves things forward, it's not always worth the effort to teach someone a lesson. Sometimes, it's more effective to just embrace their irrationality. Being right doesn't always have to be the goal.

Scientists make predictions, and predicting the future is far more valuable than explaining the past. Ask a physicist what will happen if you fire a projectile like this in that direction, and they'll know. Ask Walter White how to make the meth blue and you'll get the right answer. Analysts who come up with plausible explanations for what just happened don't help us as much, because it's not always easy to turn those explanations into useful action. The practice, then, is to start making predictions. In writing. You don't have to share them in public, but the habit will push you to understand your instincts and to sharpen your ability to see what works (and what doesn't) without the easy out of having to explain what already happened. I predict that the more you practice your predictions, the better you'll get at discerning where the science is.

...work hard. That way, you'll have something to show for it. The biggest waste is to do that thing you call work, but to interrupt it, compromise it, cheat it and still call it work. Stop gossiping and playing stupid games at work with your colleagues. Instead do something to advance your career and the company. In the same amount of time you can expend twice the effort and get far more in exchange.

Companies should never try to change the worldview of the audience they're selling to. The term worldview in this context is the set of expectations and biases that colour the way each of us see the world. The worldview of a 50 year old luxury wine-loving investment banker is very different from that of a 21 year old graduate. One might see a £1,000 bottle of Château Pétrus as both a bargain and a must-have, while the other might see the very same bottle of wine as a tasteless and insane waste of money. Worldview changes three things: attention, bias and vernacular. Attention, because we choose to pay attention to those things that we've decided matter. Bias, because our worldview alters the way we filter and interpret what we hear. And vernacular, because words and images resonate with people differently based on their worldview. It's extremely expensive, time consuming and difficult to change someone's worldview. Sell nuts to squirrels, don't try to persuade dolphins that nuts are delicious.

On social media people talk endlessly about all the things the typical person can't possibly afford. Mansions, cars, jets, jewels, dinners with Gwyneth Paltrow. At the same time, you get negative feedback when you talk about things people have chosen not to have. If you promote a great product that only works on an iPhone, all the people who have chosen Android get angry, that special kind of angry that belongs to the people who made a decision. The reason, I think, is that you're reminding people of a decision they made, a decision that might have felt right at the time, but when they made it, they didn't know what would happen. Turns out there is a big difference between "don't tell me what I can't have" and "don't tell me what I've chosen not to be able to have". So dreaming of winning the lottery is fine but experiencing regret over a decision is not.

If you're not eager to share your perspective, don't bother sharing it. The audience wants to hear what you have to say, and if the question isn't right on point, reframe it, and answer that question instead. If your answers aren't interesting, exciting or engaging, that's on you.

"I did the reading."

No one said the preparation part was fun, but yes, it's important. I wonder why we believe we can skip it and still be so extremely smart.

Philosophers and lawyers talk about agency: the responsibility that comes with the capacity to act in the world. If you can decide, if you can act, you have agency. Life without agency would be a nightmare. Trapped in a box, unable to do anything by choice, nothing but a puppet. It always makes me wonder why then, do both companies and people struggle so intently to avoid the responsibility that comes with agency? "It's not my job, my boss won't let me, there's an ISO rule, we're prohibited, it's our supplier, that's our policy...". It's not something you can turn on or off. Either you have the capacity to act in the world. Or you don't.

The news tells us about the world economy or the national economy, or even the economy in a specific region. This is easy to talk about, statistically driven and apparently important to everyone. But in reality this has absolutely nothing to do with your day, your job and your approach to life. If the unemployment rate in market research doesn't match the national numbers, the national numbers don't matter so much. Economics used to be stuck in geography. Now, as markets and industries transcend location, useful economic stats describe the state of the people you're working with and selling to.

Some people work hard to lower the bar at work. These are the people who not only do the minimum amount permitted, they actually work hard to do just a little bit less than that. Most people seek to meet the bar. They figure out what's expected, and do that. A few people, very few, work to relentlessly raise the bar. They are the ones who overdeliver on projects, show up ahead of schedule, instigate, suggest and push. Raising the bar is exhausting, no doubt about it. I'm not sure the people who engage in this apparently reckless behaviour would have it any other way, though. They get to experience a fundamentally different day, a different journey and a different reputation to everyone else.

No company cares about you. Companies are simply not capable of this. Your bank, certainly, does not care. Neither does your pension provider or even that online retailer that you purchase so much from. It's amazing to me that people are surprised to discover this fact. People, on the other hand, are perfectly capable of caring. It's part of being a human. If you want to build a caring company, you need to fill it with caring people and then get out of their way. When you free your people to act like people (as opposed to cogs in a profit-maximising efficient company machine) then the caring will obviously happen.

There is often an initial warning sign that a project is in trouble. Sometimes it even begins before the project does. Our subconscious starts looking around for an excuse, deniability and something to blame. It gives us confidence and peace of mind - it's far easier to be calm when the police appear at your door if you have an excuse handy. Sometimes we even start looking for the excuse before we accept the project. We say to ourselves (and our clients), "this is best efforts ..." Then, as the project moves along (or not), we continually add to and refine our excuse, reminding ourselves of all the factors that were out of our control. Some people who have a built-in all-purpose excuse (middle child syndrome, wrong astrology sign, some slight at the hands of their upbringing or the system from long ago) and they often end up failing. They have an excuse ready to go, so it's easier to back off when the going is tough. Here's an alternative to the excuse-driven life: what happens if you actively avoid looking for excuses at all? Instead of making excuses, the successful project is filled with people who are obsessed with avoiding excuses.

A shop owner has to make bets. To buy inventory, to choose this over that, to make decisions in advance about what's going to sell. The owner might need to make these decisions months in advance, with no chance to re-order if there's a hit and nothing but discounted sales (losses) for what doesn't sell. The relentless physics of the situation means that shops need the ability to not just pick hits, but to make them. It's so different in the digital world. Amazon Prime says: "We're going to sell everything, and a lot of it. We don't care which thing, because it's all the same to us. Just put everything in the store and the market will sort it out". As a result, they have far less promotional power. Amazon doesn't make a hit, it contains hits - they have it all and the longer the tail, the better.

