Acronym

Well, it’s time to move on—again! After six years at ASME, I’m retiring July 2, and my wife and I are reinventing ourselves for a fifth time. After a year’s participation on Acronym, this will be my last article. I have this perspective that every 5-8 years I need to move on and find something new and innovative to do. All of us are different, but this is one way I stay challenged and energized. Between now and July 2, there are many final activities at ASME to conclude, including taking my president to Western Europe in a few days for development of alliances and outreach activities. Thus, my time to blog new thoughts will be very limited.

Merle and I are going back to our place in Chadds Ford, west of Philadelphia, where I will do some things that I have long wanted to do: paint full time, teach art, self publish guide books of historic areas in the western Philadelphia area (with my paintings as illustrations), redo the herb garden, design a new house, and maybe, just maybe, do some consulting in association management. We’ll see. One thing is for sure: it will be an exciting and wonderful time of exploration and new discovery.

Folks have asked me what I consider to be my major achievement. It’s one of those common questions asked of retirees. My answer is simple--association management is a wonderful field, full of extraordinary people. Working with so many wonderful volunteers and staff is the achievement I treasure most.

Association management is not for everyone, of course, but it is an important and rewarding endeavor. I’ve been an army officer, practicing architect, university administrator and tenured faculty member, and, thanks to the invitation of a good friend in 1989, a senior association executive. I can’t think of anything as challenging and rewarding as association management. The non-profit sector is an important and significant contributor to the improvement of work, quality of life and personal well-being. Non-profit leadership is hard, but worthwhile and important work.

I want to thank Lisa and Scott for allowing me to participate as a contributor to Acronym. It’s a great blog and fine resource for ASAE. I’ve enjoyed my time here and the many conversations with colleagues.

Merle and I send all of you our very best wishes. I consider myself fortunate to have worked with and learned so much from so many of you. Keep up the fine work.

If you are interested in painting or need a guidebook for the historic areas in Delaware, Chester and Lancaster Counties, just let us know. If you’re in the area of Chadds Ford, stop by and we’ll have some lemonade on the back porch. Cheers!

One suggestion in the "dream and design" phase of the Global Summit's Thursday session is for associations to look around them and see if it might be worth....disappearing. Seriously. Andy Clarke, executive director of the League of American Bicyclists (and--full disclosure--my husband), suggested that association leaders examine where overlapping associations exist and needlessly compete when they could simply merge and "create half the number of associations with twice the memberships and eight times the influence."

It's an interesting thought. Certainly I've been part of organizational coalitions in which external stakeholders such as corporations or government agencies have complained that they could hardly keep track of which organizations may be the best partners in, say, the environmental sector because so many have similar agendas, duplicate programs with different names, and murky leadership within their field.

Call me cynical, but I think ego would be the biggest barrier to even a discussion of what widescale association mergers might mean to society and the earth. In the fascinating book Egonomics: What Makes Ego Our Greatest Asset (or Most Expensive Liability), authors David Marcum and Steven Smith look at business success and performance from the standpoint of ego. Their extensive research concludes that unbalanced ego "becomes the ultimate blind spot," with more than one-third of all decisions in failed organizations driven by ego. they note that unbalanced ego slows change and innovation, and "there is a clear difference in the power of knowing versus the discipline of becoming."

However, nearly two-thirds of executives "never explore alternatives once they make up their mind," and "81% of managers push their decisions through by persuasion or edict, not by the value of their idea." A surprising 63% of surveyed businesspeople report that ego harms "work performance on an hourly or daily basis, while an additional 31% say it happens weekly." That's a lot of poor productivity and decision making, as well as lost opportunity.

Might the research differ among association employees? What would you think if your boss walked into a staff meeting and said, "For the sake of the planet, let's do a competitive analysis in our industry with an eye toward potential mergers?" Would you think, "Oh, my gosh, my job's in trouble." "Has he lost his mind?" "Finally!" "Whoopie!"

I remember one small trade association whose CEO actually requested that the board let him shut down the organization because the programmatic and mission overlap with industry competitors had led to unsustainable financial hardship. The board was appalled at the idea. He suggested merging with another group instead. Still they balked, citing the organization's long history and criticizing all possible merger candidates.

I don't recall what happened to the association in the end, but I do know that the CEO eventually left, and at some point, I stopped receiving press releases from the organization. Perhaps if leaders--whether volunteer or paid--move their egos more to the side of humility, they will find that exploring potential mergers would indeed lead ultimately to accomplishment of their broader mission.

