Beyond insights: Rethinking the role of researchers as stewards of organizational wisdom
Summary
Insights are at the core of what researchers work to uncover, formulate, and deliver. By encouraging researchers to view their deliverables beyond just the insights they contain but also the qualities required to communicate them, they can begin to transform their roles into stewards of organizational wisdom. In doing so, we must understand what insights are, how insights can be harmful, and how to better deliver and socialize insights. In this fireside chat, we will examine the characteristics of research wisdom and offer techniques for researchers to exercise their capacity to act critically and adaptively.
Key Insights
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Researchers must transition from churning out disposable insights to stewarding organizational wisdom that supports ethical, strategic action.
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Ethical judgment underpins all aspects of research practice, including relationships, storytelling, and data ethics.
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Organizations vary in their appetite for research, which can be categorized into ingesting, digesting, and metabolizing stages.
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Recognizing an organization's readiness is crucial to tailoring how insights are shared to maximize uptake and impact.
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Organizational ignorance is often normalized and can be productive for some, posing unique barriers beyond mere knowledge gaps.
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Discernment enables researchers to navigate organizational cultures and politics by sensing emotional and contextual dynamics affecting insight reception.
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Balancing the power behind insights with efforts to reduce resistance (friction) is vital; resistance often arises from fears tied to identity and power.
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Responsible storytelling requires foresight to anticipate long-term harms and pluralism to understand diverse impacts across stakeholders.
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Adaptive capacity involves adjusting how, when, and to whom insights are shared, ranging from prescriptive recommendations to open-ended soundbites.
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Power imbalances among multiple stakeholder groups necessitate prioritizing equity, focusing on who bears greater harm rather than treating all users equally.
Notable Quotes
"Our goal is to translate remarkable realizations from stories into strategic design opportunities."
"Many organizations treat researchers like glorified assembly line workers churning out disposable insights."
"Ethical judgment is the ability to maximize benefits while minimizing harm to the communities we work with."
"An organization’s appetite for research influences how ready it is to receive and consume findings."
"Ignorance is often normalized and productive for certain individuals within an organization."
"Discernment requires attunement to organizational culture and politics to understand how research will resonate."
"Resistance to new ideas is sometimes less about the idea’s value and more about the fears and insecurities it reveals in the listener."
"Not all data and insights should be shared uncritically, especially when working with vulnerable populations."
"Foresight is anticipating future implications and potential harms of how insights are shared."
"We need to advocate for equity, not equality, by measuring harm and understanding power imbalances among users."
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