What do you do with legacy products and services? Things you started that never really caught on, or died out slowly over time? That's a very easy way to judge the posture and speed of a company. If there's a one-way track - stuff gets added, but it never gets taken away - then the ship is going to get slower and heavier and become much harder to handle and it will eventually sink. Either you're focused on maintaining the legacy features or you're focused on figuring out how to replace them with the future. Your clients want the future, not the past.

There is a lot of fear associated with 'overstretched'. Too much financial risk and you'll end up stressed, bankrupt and overstretched. But what about the more prevalent, more subtle and ultimately more damaging notion of being under stretched? The old school factory-mindset encourages every employee to protect their time and their effort. Don't go the extra mile because no-one will ever thank you. Don't push harder because you'll only damage yourself. Don't let them make you do more because that will be the new normal and you'll have to work harder forever. It's true: in most businesses productivity only increases as the result of more effort, and that effort is rarely compensated in an immediately obvious way. Here's the thing: modern work is different. In fact, the exhaustion from overstretching yourself in a modern working environment is some of the best exhaustion you will ever feel. So yes, we need to figure out how to push ourselves until we're overstretched.

On paper it is quite easy. Sell a story that some people want to believe. In fact, sell a story they already believe. The story has to be integrated into your product and services. The iPad, for example, wasn't something that people were clamouring for... but the story of it, the magic tablet, the universal book, the ticket to the fashion-geek tribe - suddenly there was huge queue out the door for it. The same way that every year, we see a new film sensation, a new fashion superstar, a new hit record, a new online phenomenon. It's not an accident. That story is just waiting for someone to hear it. They key point here is "some people". Not everyone will understand your story, and that's okay too.

If you play music in a tube station with a bucket or card reader for donations, every song must be a showstopper. There's no chance for nuance and pauses while you build up to a crescendo. If the commuter doesn't stop, it's all for nought. So your music changes. You're always at 11, always jamming it, always pushing the moment. Most of us behave like this, sometimes anyway. But occasionally someone will stop to actually listen to you, and then you have a choice. You can take that person on a journey, forego the next stranger and instead seduce the one you've got... or you can keep pushing for more attention from more commuters. Both work. The challenge is in making a choice, your choice, a choice based on why you're doing the work in the first place. It's not up to the commuter, it's up to you.

Yeah whatever. This is tough advice. Sometimes it seems as though the only way to take it is personally. Here's the thing: it's never personal. It's never about you. How could it be? That critic doesn't truly know you, understand you, or hear the voices in your head. All they know is themselves. So you just carry on doing your work, the best way you know how, producing the best you can. Is there really any other choice?

I love the lottery, because it's easy. Not certain, but easy. If you win, you've hit the lottery, literally. Most of us are searching for a path to success that is both easy and certain. Most paths are neither.

When you are truly living on the edge, maybe going into space, or traipsing to the North Pole, there's no room at all for error. It's a luxury you can't afford. Make a mistake and you die. For the rest of us, though, it's not quite as serious. Being wrong won't kill us, it's just something we'd prefer to avoid. We have the privilege of being wrong. You won't advance your cause or discover new truths if you're obsessed with being right all the time. And the only way not to be right all the time (and to compound your advantage and accomplish even more than you already have set out to) is to be as open to being wrong as often as you can afford to be.

...if you stopped actively messing up your own work.

You are a talented, powerful, and resilient creature. I mean look at how far you have come, and how much you manage to do despite the lack of time, constant self doubt, ridicule and needless criticism you aim at yourself.

When I was a kid my dream was to be Head of the British Library. Lofty ambition I know! I had this dream of being in charge of something that was truly worth sharing, where people could come and read things that they did not have to own. I now realise that a librarian is so much more than a cataloguer of books. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa, a sheepdog, and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the highly motivated user. Somehow that's exactly what we have ended up doing at Indiefield.

The original library was all about educating the working man who would work all day and become a more civilised member of society by reading at night. Things like Netflix are an even better library, with a librarian who knows almost every single film, and also knows what you've seen and what you're likely to want to see. It connects viewers with films. The way Indiefield connects clients with respondents.

We need librarians more than ever to figure out creative ways to find and use data. The modern library is so much more than just a warehouse of data and the modern librarian is a producer, concierge, connector, teacher, and fixer because with literally every book now available on a Kindle (cheap, not worth warehousing) the scarce resource is knowledge and insight, not access to data. The librarian is the gateway to the information economy and for the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.

Many years ago Arthur C. Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And wow isn't that true? If you time travelled back to the 1600s with an iPhone or a Tesla you would probably be worshipped (or burnt at the stake, who knows?). And the magic continues today with biotech, quantum mechanics, and of course AI. There's so much magic around us that we've probably started taking it for granted.

It's easy:

1. See me
2. Love me
3. Interact with me
4. Do what I ask
5. Miss me when I'm gone

Obviously your company is the best. You work there, you helped build it, everything it does makes sense to you, you have been involved from the start. So that means your company doesn't do anything wrong, and it always does the best it can do under the given circumstances. Everyone should use you! But the problem with truly believing that you are the best is that it leaves very little room to innovate and change. After all, the only reason to ever change is to be the best but you are already there so...

Being humble is the best response to a fast-changing and competitive marketplace. The humble company understands that it needs to re-earn attention, re-earn loyalty and reconnect with its clients as if every day is the very first day.

Has anyone ever looked you in the eye and said "I expected more from you"? Or asked why you are not making a difference? Or demanded that you set aside your fear and try anyway. Or accused you of holding back? If they have it's because they are showing you love and kindness and want the best for you.

People use personal trainers because the trainer pushes you to make more of an effort - you'll do more push ups or another lap if someone is shouting at you. So we hire a trainer or a coach or a whatever it is that we are into in order to make us do more and whip us into shape. Effort is transitory and hard to measure and even harder to do on a regular basis so it requires oversight. But ultimately, if we only grow on demand are we selling ourselves short? Can the student ever really become the master if the master is there simply to keep us motivated? Are you really helpless without someone telling you what to do?