Wow--what an amazing afternoon of what I'll call "speed sharing," which reminded me a bit of speed-dating but with people exchanging ideas instead of personal phone numbers. Some of the ideas are natural extensions of the exciting momentum we've been building during this Global Summit on Social Responsibility (SR): an SR listserv, an association SR blog and monthly Idea Swap, create a "Social Responsibility in a Box" how-to toolkit, and a new requirement that SR strategies are integrated into CAE knowledge domains.

But here are some of the larger-vision ideas that got me personally jazzed during today's "dream and design" exercise:

Use ASAE & The Center as "innovation incubators."

Create a "Retired Association Exec Corps" to help coordinate and contribute to SR efforts by associations.

Develop an offshoot version of the United Nations Global Compact that allows associations to sign on in agreement to meet specific SR metrics and standards.

Create a "Bright Light Network"--a coalition of associations that want to work together on social, economic and environmental challenges.

Create a "Seven Wonders of a Socially Responsible World" committee structure in ASAE & The Center to focus on global problem solving in the areas of education, environment, health, prosperity, innovation and technology, peace and security.

Friday we'll be breaking into groups to begin creating something tangible from the best ideas in the various categories generated by our "dreaming." Keep checking back for news of our progress!

Compelling stories have emerged as potent tools in forwarding discussions about what values members gain when their associations are involved in socially responsible practices, programs, and goals. At both my morning and afternoon tables at the Global Summit on Social Responsibility, association professionals barely took a breath between sharing and commenting on each other’s stories, whether they had to do with an organization’s actions or an individual’s choices. Frankly, it’s a challenge to capture every anecdote for later thought or follow up, but one colleague told me that he had taken almost 25 pages of notes in less than six hours!

I’m feeling especially attuned to the power of storytelling today because I’m halfway through the excellent book Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, which I thought would be good prep for the summit. Also, co-author Joseph Grenny—whose last best-seller, Crucial Conversations, was referenced several times at my table today-- is speaking August 19 at ASAE & The Center’s Annual Meeting and Expo.

According to Influencer, “people will attempt to change their behavior if (1) they believe it will be worth it, and (2) they can do what is required.” Stories that guide people to those conclusions must contain both “a clear link between the current behaviors and existing (or possibly future) negative results” and “positive replacement behaviors that yield new and better results.”

Those of us at the summit today heard such “high-point stories” recounted on the stage, in the coffee line, and from attendees at some of the 14 connected sites across America. I liked the examples given by CEO Scott Steen of the American Ceramic Society. First, Scott described the rapid membership growth achieved by the National Association of Counties after it cleverly arranged a deal with a corporation that allowed the association to provide prescription discount cards to members for free distribution in every county in America.

Second, he cited the National Academy of Engineers’ inspiring work with members to identify 14 “grand challenges” such as making solar energy affordable and reverse-engineering the brain. The organization then spotlights research and grant money focused on those topics. “They’re saying to their members, ‘Here is where to go to make a difference as an engineer,” explained Scott, adding that the organization is using the initiative to “define their mission in the world and show how engineers and their industry are making huge differences.” I can’t wait to hear what comes out of Thursday’s “dream” process….

Colleagues: As you many of you may know, I am retiring effective July 2. Today I have uploaded two files to the shared documents area of the ASAE CEO Community that I created to assist in my own executive succession. If are you progressing towards becoming an Executive Director or Chief Staff Officer position, or are a first time or newly hired ED or CSO, these files may be of some future use to you. Even if you are a long-tenured ED/CSO, the two files may be helpful as you need to communicate about the ED/CSO role with your volunteers.

Of course, each of our organizations is different—different cultures, different governance models, different business processes. Nevertheless, you may find some topics or information that is useful in your situation.

The files are:

“A Day in the Life of an Executive Director”: A 29-slide PowerPoint presentation designed to help our volunteer search committee have a common understanding of what an Executive Director does, and the knowledge and competencies required. The deck includes some strong graphic slides borrowed from Tom Peters public web site and his file of publicly available slides.

"Executive Director Succession Manual”: A 70-page Word document designed to support the succession of my replacement. It will be much longer and focused specifically on the role of the ED in our Society, but may be a useful reference tool for others in terms of “hands-on” roles, responsibilities, processes, etc.for an Executive Director, as well as a useful transition document.

