Acronym

Today is my daughter’s first birthday. (Cue the balloons and confetti!) I look back, and it’s amazing that only one year ago, she couldn’t even focus her eyes. In 12 months, she’s developed gross and fine motor skills—from picking up small objects to walking. She’s learned to understand the concept of speech, to speak a couple of words and understand a lot more. She can eat solid food, stack blocks and knock them over, and annoy her older brother. All important skills for the future.

I’m bringing this up not to get all nostalgic on you, but to demonstrate how much can be accomplished in a year. If a baby can go from being, basically, a blob to being a walking, babbling toddler in 12 months, how much can you and your association’s staff and volunteers accomplish?

I have seen so many business plans that amount to “we’ll do pretty much what we did last year, with a few tweaks.” Heck, I’ve written a few. And of course you need some stability in your association’s products and services from year to year.

But what if you tried setting a significant stretch goal for your department or association—ideally combined with the elimination of your least-strategic activity? Something that you think, if you all work together, you just might be able to accomplish. Something that’s the equivalent of learning to walk in 12 months. What would the impact be on your association?