We don't need cameras or watches because we have our phones. Nobody buys cameras. Nobody buys watches. Books are on our Kindles now. Nobody buys books. The market to nobody is huge and sometimes it's better to sell your product to nobody than to try to sell to everyone. Companies selling to nobody outperform those that are trying to sell to everyone

If I invite you to a party there is very little resistance. You either immediately say yes or if you have a diary clash, you tell me you can't make it. Either way, the decision is instant. So if your marketing and product departments are doing their job every sale is more like an invitation. It's hard to argue that the guys in the Apple store on Regent Street are really selling iPads when there's a queue out the door. You don't want it? Next! So the idea is to align everything in the company so that a sale is not a sale - it's an invitation. We all know that the salesperson's job is to help people overcome their fears so that they can purchase something they will ultimately be happy with. The goal of the marketing and product offering is to turn your salesman into an inviter.

If you are building something new, particularly a new digital product, you can't be online with your users to help them and guide them and show them how it works. Instead you need to build something that works intuitively. But something that's definitely worth doing is to have a "share your confusions" button. This is not about comments and suggestions it's about allowing users to help with your work and bring to your attention things that are not as clear as they should be.

There are companies that have been around for hundreds of years and plan to be around for hundreds more. No doubt their long run is more than ours. But too often we think in terms of the short run only. Do we really know what our long terms plans are? And how long is long?

I hope that these are the things children are learning:

• The ability to focus on a problem until it is solved
• The benefit of deferring short term gain for long term success
• Critical thinking (and reading)
• An ability to lead without clear delegated authority
• Project management, self management and idea management
• How to retain an insatiable desire for knowledge
• Self reliance

If you are too trusting of the invisible then you buy an e-book for £50 that promises to make you an overnight millionaire. So the trick is to discern the invisible stuff that's true from the invisible stuff that's a trick otherwise you're helpless in a world where just about every decision you make has to do with things that are invisible. The best advice is to be skeptical. Test and measure and do your research (seeing if the thing is the truth is often a useful starting point to help you move forward). The truth can't be a relative concept, it's just so often invisible.

Popularity is not a measure of impact. Popularity definitely does not correlate with having guts, working hard, and a willingness to take on a new and difficult project. You'd think that popularity is the most important thing in the world but you're wrong - delighting an audience that matters to you is.

Long work is spending a 12 hour working day filling in forms. Hard work is having an insight that pulls multiple an seemingly disparate ideas into one idea that ultimately helps the client improve their product.

Long work is always required. But hard work is scary. You might fail, something that you cannot do with long work (assuming you can fill in forms). So long work sets the stage, because you show up and you practice and you learn. Only after the long work can you be ready for the hard work. And you only get the benefits from the hard work if you are willing to think differently.

On the day that everyone finally notices your work, wholeheartedly approves of everything you have done and sings your praises, then what will happen? We all work so hard thinking about and planning for that day. Why? Maybe the approval of others is not as all it's cracked up to be. Maybe we don't need the whole world to know how great we are. What if knowing you did a great job yourself was actually enough?

When you decide to sell your house you call an agent...

When you call a lawyer because you need help...

When you are new in town and call a recommended restaurant to book dinner...

Work your way down the list. From stock brokers to hairdressers - whenever a new referral shows up, all the things it took to get them there... and then the phone gets answered by someone who is rude and unhelpful. Phone calls matter more than you think.

Is it really every girl's dream to become a princess, to be chosen by a prince and to have a multi million pound wedding watched on TV around the globe? Or is that the Disney corporation betraying you and selling you short? Dreams are too important to give up on and to delegate to an American cartoon and amusement park company trying to make a buck.

There's only one thing worse than saying "I am not allowed to" and that is admitting that "I am allowed to". The amount of freedom that we all now have to deliver our tasks, keep our own schedules, and do whatever it takes to deliver for clients is truly unbelievable. When you utter something like "I am not allowed to" what you are actually saying is "I want great results but I cannot take the initiative". But with initiative comes authority and responsibility for delivery. Once you acknowledge all of this, of course you have to do something about it.

Everyone knows that you cannot have heads without tails. Doing something new is like that. You cannot have success without failure so whenever you hear someone say "failure is not an option" what you are really hearing is "innovation is not an option".

Organisational change is an ongoing business necessity. Employees leave, and new employees are hired, new teams, departments, processes and structures are created as the company grows, and businesses adopt new technology to stay ahead of the curve. The challenge for anyone in business is to truly accept the urgency of the problem and of being hyper aware of the need to change. Once you can see how the way that you used to work has stopped working, then, and only then, can you dream up a new way, a better one.

A bully starts a fight - plays up in the office or online, gets pulled aside for his or her behaviour. Then the bully twists words, casts blame and somehow turns themselves into a victim. People around them back down, make amends, do what they can to assuage further tantrums and gives the bully another chance. And the cycle continues. Being a bully is a choice, but to some degree, allowing the cycle to continue is also a choice or at the very least a choice no-one truly wanted to make - a mistake.

Long term client relationships find their foundations in a proper arrangement. Here are a few examples...

The farmer's market: I want to eat local foods that taste great. The farmer's market wants to give me local foods that taste great.

Google: I want to find what I am looking for. Google wants me to find what I am looking for.

Apple: I want Apple to be cool. Apple wants to be cool.

The trick is to align your service provisions with the needs of your client.

Like any industrial revolution, none of what is happening around us is linear. It is all about the fits and starts. The mass market is replaced with a multitude of micro markets and now there is a long tail of choice for consumers of just about anything. eBay and Amazon connects buyers and sellers, manufacturing is outsourced, and online information exchanges puts us more in charge of our destinies than ever before. Everything is different now and there is a real opportunity for us all to run from the mediocre middle and develop best in class skills, to tell amazing stories, to easily spread the word, to be in demand, and to satisfy real customer needs.

The decades that brought us to ever increasing productivity and office jobs and an expanded middle class have come to an end. The internet is here and the world has changed. Now we have a gig economy, online news sites, different ways to watch TV and TikTok influencers. Things won't go back, this is the new normal.

The newspaper business, the car business, the record business, even the computer and phone business... one by one, all industries are being turned upside down, and it is happening so fast that we are having to adapt just as quickly. It's not nice, it doesn't feel fair, but it's here to stay and it is all we've got. The world has changed, the sooner we can accept it and make something of what we've got, the better.