Enjoy. Let me know if you find the information helpful. Cheers!

I have yet to hear an association leader say something like, “Man, I love succession planning! Best part of the job.” Uh, uh. So lots of folks avoid it. They focus on the leadership responsibilities that clog their to-do lists that day, not next year. This seems especially true at nonprofits.

“I don’t have anyone in-house capable of taking over for me.” “Who knows what the board will want in their next executive director, so why start prepping someone now who could be all wrong later?” “I’m not planning to go for a lo-o-o-ng time. There’s no rush.”

Bill George, a Harvard professor and former CEO and chairman of the mammoth medical technology company Medtronic, isn’t standing for any such excuse but also doesn’t believe succession planning is up to the executive director alone.

“I think one of the reasons for a lot of the disasters [in corporations] in recent years, right up to the present moment, is because boards and directors are not focusing on leadership succession,” George said during a Thought Leader Forum held by Leadership Coach Academy recently. “They are focusing on getting and bringing in a ‘savior,’ if you will--hiring someone from a headhunter or a hotshot to run the company, and a lot of these people come in like Bob Nardelli did at Home Depot. They make a huge amount of change, get rid of all the people who know something about the business, and don’t really understand the essence of the business. I say, ‘Shame on boards of directors for doing that!’ I think boards of directors are, just simply, derelict in their duties when they do that.”

George points to Citigroup as an example of this, as well as Merrill Lynch, “where you have 550,000 employees and no leadership succession.”

Harsh. But you execs aren’t off the hook, either. “It is incumbent on any leader to develop succession, not just for immediate succession but looking many, many years down the road—10, 15, 20 years down the road. You develop people of all ages who can take over and run the organization going forward, and you have enough of them so that if someone drops out for health reasons or changes jobs or doesn’t work out, you have others to step up.

“The key is to have a leadership culture of great leaders coming up at all levels, not just on the top,” he concluded. “That’s why organizations like Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi Co., and General Electric have been historically successful—they have that kind of leadership development and culture.”

Continue reading "Succession Planning: Don’t “To-Do” It for Later" »

How are you at crucial conversations? You know--those situations in which you are involved with others, in which the outcomes and the relationships are at stake?

I was in one of these last week in Phoenix, where 16 of us came from various parts of the U.S. to attempt to settle and dispose of disputes between my parent organization and two of my subsidiary component organizations. You know the situation—it’s common in national and global associations. The meeting was important. The situation had a 15 year history, needed resolution, and all affected parts of the organization needed to move on to other, positive activities. We're all familiar with this type of situation.

Fortunately, and due entirely to the positive and constructive leadership of all 16 of us, we succeeded. It wasn’t easy, but it was important and we reached unanimous agreement on all major points. There were diverse opinions about everything, and fortunately, open minds on the important points. That evening we had a “victory reception and dinner”, complete with a signing of a Proclamation of Achievement and Appreciation by all participants. They say all’s well that ends well, and we made sure we ended very well, indeed.

There’s a great book that helps address crucial conversations. Coincidentally, it’s titled Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High. Authors are Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler, published in 2002 by McGraw Hill, and subsequently a New York Times bestseller.

Building from their research on the subject, the authors define these crucial conversations as those that “occur when there is a lot at stake, when emotions are strong, and when opinions differ”. The authors suggest the importance in such situations of having a clear sense of desired results (outcomes) as well as a clear sense of the desired relationships when the crucial conversations are concluded. This is not a situation in which one may want to do ones thinking out loud!

You can Goggle the book notes or buy the book (or both). You may be better prepared for your next crucial conversation. Good luck!

Wells Jones, CEO of the much-lauded Guide Dog Foundation, is a great storyteller. That's not a label many nonprofit leaders work hard for, but Wells has found that stories can get you places that appeals letters and political allies cannot: into people's wallet, mind and heart.

I was interviewing him recently after our Key Philanthropic Organizations Committee (KPOC) meeting, having already talked to him once before about his foundation's successful revision of its governance practices. We had spent a good chunk of the KPOC meeting talking about leadership, organizational excellence and the differences and synergies between our Seven Measures of Success book and a new publication, Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant.

We were all intrigued by the differences in data about leadership between these two books and even Good to Great's Jim Collins, who had been involved with both publications. One thing none of these books did, though, was explore in any real depth the types of communication techniques that great organizatonal leaders routinely find most effective: compelling storytelling.

