Formalizing Thought Leadership within an Organization | Stacey Flax and Carlos Williams | 499

Many organizations want to formalize their thought leadership efforts and take it to the next level. But how do you turn a "casual thought leadership presence" into something more? Today, we discuss ways to harness a "casual" message and turn it into powerful thought leadership that you can take to scale. Our guests are Stacey Flax, Thought Leadership Communication Manager and Carlos Williams, Applications Development Manager from Hach, an organization that focuses on water analysis. Stacey and Carlos share how people at Hach had been doing thought leadership on their own, before Hach chose to formalize it and amplify the expertise the organization had to offer. Carlos explains how part of the job of a thought leader is to convey your message in relatable terms but also somehow make it fun, through story or anecdotes. Stacey further explains the need to take a step back and think about your message. Who are you trying to reach? What's the core essence of your insights? They discuss how to convey your thought leadership message in different ways, using different media forms and different techniques. We also learn how Stacey aided in putting the formal structure in place, getting a baseline of subject matter experts, cataloging all of the previously produced content, and gaining further support from the leadership by being able to show the impact thought leadership was having. As a bonus, we take a look back at John Snow's discovery of cholera in the water in the 1920s - perhaps some of the first thought leadership on the topic of water analysis - and how those insights still affect us today. Three Key Takeaways: * When formalizing thought leadership within an organization, start by discovering the experts in your organization, and curate the material they have already produced into a usable catalog. * When creating thought leadership for technical or niche topics, it is important to use storytelling to spice up the content and make it somehow relatable. * Ensure any information you distribute in your thought leadership aligns with the organization's strategy.