There are two types of people in the world. Those who will try things and those who won't. Think about a buffet - some people happily load up their plate with a little bit of everything, going back for more if they find something they like and some people will actively avoid certain items and carefully compile their meal.

The truth is, at any point in time we either try new things or we don't. Those who won't are scared of making a mistake and are protecting themselves. The trick is to make people aware of you when they are in the mood to load up their plate.

I am always intrigued by the idea of a 10 year diary. I am sure I had one when I was a kid but never actually managed to fill it, and clearly lived those intervening 10 years. Whatever happens over the next 10 years, if history is any guide at all it will mean that 2022 will be a faded memory for most. What matters more than what has happened, is what we decide to do now. What will we do over the next 3,650 days? Here's to all the possibilities, to being good, and to betting that the future is bright for us all.

The only way that market research clients improve their business is by having the best fieldwork suppliers. It's that simple. Yes they can streamline their internal processes, train their staff to be the best of the best, sell their services to every blue-chip company in the world. But if they buy a poor quality fieldwork supplier it all falls apart. The power of the purchasing department's ability to make or break a project / researcher / company cannot be overstated. Whoever buys the best, wins.

Everyone understands the economies of scale. Bigger hotels can have more guests. Bigger factories make more stuff. Bigger hospitals treat more people. Bigger depots process more packages. But what about being small? If you want to make a profit less overheads and a cut down but refined offering will help. If you want to do the work of a great artist getting rid of worldly obligations and day to day administration will help you do that. Suddenly it is a breeze to produce that product or service line that is offered to just a few lucky clients with 100% of your unfettered attention. We need to re-think these economies... there's something to be said for being small and better.

There's a reason it's a sin. It used to be "thy shall not covet thy neighbours Ox" so in a sense this was all about keeping up with the Jones's. But on social media these days it is so easy to find someone taller, thinner, richer, more beautiful, more intelligent, more successful, liked a lot more, with more followers, online friends, and LinkedIn connections. And there's no doubt you are better and more deserving than them. Ultimately it is all futile. The people above you are better than you, so are the ones below you worse? So when you make it to the top is everyone behind you less than you? I don't think so.

1. It starts with you talking about yourself, and your plans and intentions, to those around you who care about you and have your back.
2. Then it moves into a promotional stage where others bring your message to the wider world (cue advertising agencies and social media postings).
3. From there you move to the journalists and the editorial team talking you up. Not always easy as they may talk you down so it's not without risks.
4. The final stage is when bloggers and content creators are spreading your message.

All this only happens if you are delivering something worth talking about so get busy doing what you do.

The job of a managing director is not to cross things off the list. Her job is to write the list, and then work out what comes next.

Whenever we assess ourselves it is so easy to be brutally cruel and unreasonable because most if us are filled with self-doubt and self-blame. Even the people who appear to so easily project these things on to others. How about we start treating ourselves (and those around us) just a tiny bit more supportively. What would happen if we took more responsibility in order to have the real authority next time. Now there's a thought.

There's very little point to an exchangeable, PowerPoint reading, acronym-spewing middle management type these days. The type of manager who is quick to bitch and whine but slow to actually deliver. But there is a point to managers who can bend the world to their will, with enough initiative and vision to really add value to any project. Be that manager.

The advent of technology and the internet means so many previous administratively burdensome tasks are now done by a PC or are outsourced to someone who does it better, faster and cheaper than you. We no longer have to phone for a taxi we just open our Uber app. If you want to know a fact you don't have to learn anything you can just Google it. So what are we now filling all that digital time with? Oh, I know. TikTok.

Companies and resources that are owned by private individuals or entities who are free to trade contracts with each other ultimately leads to increased efficiency, greater production, and a plethora of innovation. But success leads companies to protect their assets and investments by doing everything to make their market "un-free". Locking in patents, long term pricing and building barriers to entry in order to safeguard their balance sheet. Such thinking is up against technology, forced transparency and more sophisticated consumers with regulation on their side. In the short term the monopoly seeking entity is more effective. But in the long term the free market will always win.

We all know that developers, designers and artists do their best work when left alone to get into the flow and stay well away from the humdrum of organisational management. No clockwatching, no meetings, no stress from project demands. Our creative people need to be protected from all sorts of wasteful nonsense. Managers need to think more about what it is to be a creative because we all know that creating things is more difficult than it ever was before. And most managers would probably benefit from a bit of isolation to do the truly challenging tasks before them. But the creatives amongst us need to learn to behave more like a manager. If they don't they are ultimately side lined and get cut out of the big decisions within an organisation. Neither creatives or managers insist their way is the best way, but nothing will be brought into the world if they don't fully co-operate.

There are times in our lives when we have very little information upon which to make a decision – sometimes there's absolutely no information and nothing but the hum of a white noise machine. And yet still you have to make a decision. So you can use your experience, your intelligence, you might even try and tap into metaphysics and the principle governing all things! But occasionally all you can do is toss a coin. If you want to make sure you're right do best of three. If there is not enough data, or there cannot be enough data, insist on a coin toss. At least that way you can save yourself hours of pontificating and admit to yourself that you are winging it.

The thing about lionising successful people is that we only ever remember the successful things they did and completely forget all the ideas and ventures they had that failed. A great example of it is Oprah Winfrey who has a long history of failed shows, abandoned projects, and plans that never came to fruition. But we all know how well respected by the market and loved by society at large she is. We simply don't track any of the failures. And neither should you when you think about yourself.

These are the two options available to most of us:

1. You are ideal. Everything is always on time, your documents contain no typos, you deliver flawlessly and you complete every task efficiently.
2. You are fascinating. You shake things up and deliver outstanding products and services that blow people out of the water.

How many staff should answer their phone on a Saturday? What's the policy regarding postponement and cancellation? How quickly following the end of the fieldwork are the respondents paid? Can I contact the people who took part in my study? How many steps from the train station to the research venue?

Three quick tips for anyone who cares about this:

1. Think carefully about the individuals experience at every touch point.
2. Run through the process from the "other side" and call out what needs to improve.
3. Make it easy for feedback from every possible angle so that you can make things better for everyone you interact with.