So I asked Wells how he created the storytelling culture that is so apparent on his Web site and how his staff and volunteers collect and use those powerful anecdotes to show the real impact of the organization. You can read his responses in the profile department of ASAE & The Center's new philanthropic Web section, but in the meantime I wanted to share what he said was his favorite program-related story.

"This story relates to a Marine who lost both of his arms in Iraq above the elbow, so he wears two prosthetic arms," Wells said. "And he also has some balance issues. We trained one of our dogs to work with him to help provide balance, fetch items and do various tasks that the Marine needs to get done.

"So he’s outdoors with his dog one day, and they are having down time--he’s playing Frisbee with his dog--and when he throws the Frisbee, the dog brings it back, like all of our dogs do. But then one time when he throws the Frisbee, one of his arms goes with it. The dog goes over and looks at the Frisbee and then looks at the arm, looks at the Frisbee and looks at the arm. Finally, he makes up his mind and grabs the arm, which he takes back to the Marine. And the Marine is laughing really hard about this, thinking, 'What fun!' but then he realizes what the dog just did: The dog made a decision that his owner had to have the arm first before he could bring the Frisbee back. It’s a wonderful, wonderful story."

Now ask him to tell you the one about the two old-time war vets who have raised half a million bucks in just a few months....

Recently, Scott Briscoe wrote a thought-provoking membership article “Should you be serving or leading your members?” As we think about the future of associations, the wants and needs of membership deserve critical consideration. Hopefully some of our respected marketing and membership folks will weigh in, since they have important insights. Here are some thoughts which I hope will further discussion:

Thought 1: “The membership” is a myth. We can’t generalize about membership. If “the membership” means a homogenous, unified, like-minded body, then it doesn’t exist anymore than “the electorate” or “the consumer” exists. What exist are various member, electorate and consumer segments. Each segment has its own common or shared interests or aspirations. For example, there are association members whose primary interest is expanded knowledge. Among the electorate are red-dog Republicans. And there are consumers for whom “green” is more than a color. Point is, while these are important segments, they hardly represent the entire spectrum. Success in membership and marketing depends on identifying and understanding your markets and the voices of the customer. Membership success, like the success in any market, is seldom achieved by thinking and treating everyone like they are a size 6.

Thought 2: Volunteer vision frequently is a 12-month window. Our active volunteer members often see things in short term, annual perspectives, particularly if they have a one year leadership position. Governing boards, even with 3-year terms, often have difficulty focusing attention beyond one year at a time. The “project oriented” Millennials may have an even shorter attention span. So this leaves the staff to see and deal with the longer term strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the association—if is to be done at all. Since volunteers often define success as 12 months of smooth sailing (no problems please), is it any wonder that the natural tendency is for volunteers to focus on (this year’s) wants rather than (longer term) needs? Beyond membership, how do you suppose the 12-month window influences successful strategy, operational execution over time and other cross-enterprise and intra-enterprise performance?

Thought 3: Traditional models may not match emerging membership challenge. My association model will hardly surprise long-time observers of associations. Many older associations, like mine, were founded for “higher purposes” (ASME was founded in 1880 for public safety, property protection and growth/access to the engineering body of knowledge). We tend to be about engineering, not engineers. Our thinking for 127 years has generally been that what is good for engineering is good for engineers and others with technology interests.

We have a culture where volunteers “mature” their leadership by volunteering for increasingly more responsible roles, over extended time periods. Our members self organize into common interest groups, often working together for many years, to build and share knowledge, community and advocacy. I regularly give out 15, 20 and 30 year pins to staff. We are a fine organization with great traditions.

As a global association, in a rapidly changing world, we are increasingly required to be an agile, innovative and performance-oriented enterprise. Here’s the emerging challenge: Members and volunteers who may: 1) be primarily motivated by their individual, personal interests; 2) have less disposable time, resources and patience for “leadership ladders” and extended, time-consuming volunteer commitments; and 3) identify with their peer interest group rather than the enterprise. Can the challenge be successfully resolved in the old, traditional membership models? What’s the definition of insanity: doing what you’ve always done, the way you always have, and thinking you’ll get new and different results?

Where are the new membership markets, voices and models? How do we reconcile wants and needs?

Have you been caught in the communications trap? I have and it’s not pretty. It goes like this: At the annual meeting, a long-time member (often a respected past president) says into the microphone, “This organization does a crappy job of communicating. I never know what’s going on, except for my annual dues invoice! Why should I renew when this organization can’t communicate any better than that?”

