Conversations ..
.. a New Model for
Qualitative Research
A presentation by
Kevin McLean, Wardle McLean, UK
www.wardlemclean.co.uk
www.theartofconversation.net
Introduction
• We are part of something bigger
than we realise
• Reframe qualitative research
• Recognise our skills, raise our status
via ‘conversations’
Introduction
Blogs
Introduction
What would you call
a good conversation?
Structure
1. A short history of conversations
2. Communication and attitudes
3. Brands and marketing
1. A short history of
conversations
In the (very) beginning
• The very first conversation was ...?
‘John, how’d you do that fire thing, again’ ?
In the (very) beginning
• Voiced utterance, plus gestures
• Physical, social context (grooming)
In the (very) beginning
The birth of jazz
© Larson
Origin
Usage
Therefore...
• Conversations are what make us human
• Conversations are not only verbal
• We are essentially social beings
Therefore...
• We learn through imitation …
… interacting with others
Learning through conversation
Socrates (469 - 399 BC)
Dialogues:
‘extended conversations ...
aimed at understanding ...
through a dialectical method’
Still relevant today:
- democracy / free market
- debate choices
- question producers and
politicians
Learning through conversation
Socrates, the first QRC?
going further for less
Learning through conversation
Beware the barrenness of a busy life
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence
is a habit
Wisdom begins in wonder
(Socrates)
Conversations that
changed history
• The Earth is flat
• The universe
revolves around
the Earth
• Europe / USA
rules the world
Conversations that
changed history
Crick and Watson
discovered DNA
via conversations
Linus Pauling tried
to figure it all out
‘Because Pauling was so smart, he didn’t feel
the need to talk to anyone’
(Watson)
Conversations that
changed history
‘(Crick) asked naïve questions .. in order to
understand things. Conversations yielded new
insights’
Theodore Zeldin
2. Communication and
attitudes
• Three kinds of language:
–representational
–structural
–immediate
Communication
Representational
dominant
over-reliant
misleading
Communication
Structural
body-to-body
comes first
under-estimated
Communication
Immediate
basic/powerful
pure emotion/feeling
Communication
“93% of all communication
is non-verbal”
AGREE / DISAGREE?
It’s not what you say, it’s
the way that you say it
Attitudes
• ‘What is your attitude to ..?’
• Attitudes as:
–inside us
–observable
–measurable
–immutable
–‘ours’
Attitudes
• Do you have attitudes ..
.. or do attitudes have you?
Attitudes
• Attitudes as:
–made up, made to order
–adapted/adopted
–having a life of their own
–part of a conversation
Conclusion
Three kinds of language...
representational
structural
immediate
… are connected, all part of our
conversation
Conclusion
• We know ourselves, our
beliefs, through conversation
• ‘Quallies’ are trained in the art
of conversation
–we can truly get to know people
–if we practise good conversation
Part 3. Brands and
marketing
Welcome to the revolution!
1950s
today
Before:
Brands
Consumers
Now:
People
Brands
‘Commercial conversations’
Market research … has traditionally
been about figuring out how to get
customers to buy what businesses
want to make, rather than helping
businesses to make what customers
want to buy.
Commerce is going to increasingly
shift away from older forms of
communication … towards something
that resembles a real conversation.
James Surowiecki,
author, ‘Wisdom of the Crowds’
About brands
• Brands are not things
• They are constructed
from two kinds of
networks
– internal network
– external network
Brands on the internal network
one neuron
LOTS of neurons
A challenge to us all?
• ‘Neuromarketing’
– brain scans are the
answer
• Professor Zaltman
– my way or the highway
A professor speaks
‘How Customers Think: Essential Insights
into the Mind of the Market’
– ‘Technology is revolutionizing our ability to
understand customers. Insights about the
workings of the cognitive unconscious ... and
the neurobiology of figurative thinking, for
instance, have already outdated most thinking
and current practices’
– ie focus groups are redundant / do not work
Au contraire, professor
• ‘Herd - how to change mass
behaviour by harnessing our true
nature’
– by Mark Earls (pub. Wiley, Feb 07)
– behaviour NOT reducible to brains /
our unconscious but is socially
determined
not just brains, our nervous system
1
2
3
4
EXTERNAL (SOCIAL) NETWORK
IN ACTION
The point is
• Conversations are
– within us and between us
– mental / physical, personal / social
• Qualitative research can tap into them
– when it is done well
– inside and (especially) outside the studio
And..
• We know that what people say differs
from what they do
–
–
–
–
–
there are no guarantees
good conversations take us all forward
not just verbal (physical, emotional)
not just in studios (out there)
not just Questions and Answers
• Too often we have done average work,
which holds us back
Grand conclusions
Conversations
Q&A
Open
Close
Map on to networks Impose a structure
Build rapport
Hinder, alienate
Between equals
Power relations
Liberating
Disempowering
Grand conclusions
Conversations
Q&A
Rich, rewarding
Space, freedom
Lead somewhere
Yield truths
Confined, frustrating
Forced, feel trapped
Start and finish
Encourage lies
TO GOOD CONVERSATIONS!
By Kevin McLean
kevin@wardlemclean.co.uk
www.wardlemclean.co.uk
www.theartofconversation.net