Pine nuts are served by the handful and it's literally impossible to check everyone so a bad tasting pine nut can ruin a whole mouthful. A pineapple is different. You pick it up and smell it and if you don't like it you can simply choose another pineapple. If you are selling pineapples the goal is to make your pineapples the best that there is. If you are selling pine nuts the goal is to get a uniform size and shape and eliminate all defects. Pineapples are about looking and smelling great and appealing to the individual. Pineapple buyers get to choose! The pine nut producers needs to focus on statistical - and data-driven processes like Six Sigma to limit mistakes or defects.

From a very early age we are taught how to behave towards people in authority. By the time we get to school the emphasis is on being 'good student' and that translates into "being a good employee". But in many ways this can lead to being "safe" and never challenging the way things are done because a) you don't want to rock the boat and b) there is a risk of failure so all your "good employee" kudos is lost. But does this truly help your boss? Isn't the truth that maximising what you do as opposed to minimizing and being safe the only way you can raise the bar? You might fail, you might get reprimanded, but if you want real growth you need to see those in authority as resources not limits.

We either ignore brands or we judge them, and most of the time with hardly any information. A good brand has a laser like focus, knows exactly who its target audience is, has a clearly defined mission, knows its USP, can identify its key values, tell its story from the beginning and have a brand identity reflective of these goals, and does all of this consistently. Seems so obvious. What is less obvious is an in built ability to discipline, ostracise or even expel the negative within. A good brand will fight not to get hurt from both within and without. "You're hurting us, this is wrong, we are expelling you."

So what lessons have we learned along the way?

Lesson 1: In fact, you can make a difference, you can begin something from nothing and grow it without authority or permission. Passionate people on a mission make change happen.

Lesson 2: You must be prepared to stick at it, to push yourself, to last longer than you ever expected and to care so much it actually hurts you.

It's so easy to be disappointed that you are not a huge success. But what does huge success truly mean? In market research I suppose it means being known beyond the sector, having a swanky office in London (with a viewing studio attached!), maybe even multiple offices across the globe. All we've done is bring new staff into the sector, consistently deliver top class fieldwork and recruitment for our clients, and offer members of the public amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to take part in cutting edge market research that makes the world better for everyone. There will always be someone telling you that you're not cool enough, clever enough, business minded enough or whatever enough. That's their agenda. But what's yours? Always shun the non-believers.

It's all about efficient internal operations, true fieldwork knowledge, a positive attitude, creative problem solving skills, fast response times, a highly personalised service, full support to whatever level you need, a focus on wider trends so we can add value for clients over time, and above all else absolute ownership of the fieldwork.

I suppose what this really means is that the things that have the most value or quality cost nothing - in other words the price of something does not always properly indicate its value. The extra care, the extra love, the extra attention. It doesn't cost anything at all really.

I once heard a joke about how Hallmark Cards invented various occasions simply to sell more cards so when I heard about World Back Up Day I immediately thought that the people at Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud are having a joke on us. But it's true, it exists and let's face it, if you care about it, you probably should back it up.

https://www.worldbackupday.com/en

You learn a lot about yourself (and others) during a slow news day. You know the sort of days I am talking about. The days when there's no big problem to solve, fewer than normal new business enquiries, no dramatics on the business front.

So what do you do? Do you get to grips with all that "should have/could have" admin that's built up? Do you check over those long term ventures you are working on (the ones that could potentially expose you to failure but you're prepared to take the risk)? Do you start calling around those clients you promised yourself you'd chase up? Or do you do nothing?

Obviously I love my phone - who doesn't? That's my life right there in my pocket. But everyone knows that if you want to do the proper work you need to be sat at your desk in front of your screen (if you're like me in front of your two screens), trawling through the project details and dotting the I's and crossing the T's. Phones are obviously great, and we couldn't like without them, but we don't do our best work on them.

It's not the same as stealing and you will probably find that you and everyone around you benefits.

If something doesn't have a limit then the answer is infinity but in reality it probably means that the limit has not been defined. So the question is, who is defining the limit and are they mathematically capable of doing so? Maybe the limiter has good intentions for us i.e. trying to save us from doing something stupid, or maybe we ourselves are the limiter because we believe we can never be good enough. No matter what the limit appears to say, the mathematical problem should be frequently revisited and the approach continually revised.

Isn't this the ultimate in everything?

Stronger than those around you - so you can protect and serve and deliver what you said you would.

Faster than the rest - fast to do things, to respond, to get up and go, to succeed.

And more - more options (but not too many, because too many is confusing), more care, more love, more everything.

A great supplier will point out to the client possible pitfalls and problems with the project before beginning the work and immediately put in place contingency plans in order to look out for the best interest of the client and ultimately the success of the project. When the planned for problem strikes the great supplier can take care of the issue seamlessly and immediately for the client, thus truly looking out for their best interests. It's the opposite of short changing a client or trying to do as little as possible for the most revenue or trying to squeeze efficiencies out of your already streamlines processes. Are we out of our minds? Probably.

I remember hearing the story about how it was theoretically impossible for bumble bees to fly because their little wings could not possibly generate the lift required to get them off the ground. Obviously bumble bees know absolutely nothing about fluid dynamics and just continued flying around until some researcher discovered that bumble bee wings generate tiny air vortexes that increase airflow and allow them to fly. Sometimes theories are wrong and sometimes all things are possible - nothing is ever settled (in theory).

It's quite easy to be original - you just need to follow your passions and grab all the opportunities you are presented with and have the ideas that no one else has. It is about understanding what makes you different and challenging yourself every day to add something new to world (whenever you can - these things can take a while!).

Get totally organised.

Keep detailed records of everything.

Be creative all the time.

Stay focused on your objectives.

Provide a great service for your clients.

It's easy to look for the fastest perceived solution to fix a problem. Usually a client, a staff member, or the public at large is to blame. So the project was lost because the bid didn't win or the sales are down because the marketing is wrong. But sometimes you must step back and take a deeper look. Maybe the customer journey is unclear or you have lots of tech that doesn't quite work and still think more tech is the answer. When an underlying problem is not solved first the problem will always continue.

Everyone is always running from point to point, paying no real attention, taking nothing in. It's hard to get anyone's attention for long these days. Far better to concentrate on the few that are willing to slow down, to stop lurching from supplier to supplier, and who actually pay attention and stick around for the ride.