Someone has to respond (why is it always the exec?) even though no response can possibly suffice—right? “Blah,” interrupts the member, “Not good enough.” With a straight face the past president sticks in the final pin, “I don’t read the (no-good) magazine, I travel too frequently to read my (junk) association mail, my fax is broken and I don’t use a computer!” Then the coup de grace: “This organization has gone to Hades—it never used to be like this in my day!” The meeting concludes with smiles and general agreement that this meeting was one of the best in recent memory. Does this ring a bell?

Communications are vitally important. The challenge is that most associations have a wide range of audience segments. These segments are interested in some messages (and media) and not others. This is a case of “I want what I want when I want it (the way I want it).” If there is one predictable constant it must be that there is no simple, single solution for communications with diverse members and customers. We are not all a size 6 and living in one geographical area!

What to do? One useful proactive tool is an annual communications plan. Conceived at the outset of each fiscal year, the plan contains a small number of high priority messages for the year. For example, the messages might focus on new technical information, strategic priorities, and/or association achievements improving the value proposition for members and customers. A communications plan also includes a schedule of key events and appropriate media to reach desired audience segments during the year.

For an annual communications plan to work, it must have the understanding and support of senior volunteer leaders, senior executives and communications staff, because these are the folks who will be doing most of the communications during the year. Volunteer and staff leaders must understand that their personal messages are secondary to key consistent messages from the organization each year.

Another tool for successful communications is repetition. Repetition enables audiences to become aware of and understand important communications. Have you ever wondered why commercials are so repetitive? One-time messages simply don’t have much impact.

If you want to improve your association’s communications, try working with your volunteer and staff leaders to create an annual message plan, and update it every year.

How does your association define success? Success comes in many flavors. Perhaps the important thing is to identify and implement what works for you. Thereafter communicate, communicate, and communicate. Your association has a sizable new volunteer leader class every year--did I mention the need to communicate?

What does your association value most? Is it performance? How about relationships? Perhaps its competencies or credentialing. We’re all different when it comes to what matters most, not to mention why it matters to us. So, to define success, there has to be agreement on what matters most. The situation, which may change over time, has a lot to do with defining success. For example, an association in a protracted, downward financial spiral, for example, may define success very differently than an association whose growth has been 30% per year for the past five years.

Here are some important success categories, with suggestions how they might be used.

Strategy--Does our association have a sustained record of performance to plan over time (successful strategy is not measured in 12-month cycles and someone’s pet agenda for the year)?
Voice of the customer—Who are our (right) customers and how do you know if they are satisfied (yes, there may be “wrong” customers)?
Financial—Do we have sustained performance over time meeting budget or ending each year with positive variances (no margin, no mission)?
Business operations—What is the record of new program development and existing program retirement over the past 5 years (are you still doing what you did 5 years ago)?
Learning & growth—What investment do we make on a consistent annual basis for volunteer’s & staff’s learning and growth in their association roles (no investment, no dividends)?

When you have figured out what matters most to your association and how you will measure success, it’s time to think about annual communications planning. An annual communications plan is important to your success. The plan is based around key messages that your organization wants to communicate about your successes. These key messages are important for association leaders—volunteers and staff—to focus on, repeat and reinforce. The messages help everyone to understand and stay on the same page.

Associations are best served by continuous success over time. We want our organizations to continue valuable work year after year. Of course we must allow for emerging opportunities and threats. What we don’t want to do is to swing the organization violently from one “theme” to another “theme” every 12 months. This redirection and continual change can be wasteful and discouraging.

There are many useful ways to define organizational success. And to communicate effectively about it. The most important point is to do so—consistently, over time, year after year. Your volunteers, staff and external relationships will thank you, knowing what to expect and how to help. How do you measure organizational success?

After sharing stunning Imax photos, dramatic video of flight lift-offs and passionate descriptions of what he believes leadership means today, former NASA space shuttle pilot and astronaut Charles Bolden got a standing ovation today at the Annual Meeting & Expo.

It was an unusual, sometimes emotional presentation with such compelling imagery in the background, and Bolden used that majesty to urge leaders to develop their skills so that they could take even small steps toward making the world a better place.

“Earth is unbelievable; it’s breathtaking,” he said. “It goes in 45-minute spurts--17,500 miles per hour—so it takes 90 minutes to go around one time. Every 45 minutes you see a sunset or a sunrise.”

