Who said writing is difficult? That is until you have emptied your brain and gone through all of your notes. Now you suddenly have difficulties finding inspiration for writing more blog posts. What should you do?

You should find ways in which you can tap into and interact with your chosen community. Think LinkedIn. Join groups that are relevant for you, listen to the conversations and participate yourself. When you start engaging in these conversations, you will soon experience how thoughts and ideas start flying around as you build further on not only your own input, but also on the ideas of others.

You can do the same with blogs and communities with a high level of activity. You can even do this with Twitter by identifying relevant keywords and start tracking those. This will bring you interesting links to check out – and retweet to others – as well as give you an opportunity to engage with others although the direct discussion is limited on Twitter compared with LinkedIn groups and some blogs.

This works for me. Let me know what you think and what inspires you on writing great content that can inspire others.

One is quite clear to me. It seems as if you can build and maintain a strong personal brand even if you are accused of lying and breaking the law as long as you have a great compelling story to tell. Yes, Armstrong might be quite unique in this sense, but it nevertheless shows us the importance of having a mission and great story to tell.

Too often, we see aspiring thought leaders, who look like the guy next door. They have no unique story to tell and thus they have to base their breakthrough on sheer persistence and a dose of luck. I am to some extent in this category myself and I have begun wondering how I can create a compelling story to tell. This is difficult, but it is also a good and worthwhile exercise.

A second lesson is the importance of having a few, clear messages that are easy to communicate. Lance Armstrong comes out as a very strong communicator although he does not really say that much beyond stating his innocence on doping and his strong support for the cancer cause.

It would be another worthwhile exercise for aspiring thought leaders to look into questions such as:

What are my key messages?

Who are the target audience of these messages?

What channels can I use to broadcast my messages?

Hey, I gave myself some food for thought by writing this blog post and I hope this can inspire you as well.

Hey again, as I wrote the above sentence, I just realized that there is another important lesson to learn from Armstrong: the ability to inspire others is a great tool that can help overcome many difficulties.

So how can you inspire others?

In Org Chart Innovation, Leigh Buchanan suggests some new titles that companies should add to their org chart. One is thought leader and this is what Buchanan wrote:

“Thought Leader. Industries and societies have thought leaders; so why not companies?

Maybe it’s a title for the founder who hands off operation of the business to a professional CEO so he can blue-sky the future. Maybe it’s the scary-brilliant vice president or technician whose brain is forever making wild-sounding connections that turn out to be revelations. Maybe it’s an add-on for the CEO who understands the trajectory of her industry the way Simon Schama understands art history.

The thought leader’s job is to inspire the troops with possibilities and to engage them in a vigorous—ideally intellectually rigorous—discussion of their role in the industry and the world.“

I fully agree with Buchanan and I was very pleased to see a great example a few hours later when I read a post by Marie Hattar, who is Vice President, Network Systems and Security Solutions Marketing / CMO 
at Cisco.

In her post, Going Gaga for Innovation, Hattar provided us some good perspectives on innovation. However, I paid more attention to the platform on which she used to spread her ideas and thoughts. It is simply called The Platform: Opinions and Insights from Cisco.

I think The Platform is a great initiative by Cisco and I am sure they will get much value out of this. Hopefully, it will also serve as an inspiration to other companies.

Please drop a comment if you know of similar thought leadership platforms and initiatives.

As a start, I have posted the below 8 articles. It would be great if you can add more articles by posting a comment. I will then update this post frequently.

When Failure is Intolerable by Scott Anthony

Welcome Failure by Paul Sloane

Lessons from Google Wave and Microsoft Kin by Scott Berkun

Learning from Failure: What Scientists Know about Innovation by Kris Halvorsen

The Failure of Failure by Michael Schrage

Safe-fail Probes by David Snowden

Are You Squandering Your Intelligent Failures? by Rita McGrath

Failing to Learn and Learning to Fail (Intelligently) by Mark Cannon

I look forward to your contributions.

This is my input based on my early thoughts and great input from Twitter conversations (#failsourcing):

Smartfailing – a new concept for learning through failure

Failsourcing – the process in which you learn from your own and others failures

Fail Capital – the learning you extract from failsourcing

Return on Failure – the ratio of the actions you take and investments you make once you know your fail capital

The key element is to learn from failure. Your input is highly appreciated. For your inspiration, the Twitter conversation spurred great comments including these:

Hutch Carpenter @bhc3
‘Failsourcing’ – it has a tinge of wallowing in failure. But I like the underlying concept. ‘Smartfailing’?

Note: I like the term of smartfailing and I think this is a better title for the concept itself. Thanks Hutch!

Dave Hoffman  @dhoff25
Each failure brings u a step closer to success. Using others fail-lessons=exponentially efficient.

Ryan Tracey @ryantracey
Western society should view failure more in terms of #failsourcing – less in terms of embarrassment.

Sounds like sourcing bad ideas from the crowd. How about fail capital?

Note: I like the term fail capital as the outcome of failsourcing. Ryan, thanks for the contribution!

Nello Spiteri @EnEsTweet
key is to set up the right processes to learn from failures and share learnings across divisions/company.

Graham Hill @GrahamHill
Failure is still failure. It is much less preferable to success. Let’s not start to idolise dumb failure (which much failure is)

To plan to fail is foolish. Plan to learn. That’s not failure, but investment. Safe Fail Probes http://tinyurl.com/dj8u7n

My response to Graham’s valid comments:

No one should plan to fail. But it happens n then you should learn from failures. Learning through failure becomes an investment.