Erika Mitchell was originally publishing her own fan fiction based on the Twilight books and films. She found it such a thrill that she created a new pseudonym and again she self-published. But this time the on-demand print sales turned into thousands and by the time Fifty Shades of Grey was re-released by Vintage Books in 2012 it became the fastest selling paperback of all time in the UK. It's part of our DNA to wait to be picked - to send our work off and to wait for approval. For the HR Manager to offer us the job. For the client to pick our proposal. For the industry leader (or the industry itself) to offer its approval. So if there's a chance to pick yourself then you take it - HR, the client, the industry will soon follow.

Apparently it is possible to visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris for the first time and see nothing new or exciting. Same with The Colosseum in Rome. So it seems that it's possible to miss "the big idea" because we only see what we want to see. That's why fieldwork is so important. If you want to understand a Mercedes driver go and spend some time with him or her; if you want to see how a busy Mum operates talk to her about getting the children off to school in the morning; if you want to understand how Financial Directors have weathered the pandemic sit down and crunch their thoughts and their numbers. Only when you understand things can you really offer up the ideas.

Stephen Fry once said that the joy of 70s supergroup ABBA was: "That they were far, far, better than they needed to be. There was a dedicated pursuit of pop craft that offered an undefinable elevated and inspirational quality to what they did.". Let's all aim to be far, far, better than we need to be.

In the middle of a stage play actor Michael Sheen broke character and asked an audience member to switch off their phone. He understands that all work is a work of co-creation and if the other party is not working with you, egging you on and encouraging you then they are not doing their part - they are actually tearing you down. He is a professional and so are you. I am not asking you to halt a performance at The National Theatre. But I am asking you to demand that you get the attention you deserve.

None of us like to get hurt and we work hard to protect ourselves. For some people getting hurt means a client that is not satisfied no matter how hard you tried to please them; for others it is a boss that called out a mistake on a project. But the question I am asking is what does it really cost to project yourself? What does it cost to duck down and avoid the hit? All the time ducking and hiding could stop you stretching and growing. So forgive the client that was annoyed. Forgive the tactless boss. Focus on how great you are because ducking and diving is no good for anyone.

These ready-made cheese balls are very successful because they are loved by kids and adults and are the ultimate lunchbox snack - convenient, 100% real cheese, free from added colours, flavours, and preservatives - and they are fun! They were born in mini form in 1977 and have been a best seller ever since. So don't try to be the next Mini Babybel. That ship has sailed. Instead find out who you are and be that.

You come in on time, sometimes even early; you do everything as described in your job description and everything that your boss asks, you deliver for clients and are hardworking and loyal. You could be asking to do more than you believe you are ready for. To work on understanding what your agenda is; you could be trying to go faster and working on your legacy. Creating a world where you are the absolute linchpin of the company. I wonder what someone with all the potential you have inside you would be doing...

Once the innovation is over isn't this when the great work can begin? I don’t know who invented the piano but I do know it wasn’t Beethoven. It's only when the technorati get out of the way that the great work can really begin. The real work is about doing something that lasts and that matters. It's about connecting with others and delivering an impact that lasts. So by all means show me the next big thing but don’t be upset if I am still busy on the old big thing.

Which matters most – facts or feelings?

How do you deal with someone who disagrees with you?

Are you able to cope with multiple viewpoints?

Can you give someone else the credit?

Are you willing to change your mind?

Are there many pathways to your goal? (Bonus points if you have a goal!)

It costs a fortune to take time out and go to conferences, and other than having a blast with friends why go? Yes there are the presentations, the research papers, the innovations, and the crowded parties. Do you remember them all? I don't. So I don't do them (so go ahead and have all the fun without me). However I do remember the engaging conversations and learning through those one-on-one discussions about projects people are working on and their new book ideas - so do more of that. Seek out the great engaged conversations and the special interactions that matter.

It's easy to work lots of extra hours so that you reduce the number of tasks you have to do so that you are in control of everything and reduce your self-induced stress. But maybe sometimes it's good to feel a bit of stress to push us into a new way of thinking about how to approach things, to force ourselves to innovate, to free ourselves from the shackles of targeting reduced anxiety and forcing us onto a new and better approach.

I don't like the term "unskilled labour". It is the skills someone has that everyone possesses and is therefore devalued. Obviously skills matter - the more skills you have the higher you are likely to achieve. But unskilled still needs a re-brand.

Everyone is happier and more productive when they are trusted. It encourages co-operation between people and organisations. We like museums that let us stand near the artwork, police that don't stop and search us, restaurants that give us the bill at the end of the meal. But some companies cannot rely on trust and genuine good intentions. Banks must behave as is every transaction is a fraudulent one - it annoys us when our cards are stopped because of "unusual spending" but the banks know that people do get scammed and they behave accordingly. That trust / don't trust decision is something we all face every day. We automatically make assumptions about whether promises will be broken, how trustworthy a supplier is, how reliable the service will be. In every sector (apart from banking) it is probably better to trust than not to. You are more likely to get the result you need.

And isn't that all that matters? Being famous in your group or your tribe? I mean I know Andy Warhol predicted that everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame but what if we already do. Maybe just being known (and loved) by the people that matter most is, in the end, all that matters.

We all know that the best suppliers anticipate your needs before you are able to fully articulate them. It goes beyond putting yourself in the other person's shoes and walking around in them. Because you can never be them, you can only be you. So sometimes you need to drop your beliefs, expectations, and view of the world in order to know what is the best thing to do for your client. To understand where they are coming from and to make sure they get where they need to be.

Most people find it easy to make promises and less easy to keep them, and if you're not careful, it builds up against you. So the first thing to understand is what your promise actually is and why it is important. Once you understand your promise and know why your promise is important, you will not only work very hard to keep it, but it will go on to inspire just about every decision you make moving forward. Think about the places that you love to go to - the places you like to eat, shop or get a haircut. It is highly likely that they have become places you visit not just for the quality service but for the familiar, friendly faces you see and the fact that they already know what you need before you say a word. This kind of service not only sounds really nice but exists because everyone involved is keeping their promise to you. The business understands the promise it made to you, and it keeps its promise. And the business delivers for you.

