| | By Mick James
Are you a thought
leader? Or, to put it
another way, does your
consultancy firm “do
thought leadership”?
That’s one of those
questions where the
answer depends on how
the question is asked.
I suspect most people
(i.e., more than are
entitled to) would give
a tentative “yes” to the
question: “are you of
above
average-intelligence?”.
Rather fewer, I would
guess, would be prepared
to announce to a room
full of people: “I am
more intelligent than
the majority of people
who are now alive or
have ever lived”.
Despite having been
involved in quite a lot
of thought leadership
initiatives, it’s a
phrase I’ve always been
mildly uncomfortable
with. It sounds like the
sort of thing we could
expect from giant alien
brains taking over
earth, rather than
friendly, collaborative,
fallible consultants.
But I’m also a firm
believer in consultants
“opening the kimono” a
bit and sharing their
insights and experience
with clients.
So I was fascinated
by Arkimeda’s report on
thought leadership,
White Space: who are the
real leaders in
management consulting?
For those not familiar | |
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| | with it, it’s a
comprehensive analysis
of all the thought
leadership available on
consultancy industry
websites last autumn.
That’s right: so that no
other human being would
have to, the report’s
author, Fiona
Czerniawska, read and
analysed over 3,000
documents produced by
consultancy firms.
The results were
fascinating, both in
overview and detail. For
detail you’d have to
refer to the report. But
in overview the essence
is that a lot of
so-called leadership is
merely "followership",
me-too thinking on
subjects that have
already been thoroughly
raked over. To try and
correct this dreadful
state of affairs, Top
Consultant is organising
a conference
(http://www.top-consulta
nt.com/UK/events/Article_
display.asp?ID=144) on
27 April in London. As
well as offering deeper
insight into the
research, there’ll also
be chance to hear how
journalists view thought
leadership, and how some
of the firms who come
out best in the report
manage their thought
leadership. Hopefully,
anyone who attends will
come out with a plethora
of ideas about how to
analyse their own
experience and expertise
as consultants and | |
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| | develop examples of
thought leadership that
avoid both the humdrum
and the off-the-wall.
But it’s one thing
having a great piece of
thought leadership: it’s
another thing getting it
to a grateful public. As
Lou Reed once sang:
“Between thought and
expression lies a
lifetime”. Or, in the
case of a management
consultant, a
particularly frustrating
and difficult weekend
during which they fail
to get their
groundbreaking thoughts
down on paper. A
Pictionary sketch of
“thought leadership”
might show a consultant
with little zig-zag
lines (to represent
thoughts) beaming out of
his brain directly into
clients’ heads. Sadly,
there’s an intermediate
stage called “writing it
down” and a lot of good
quality thought
leadership founders
during this apparently
simple process.
One reason
consultants often
struggle with writing is
that they’ve learned
that complex ideas are
often much better
represented in charts or
diagrams. These can
quickly get people past
simplistic either/or
thinking and illustrate
complex
interrelationships and
interdependences. This
can cause a number of | |
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| | problems, not least the
creation of massive
PowerPoint presentations
and a tendency to draw
2x2 matrices on the
tablecloth at dinner
parties. But it also
makes it very difficult
to express those
thoughts in the
relentlessly linear and,
let’s face it, frankly
old-fashioned medium of
writing. How to even
start, when everything
needs to be said all at
once? How can I ever
finish anything when
this word-processor
keeps letting me go back
to the beginning?
As a writer, I like
to kick start the
process with an
interview (rather than
having my mailbox broken
with a brain-dump of
PowerPoints and emails).
Naturally, I’d advise
the use of a highly-paid
professional at this
point, but it’s
something you can try
with a colleague and a
tape-recorder. Asking
someone to tell you a
story often unlocks
powerful narrative
processes in the brain
that automatically sort
and prioritise
information in a way
that takes years of
training to replicate in
writing. A really good
interview can almost be
used verbatim in print
(although that might
cause people to doubt
your fee).
The second area where | |
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| | even good thought
leadership pieces can
founder is in the
internal approvals
process. Again,
technology can often
undermine the simple
work of scribes: I’ve
seen all too many good
pieces of thought
leadership nibbled into
blandness by endless
conference tools, and
the awful “track
changes” tool in Word,
which encourages
everyone to have a
dabble. All too often
the desire not to offend
anyone means that you
don’t impress anyone
either.
Thanks to the
tireless work of
Arkimeda, all
consultancies have an
opportunity to raise
their game in the
thought leadership
stakes. But they need to
remember that it’s not
enough to think better,
they’ll need to do
better as well. And if
you’re going to be
arrogant enough to claim
you’re doing thought
leadership, then at
least have the courage
of your convictions.
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