Putting the thought into thought leadership

There’s a great deal of thought leadership without much real thought.

My hunch is because it takes practise, it takes time. 

And most people have little time and don’t have the patience.

But that’s only because it’s not something they do often, the muscle isn’t built.

I have a simple approach that I find very helpful.

It use it the big stuff, the articles, the keynotes, the talks.

But also in the small, those posts that take 5 mins.

It all comes back to same stuff and the same system, with a clear principle and three simple steps.

The Principle

It must try and leave you and the reader different, leave them at least a little more enlightened, and it must be actionable, useful in some way. 

The Steps: Observation - Exploration - Idea/Action. 

Observation

What’s intriguing? What doesn’t make sense? What don’t you understand? What did you notice that you hadn’t seen before, that you had missed? 

Exploration 

For all the above questions: What is it that got your attention? What are the elements, the attributes of it? What are the assumptions, conventions, tropes, norms about how this is understood? Are they still true? Are they aways true? Where are they not and why? Are there any compelling experiences or stories, personal or from someone else you can draw on?

Then a bridge…a platform to end on, to build on.

How do I make sense of this? Is there another way to look at this? Is there a reframing? Explore metaphors, analogies and similes to help.

Idea/ action 

What does that angle, that new frame mean for the subject, for you and for others?

It’s a simple system, that if you use it enough, it becomes integral, automated.

A thinking system that then becomes a ritual of sorts.

It becomes something that begins to happen on its own, comes naturally. In the observing, in the exploration and the idea and action.