When faced with facts and proof we expect a rational person to make an intelligent decision on what is better. But that does not always happen. People make decisions based on hope, fear, what others appear to be doing, and what they believe has worked in the past. Viral stories and shocking testimonies can trump detailed data. We see this with the anti-vax movement. Ultimately they believe that vaccines do not really work and have hurt more people than helped. There is no point having endless fact-based discussions. No amount of data will change their mind because "it's all fake and it all comes from big pharma". What's needed is a series of stories and testimonials from those in the group who have changed their minds. These mind changing stories need to be shouted. The ripple effect will begin. Over time more will change their minds. It may take a while but it will happen. The proof of it is that these days it's very hard to find people that still believe the earth is flat.

Most people think that you are showing your true colours when you are stressed and striving to meet a deadline, dealing with a serious problem at work, doing something that makes your question your moral code, suddenly find yourself in charge and have a chance to throw your weight around, get caught when you thought no-one could see you, get a chance to punish someone who has harmed you, or are completely crushed by your problems. This is when you need to tell your story. This is when people need to hear the truth about you.

I like doing what I am asked. To some people that means doing only the minimum requirement. But what it really means is becoming engaged in a good cause. Whenever I am asked to do something, I rarely need step by step instructions because I don't just want to do the job, I want to do it right and perfectly. It's all about involving people, asking questions, making recommendations, offering to help, and pitching ideas. Getting things done right means being proactive and not waiting for life to come to you. It means being on the offensive, not the defensive. Being active, not passive. Most of the time it means innovating inside the box not necessarily thinking outside it.

Apparently one of the most important quotes in business management is "if you can't measure it, you can't improve it". Which made me think about what we measure and why. Does something become important because it is measured or do we measure it because it is important? Does counting something make it count?

The thing that makes you popular might be the thing that stops you succeeding. When you were in school there would have been someone who was always messing around and making people laugh. He may have been the popular class clown but that definitely got in the way of his education. It's the same when you first meet someone. You can act a certain way and be fun and happy and if it is a client you might even get a meeting out of it. But will you get the work? There are so many ways to be popular. Or even more popular. But is popular what you are after?

Most people do not believe they have the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do. At the same time, nearly everyone thinks they can correct, comment on, or in some cases totally pull apart! That's why millions of tweets every day are re-tweets or replies - because it is easier to respond than it is to start. This is not because people do not want to start. It is because most people believe that they are more useful if they help an initiative rather than create one themselves. The world needs more people that will start things.

Don't you just hate it when you are in a long queue in your car and another driver steams past you and at the last moment cuts in at the front? Of course, you could do what they do, and push in. There is no reason for your to patiently wait. Or maybe you are the selfish one, who doesn't think about other drivers. This is completely different from the woman who sees people patiently queuing to enter a building through a single door. She walks past everyone and opens the second door. Now, with two doors open, the queue is finally moving. She definitely earned her place at the front of that queue! Too often, we are led to believe that taking the initiative combined with right minded thinking and trashing the status quo is like queue jumping. Nothing but a selfish act. But sometimes it is opening a second door for everyone to walk through.

1. Write it down.
2. Look at it every day.
3. Come up with a plan.

Envision what you want to accomplish in your mind's eye. Then write it down. This a critical step because it is laying the framework to making your goal real. Once it is written down, put it somewhere easily seen. Make sure your goal is in your line of sight and in your mind every single day. Develop your plan. This is not your complete plan or even your final plan. This is just your beginning plan. Chances are your plan will change, re-route and evolve. That's fine because you will evolve too.

The Journal of Media Psychology found that people watch scary films for three main reasons: tension, relevance, and unrealism. Those who like horror due to its "unrealism" enjoy it because they know for a fact that it is all fake anyway. For them, it is just pure entertainment and fun. In reality enjoyment and fear do not go together. You cannot get "in the zone" and do your best work when you are operating through fear. Everything great that has ever been invented or developed was done so by someone who was really enjoying it. By someone who was fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Someone who was in the zone and completely connected. That doesn't happen when you are fearful.

1. Do exactly what your boss tells you.
2. Ask your boss difficult questions.
3. Show your boss why you are the best one for the promotion.
4. Invite your colleagues and boss to ask you difficult questions.
5. Create a brilliant and new way of doing something (something unplanned).
6. Help everyone around you to do the best work they have ever done.
7. Demand that the people around you push you to succeed.

Years ago, when Indiefield started out, all we wanted to do was win huge projects worth millions and be a big hit. Then, a decade later, a strange thing happened. What happened? In short, recommendations. Our clients suggested to their friends in the business and their colleagues in the office that they call Indiefield whenever they need recruitment and fieldwork. People took the suggestion, agreed wholeheartedly, and subsequently recommended their friends and colleagues. More sales, more recommendations, and the positive feedback loop kicked in. And we realised that real success relies on a long tail. It relies on people talking to people and word of mouth and great fieldwork and recruitment for big and broad clients.

(This isn't about my hair!) It is possible to be straight and curly at the same time. Straight is the tough thing to improve once the processes are in place. After all it is hard to get straighter than straight. Good processes keep the business running smoothly, create order that is valued, but improving them gets more difficult as well. Trying to make the organised more organised is a pain in the proverbial. But within your work you can find something liberating - something wild even! You can create productive chaos, you can interrupt, re-create, produce, invent, and redefine. There you go, now everything is bouncy and curly. And you just made the straight ruler even straighter.

Tell people exactly what you are doing and make sure they know it will happen. "I've got this and I'm on it" "You will have it today" No-one wants an automated reply that says "up to 5 working days". Clients want to know that you care more about their projects than that.

What a poetic phrase! It literally means that you have spent or lost all your money and are broken. And for a company to "go bust" it must be "declared insolvent". Not saying it or announcing it or admitting it but DECLARING IT! All the headlines for business look so awful during the Covid-19 crisis. Companies collapsing into administration; businesses closing their doors; dreams broken into tiny pieces. Maybe there is another side to all this. Maybe people are sick of fighting and maybe declaring is actually a relief. Bankruptcy is never fun. I just hope that for everyone fighting, those that do declare discover a future better than they ever imagined.