Arie Goldshlager @ariegoldshlager
Failure is a great Learning Center… Success only confirms what you already know

Rob Jacobs @eduinnovation
I like idea of failures as ave. for learning. It’s not wrong, it’s just the right answer to a diff question.

You can find even more on Twitter by checking #failsourcing. You can also follow my tweets on @lindegaard

It would be great to hear your comments and reflections on this so let’s continue the discussion here. Please also let me know if you can suggest great reads on the intersection of failure and learning.

Check this link: Thought Leadership Rewired: How Consulting Firms are Using Social Media to Market Their Ideas.

The key findings:

• Consulting firms are quickly expanding their budgets for social media.

• Social media will increasingly complement traditional thought leadership marketing channels.

• Other social media tools are gaining on traditional techniques.

• Running out of content and determining how to use it as a marketing tool are the two biggest concerns about social media.

• Effective thought leadership programs use research-based content.

Some snippets I liked in particular:

“In addition, a thought leadership microsite helps a consulting firm keep its content “in play” – continually findable on the Web, as opposed to offline marketing activities like seminars, print publications, and teleconference calls, which come and go.”

“Of those with blogs sponsored by the firm or authored by consultants on their own 39% use those blogs to convene an initial market discussion and foster debate, 32% test and refine their points of view before communicating them more broadly and 29% use their blogs to further develop a point of view”

“The biggest barrier is concern about the ability to regularly refresh online content. Maintaining an audience for a blog, microsite or group on a social networking site requires a firm to regularly post new content…The second biggest barrier is determining how to use social media to market the firm’s content…Perhaps it is of little surprise that the third biggest barrier is closely related to the second: the lack of a marketing plan to stage and synchronize all these activities.”

“The ability to seed ideas online in the right LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networking groups, gain a following through an informative blog, and build an online interest group have made it far easier for consulting firms to attract prospects to their ideas and services.”

“One of the most striking findings of the survey is that social media can actually help develop compelling content. Almost half of the firms we surveyed develop content through their microsites, either to convene an initial discussion, to refine and test a point of view before publishing it, or to refine it post-publication.”

The report is a must read for consultants, experts and other aspiring thought leaders. Thanks to the Bloom Group for these great insights!

As another conversation starter on this topic, I am working on a list of questions that thought leaders should consider when they start their journey.

This is work in progress and I look forward to hearing your comments.

You need to deliver sharp insights that make a difference. What makes what you bring to the table worthwhile for others? How can you create such insights frequently over time?

How will you share your sharp insights? How will you engage into conversations with your audience? Do you really have the time for this? This takes just as much time – if not more – than creating the insights.

How will you define and develop your personal brand?

How strong is your network? How can you further build your network? How can you activate your network in order to reach your goals?

You might have to go through a longer period of time where you work hard without making any money. You might have to give up lots of free time. Are you willing to make such sacrifices?

Have you looked into your key qualifications for becoming a thought leader? You need a combination of talent, persistence, flexibility and luck. Yes, everyone needs some luck. What is your combination?

What can you add?

A thought leader should look at insights in two ways. The first is about creating your own original insights and the other is about promoting insights that your community desires. On the latter, it is not only about promoting your own insights but also those of others if they are relevant to your community.

When it comes to creating insights this is the test where thought leaders rise above the pack. Almost every consultant or expert within a corporation is capable of producing content. The big question is whether you can move beyond mere content and deliver insights that make a difference.

What are the elements needed to create insights? Let me share some suggestions on this.

Passion: You will never become a thought leader if you are not truly passionate about what you do. This is almost a cliché, but it is nevertheless the truth.

Inspiration: Inspiration comes to those who seek it. I read 5 newspapers every day (Wall Street Journal, US Today, New York Times and two Danish papers). I use my iPhone / iPad to read several other news apps, I subscribe to a couple of magazines including Business Week and I follow many blogs.

I also spend lots of time on Twitter checking tweets based on specific keywords. This has actually turned into my main source of inspiration.

Conversations on Twitter and in particular LinkedIn are also a great inspirational source. You think about an issue and you post a question and watch the responses trickle in over the next hours and days. This can be very inspiring for the creation of insights.

Feedback/Iteration: As you increase your capability to create insights, you will soon understand that feedback from your community is essential. As they respond to your insights, you gain new perspectives and this starts an iterative process in which you can further develop your thoughts.

That was some of my suggestions. What do you think? What can you add?

One great example is Phil McKinney, who in his “day job” is the vice president and chief technology officer for Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) Personal Systems Group.

He is responsible for long-range strategic planning and research and development (R&D) for all of the company’s PC product lines, including displays, mobile devices, notebooks, desktops and workstations.

Besides this, Phil is a highly sought out speaker on creativity and innovation and its impact on business, industries, economies and society.

He creates his own original insights that he shares through his communication platforms – his talks, his blog, his podcast, Twitter, Facebook and his LinkedIn group.

In short, Phil is a great example on how to be a corporate thought leader.

There is no doubt that his efforts as a thought leader takes time and thus requires buy-in from Hewlett-Packard. You might have difficulties getting a similar permission to develop into a thought leader.

Let me help you on some arguments for this.

Can a thought leader help create a better image for your company in the chosen area of the thought leader and beyond? Can this help attract better partners? Can it help attract better employees? Can this help create better overall business opportunities?

My answer is simple. Yes, it can. Phil McKinney is a great example.

The questions you need to consider are: What you can learn from Phil? How you can make something like this happen in your organization?