Acronym

Scott, I certainly appreciate your support of my arguments on behalf of innovation. In my experience, the more significant obstacle to association innovation is the mistaken view that it is too business-like. Many association executives casually dismiss innovation as "corporate-speak," nothing more than a consultant's buzzword that might be relevant to highly-resourced consumer brands, but certainly not to small, resource-constrained "non-profit" organizations such as associations. This view is as inaccurate as it is short-sighted.

What is so exciting about the kind of open, inclusive and democratic innovation emerging today is how it connects with the value-values dynamic of associations. Innovation makes it possible for any individual, group, organization or network to create something uniquely valuable that captures the imagination of the market. In addition to delivering value, our engagement of many ideas and many talents in the work of innovation reinforces the fundamental values that make associations great. Innovation is not an either/choice and we stop talking about it as if it were.

Thanks again for your support. I'm glad to have you on my side. Now if we can just get others to join us!

Everyone gets excited when we talk about innovation. Who doesn't want to be innovative and come up with that next winning idea that will stand out from all the others?

The challenge is less about convincing associations that they should be innovative but actually helping them be innovative. I've used some methods based on techniques developed by Seth Godin (Edgecraft) and Frans Johansson ("The Medici Effect") and had some success. (Not very innovative of me, huh?) But I was working with a group where innovation is a requirement for success in their profession.)

It is not easy to get people to break down their "associative barriers" (Johansson) and come up with revolutionary new concepts. Human nature wants us to avoid risk and dismiss the unthinkable. It's not as easy as "thinking outside the box."

I appreciate the leadership that Jeff and others have provided. They have people thinking more about innovation and believing that it can make a difference. But I still don't see many associations investing time to prospect for innovations. Perhaps we need another toolkit.

I propose that Jeff put together a workshop on "Best Practices in Innovation." :)

Rick, I think you'd be surprised by how much resistance there is to innovation in some corners of the association community. Here is an example. A colleague of mine actually attended a session at ASAE & The Center's Great Ideas Conference in Orlando last December during which a senior executive of a pretty large national association in the Midwest said flat out, "Associations don't innovate. That's not what we do." I absolutely applaud your efforts to advance innovation, and I am certainly pleased that others are working on this challenge as well.

Now, I agree, there also are significant practical obstacles to helping associations to innovate. Like you, I don't believe they are insurmountable. And I agree that association leaders need resources in this area. I've been thinking about developing an innovation handbook and toolkit for associations, so maybe I'll try to move that project forward.

Kevin, I'll make you a deal. I'll do a best practices in innovation workshop if you start a anonymously authoring a blog! ;>)

Jeff: How do you know I'm not?

Touche' my friend...

Scott,

An association is not likely to be successful by adopting the hot business idea or book of the day.

First, consider the idea of "value innovation" as proposed by Kim and Mauborgne in the book, Blue Ocean Strategy. While the book is hot, the concepts are distilled from patterns observed over decades. Companies and organizations who figure out ways to create leaps in customer value, while reducing their cost to serve, are consistently and sustainably more successful. If you are going to innovate, you gotta pay for it somehow. Often, we can reduce or eliminate some of the things we do that used to be required by members, but now are no longer needed.

Associations' historical strength is their ability to bring people and ideas together. As people are starved for both time and significance, and as ideas multiply and circulate more freely, that value proposition is challenged. Not because the association is executing poorly, but because pure execution no longer delivers the connection and the significance that is needed now by its members. That is a genuine call for innovation.

These are the same issues that any excecptional organization must address, whether nonprofit, association or public corporation.

The issue is not whether an association should or should not innovate, re-engineer, right-size or implement any other hot concept. The focus is not, as Jim Collins suggests, on drawing in ideas from the business sector, as there are plenty of mediocre businesses. The real issue is this how to focus on disciplined thought and disciplined action to create a truly great organization.