...people that do fieldwork. It does not matter what the subject is. It could be with high net worth individuals regarding their future car buying intentions. Or low-income families about how they manage their household budget. What matters, what makes it fieldwork, is that the person who delivers it engaged the respondent, overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt, and did an interview worth doing. Something good. Something human. Something that will make the world a better place.

You would probably be shocked at the amount of planning and preparation that goes on behind the scenes to make the perfect market research event. Beyond making a list (and checking it twice) it means recruiting respondents, liaising with the venue, lighting, installations, filming, deliveries, catering - depending on the research this list can seem never ending. And you need to have an eye on every single detail so that all the elements are perfect. But above all else you need to create an environment where a respondent can make a powerful exchange with a client. No matter how large the project is, it needs to be intimate enough to generate conversations that matter.

Otherwise why plan at all? And be sure to write down your plans and make them known. Pick out a team of people that can help you deliver the plan. Shake off people that think your plan is stupid. They will not support your plan so you may as well ignore them. You know that if you make a big plan the chances are something will happen. Are you doubting that you can do any of what you do? Good. Then make the big plan.

If, in the work you do, there are people out there that cost less than you and are offering a product or service that is a reasonable comparison for your work then you are probably not going to get the work you want because you are, on balance, not worth it. And then you end up having to chase the cheaper prices which we all know is ultimately a race to the bottom. So how about instead of being cheaper you become incomparable, crucial, and invaluable? Obviously that's the troubled track to take because it means you have to become really, really good at what you do, you must totally specialise, be a risk taker, create brilliant art, deliver the science, make sure that everything you do leaves a positive impact on everyone you touch. It is either that or be cheap. I think I prefer the troubled track.

What do we do with the people we love the most? We share. We share our lives, we share our thoughts, we share our time, we even share our food and drink! So here is a treat that I am sharing with you. If you haven't read it yet and are looking for a good book to get stuck into I strongly suggest you get a copy of Humankind - A Hopeful History by the Dutch historian by Rutger Bregman. It is a warm hearted and much needed optimistic read, building on the "radical" view that most of us are decent and friendly creatures. I don't buy into all of Bregman's arguments but I do buy into his belief that human kindness lights the path to a brighter future. I highly recommend it!

I have been thinking about how a garden is like a life. You have a garden and it is yours to tend and garden and weed and live with. You can plant bad thoughts or a sow good sense of humour. And it is up to you to weed areas and to douse parts of your plot with Miracle Grow. Feel free to fertilise and nurture the thoughts and feelings that you want to grow in your garden. It is probably worth putting up a decent fence, to protect your garden, but I would not advise putting up a wall. Get a gate and decide who can come into your garden. Watching out for invasive species – make sure you keep the grass cut, the weeds at bay, and pick up any dog poop if you have a dog, so that you get the garden you want. Refuse to accept that a good garden is an accident of birth or an unchangeable constant.

Some prize winners keep playing the lottery, even after they have won the jackpot. So that means they are not playing for the win, because they have already won millions. So why are they playing? We all know that in terms of practical mathematics, our chances of winning the lottery is so vanishingly small it is as if, from an investment point of view, there are no winners at all. So that means that we should play the game for the thrill of playing it, for the benefits of playing it to a conclusion, not because we think we have any shot of winning the grand prize, right? Now let us apply that thinking to our everyday lives. Let us focus on what it means to enjoy the thrill of doing the market research fieldwork we get to do every day and taking each project through to its perfect conclusion.

There are a number of Indiefield staff who have been here more or less since we founded the company over 20 years ago. As time goes by you do not just come to trust valued colleagues like these, they also earn your respect. Once you come to know someone's sensibilities and ambitions, you naturally start to see the world through their eyes and to support their motives and tactics. Once you have seen how they handle market research fieldwork when under pressure and how they take care of business in quieter moments, you get a true sense of what they believe in. In a world of quick quantitative projects and short qualitative engagements, this sort of relationship is utterly priceless. It is so easy to start relationships that have the potential to turn into ones exactly like these. But it remains as hard as it has ever been to make them last.

A study has shown that placebos work even when the patient is told that the drug they are taking has no 'real' medicine in it. Yes, you read that correctly. We know that the placebo effect is real. If we believe we are going to get better, perform better, recruit the focus group, deliver the fieldwork etc., we do. So then why do known placebos work? Because of the process. The steps we go through to remember to take them, then to actually take them, then to stick to the dosing. Over time, we do not think about the placebo itself, we tell ourselves (a lot) that we are taking significant action. It is the same with market research fieldwork. Sometimes it looks like the odds are stacked against us. But we stick to the process and grind through the steps, over and over again. And you know what? We get better.

Market research fieldwork for what? How do we know what the client is ultimately aiming for? It starts with understanding the use case. And before we can do that, we need to have all the information from our client to work out what would delight them. At that point, the only question is, "does this market research fieldwork support the use case we agreed on?" Too often, we are in such a hurry to show off our recruiting and interviewing skills that we forget to address the notion of what we do it for, and what the use case is.

You do not need more time to deliver that market research project. You just need to decide who you will work with and what the fieldwork process will look like. That means being accountable for the project which means making good decisions (with a sense of urgency) about who is going to conduct your fieldwork and recruitment. Always look for the company that will step up and take responsibility so that the things you need get delivered.

Being described as "a self-sufficient" appears to be a worthy goal, but is it really possible if you want to actually get anything done? In market research fieldwork all our productivity, leverage and insight comes from being part of something, not apart from it. We rely on respondents to take part in our research, on our panelists to engage, on our recruiters and interviewers to interrupt. The goal now is to work out who and what our dependencies will be so that our clients can depend on us.

There has always been a bright light around the craftsperson. Someone who takes real care and produces work for the ages. Everyone else might be a hack, or a guru, but a craftsperson was someone we could respect. Perhaps we are entering a new age of craftsmanship. A craftsperson might be particularly talented in the way he or she delivers market research projects. Just because it is not in a craft fair doesn't mean it didn't demand craft.

What do most businesses do with their best clients? If you define "best client" as the client who pays you the most, then you take their money. But what if you define "best client" as the person who brings you new clients through frequent referrals? That client, I think, is worth far more than what any one transaction can bring. In fact, if you think of that client as your best advertisement instead, it changes everything.