From Intel Virtual Event March

1. 7 Reasons Why Business
Analysts Are Not Taken As
Seriously As They Should Be
- And How To Fix It!
Dr Emma Langman

2. Introducing Your Speaker
• Change Magician
• Tribe Facilitator
• Visiting Fellow
• Chair of Trustees
• Mum

3. Agenda
• Symptoms
• Diagnosis (7 Mistakes)
• Prescription

4. Organisational Symptoms
• Aware of changing environment
• Talking about Change
• Not really transforming

5. Business Analyst Symptoms
• Being brought in late
• Not being heard
• Picking up the pieces
“I just don’t feel that I’m
having the impact that I
could be, or should be”

6. The 7 Mistakes
1. Not realising that a BA is an Internal Consultant
2. Focusing too much or too little on people
3. Not having the right strategic and commercial skills
4. Not using the right project management and
process skills at the right time
5. Not focusing on your core responsibilities
6. Not knowing where you are going
7. Not using your ‘secret essence’

7. #1 Not realising you are an
internal consultant
A CONSULTANT (from Latin: consultare "to
discuss") is a professional who provides
professional or expert advice in a particular
area. They are usually an expert or a
professional in a specific field and have a wide
knowledge of the subject matter.

8. #2 Focusing too much or too
little on people

9. #3 Not having the right strategic
and commercial skills

10. #4 Not using the right project management
and process skills at the right time

11. #5 Not focusing on your core
responsibilities

12. #6 Not knowing where you
are going
“`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go
from here?’
`That depends a good deal on where you want to get
to,’ said the Cat.
`I don’t much care where–’ said Alice.
`Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the
Cat. `– so long as I get somewhere,’
Alice added as an explanation. `Oh, you’re sure to do
that,’ said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.’ “
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

13. #7 Not using your secret
essence
It’s a tragedy that in attempting to fit in with the corporate machine and the
bigger system, most ICSAs quickly lose the very spark, creativity, energy and
passion that they were recruited for in the first place.
All of us know someone who seems to have given up trying.

14. Prescription
• Learn and use practical theory
• Build your network and reputation
• Become an Internal Consultant

15. Learn and Use
Practical Theory
• Robert Cialdini’s work on Influence
• Neuro-Linguistic Programming
• Systems Thinking (a huge topic!)

16. Build Your Network
and Reputation
• Formal
• Informal
• Virtual
• Write
• Speak
• Commentate

17. Become an Internal Consultant
• Understand the different types of Consultant
• Develop your ‘Consulting’ Process &
Competencies
• Behave like a Professional

18. Types of Consultant
• Expert
• Facilitating Partner
• Pair of Hands
• Doctor
• Change Agent (Catalyst)
• Process Consultant
• Performance Consultant from Block, Peter. ‘Flawless Consulting’
• Trusted Advisor and
Barnes, B. Kim; Scott, Beverly ‘Consulting
on the Inside’
• Change Leader

19. A Consulting Process
Client
Close Clarify
Continue Create
Change
Mike Cope’s “7 Cs”

20. A Consulting Process
Entry
Evaluation Contract
Analysis &
Implementation
Diagnosis
Planning for
Action
Institute of Consulting

21. Consulting Competencies
• Collaborates with Others
• Establishes Credibility
• Takes Initiative
• Maintains Detachment
• Markets the Value of Area of Expertise
• Demonstrates Organizational Savvy
• Acts Resourcefully
• Understands the business
Barnes, B. Kim; Scott, Beverly
‘Consulting on the Inside’

22. Behave like a Professional
• Keep your Promises
• Be Ruthlessly Compassionate
• Get Professional Supervision

23. Suggested (Free!) Actions
• Read “The 7 Mistakes that Internal Consultants, Supervisors
and Advisors Make – and how to avoid them” (free download
at www.greatinsiders.com)
• Book a one-to-one strategy call using the yellow button at
www.progressionpartnership.com/contact-us
• Join the Great Insiders LinkedIn group to broaden your
network of other ‘in house’ BAs etc.
• Join other groups on LinkedIn too – such as the IIBA, Unicom
DevOps group…. And take part. Ask questions, give advice –
learn and be seen to be the professional BA that you are!
• Make use of informal networking opportunities in your own
organisation and your local area

24. In Summary
• Organisations talk ‘Change’ but rarely walk it
• BAs could have a much greater impact by:
– Avoiding the 7 Mistakes
– Learning and using key practical theory
– Building their network and reputation
• It makes sense to think and act like an
Internal Consultant, to increase your impact

25. Book list:
• http://www.progressionpartnership.com/book-
store
Contact me:
• Twitter: @emmalangman @progpart
@greatinsiders
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/progpart
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/emmalangman
• Email:
emma.langman@progressionpartnership.com
• FREE Strategy Call: Book at
www.progresionpartnership.com/contact-us
• Great Insiders Briefing: www.greatinsiders.com