Are your best ideas organized in a framework or are they crammed in an intellectual junk drawer?
I’m a strong believer in frameworks — because frameworks allow ideas to reach scale. 🚀
If your ideas aren’t in a framework, they will struggle to reach scale. They’ll get stuck. Full stop. 🛑
So, what’s a framework? It’s a formal expression of an idea.
1. organized into a useable point of view
2. simple to sketch out or recall
2. easy-to-use
4. signals its relevance
The best frameworks can also be “put to the test” through data collection and validation.
Different frameworks give us lenses to look at the world.
And a framework doesn’t have to be perfect.
One of my favorite quotes comes from the statistician George P. Box:
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
And I’d also add Ashley Faus‘ recent corollary:
“If my frameworks only work for me and not for others, then it’s not thought leadership.”
So how do you build a framework?
You have to organize your insights and put them to the test.
I’ve personally been working on a new framework now for six months — and it’s consumed a lot of my free thinking time.
In that time, I’ve shared many iterations with colleagues.
They’ve helped me think it through.
And spot the gaps.
Building a thought leadership framework is a form of rapid prototyping.
You build it, test it, find out where it breaks, and then rebuild it.
So does your org have a framework for its best insights?
Or are they stored in an intellectual junk drawer?
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