Think tanks, expert clubs and research chairs generate considerable intellectual and strategic wealth. But this expertise, often divided between a few key members or concentrated in one-off events, runs the risk of eroding if it is not proactively structured, transmitted and capitalized on.
The first step is to formalize the knowledge produced: publications, analysis notes, summaries of collective work, reports of debates or conferences… This documentation must be centralized in a secure digital space, indexed by theme, and regularly enriched.
Secondly, it is essential to promote individual expertise: filmed interviews, expert podcasts, contributions to collective works. These formats allow us to perpetuate the thinking of our members, while making it accessible to a wider audience.
Mentoring plays an invaluable role here. It enables senior experts to pass on their analytical methods, sources and intellectual posture to young researchers or practitioners. Pairs can be formed for projects, publications or workgroups.
Structures can also set up transmission days, internal training cycles, or “living archive” events where members share founding moments, controversies and past choices.
Setting up a network of contributors’ alumni is also a good idea: it enables us to keep in touch with former members and to spread the group’s thinking to other spheres (companies, institutions, media, etc.).
Finally, the governance of knowledge needs to be considered in the long term: how can we keep track of what we produce? Who keeps track? How can this knowledge be made accessible to future contributors?
Preserving and sharing expertise means bringing the Group’s mission to life far beyond the people present.
