Creating a Structure for Thought Leadership| Lynette Jackson | 477

In an organization with a large C-suite, dozens of departments, and hundreds of experts, How could you possibly hope to create a unified direction? To better understand how to achieve this feat, I've invited Lynette Jackson, the Head of Communications at Siemens, to join me. Lynette has a background in journalism, communication, and branding making her the perfect person to help us explore the topic. Lynette explains how thought leadership can become an umbrella for the brands of your organization. It can give a safe space for the different disciplines across communication and marketing to come together and move forward in the same direction. Lynette describes how content creates credibility, but it doesn't have to be high level content only experts would understand. In fact, it is better to have a variety of content that draws in an audience that is new to the topic as well as having deeper pieces that allow experts to explore the bleeding edge of the idea. In addition, we discuss how to draw the experts in your organization out. Many can be concerned that talking about a future which may never come to pass might impact their credibility. Lynette shares where to find a balance between achievable and unreasonable, that will make experts keen to talk to you - and will get audiences excited and engaged. Three Key Takeaways: * When a sudden rainstorm comes, people will cluster underneath the same umbrella and find shelter together. Thought leadership is like that umbrella; where people with the same problem can be together in a defined space, and actually work together to solve their problem. * Thought leaders create valuable content that serves others, transmuting their experiences into insights. That's the science and the art of thought leadership. * Thought leadership encompasses everything from "snackable content;" to a series of white papers that go super deep; to medium-sized, bespoke pieces of content; to broad, multi-sensory content. The breadth of what's possible is amazing.