His favorite photo of the thousands he has taken is a spaceship view of the Middle East because “it’s so peaceful looking and organized.” Can you imagine seeing such sights and not feeling protective of the planet we occupy?

Although Bolden’s presentation hadn’t been scheduled with any particular tie-in to ASAE & The Center’s new Social Responsibility Initiative, I thought that this recent Astronaut Hall of Famer may have made one of the most inspiring appeals of the day for association leaders to “do what is right,” to use their business and leadership savvy in much broader, more powerful ways toward positive world change.

Much of what Bolden said about leadership was not necessarily new to regular attendees of ASAE & The Center programs. But he did a good job reinforcing the most important elements and then concluded with the startling power behind the words of 12-year-old Nikosi Johnson, who at the time of his death in 2001 had been the longest-living AIDS patient: “Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place that you are. … If we just live by Nikosi’s philosophy, we can make a difference.”

Probably 50 people crowded around Bolden when he finished, just to shake his hand, compliment him and get a quick photo. Others headed straight to the BrightSight Group rep who handles Bolden’s speaking engagements. Me? I thought of exactly the right spot to put Nikosi’s quote on my office wall.

This is the name of the book that I am going to write after my unplanned, second coronary angioplasty procedure last week—the second in the past five years. Life, it seems, is full of unplanned bumps. Last Thursday was one of those. As we know, association management executives are used to facing unplanned and unforeseen circumstances. It proved to be good training.

“You’re looking great,” Dr. Feit said, as they wheeled me into the operating room. “Good to see you again”. Dr. Feit was my surgeon in September 2002, for my first angioplasty. “Well, I’m not glad to see you,” I growled, “but I’m glad you’re still here.” To prove my point, I quipped “You should be getting pretty good at this by now!” He smiled, and said “I’m staying in practice.”

Thus it was that I lay on my back staring at the ceiling for four hours, watching the four television monitors. For those of you have yet to be introduced to coronary angioplasty, it is a procedure to widen narrowed or obstructed blood vessels and is used to avoid bypass surgery. The procedure involves a small incision in the groin area to access the femoral artery, where an introducer needle provides access for a long, flexible catheter used to introduce radiopaque dyes. The dyes allow the state and location of the blockage(s) to be studied with real-time x-rays. If you like digital photography, as I do, this is an interesting part of the procedure.

With the blockage(s) identified, a guide wire is inserted through the introducer needle to each blockage, using real-time x-rays for guidance. The surgeon inserts the guide wire, gently pushing and rotating it to the point of blockage. Patients are usually awake during the procedure so that any discomfort or other issues can be reported. Thus, one can watch the entire procedure on one of the many televisions used by the surgeon to guide the progress of insertion and placement at each blockage.

Once the guide wire is in place, it becomes the pathway for the surgeon to gently push forward a hollow catheter with a balloon on the end and (in my case) a treated-wire mesh stent. At the proper point, the balloon is inflated, expanding the artery wall and implanting the stent, which supports the newly reopened artery.

After a night in the hospital, I've returned home. No strenuous exercise for 72 hours and no travel for four weeks. And maybe no steak and French fries forever!

Now regarded as common surgery, coronary angioplasty is an amazing procedure. Dr. Feit and his team are unbelievably skilled at what they do. I hope that none of you will have first-hand experience with this procedure, but some of you will. It’s not necessarily an age, exercise or diet thing. The good news: if you find yourself on your back, looking at the ceiling, you can be confident that there are some first-class cutters out there who know what they are doing. And the television is great! Dr. Feit and team: Salute!

Association Management: Interesting Things No One Tells You

Association management is wild and whacky—there’s so much that no one tells you. Like walking into a glass door, some of the learning experiences can be unexpectedly jarring.

Continue reading "Episode 2: CEO Agreements: 5 Things to Get In Writing!" »

Bill Marriott just launched his own blog: Marriott on the Move. Welcome to the blogosphere, Mr. Marriott! Why did he start a blog? Here is an excerpt from his first post:

Blogging will allow me to do what I've been doing for years -- on a global scale. Talking to the customer comes easily to me. I visit 250 hotels around the world every year. This year I'll be traveling once again to China where we have 27 hotels, 16 under construction and many more in our development pipeline. At every hotel, I talk to associates, from housekeepers to general managers, to get their feedback. I call it "management by walking around." Like my parents, I value the input from our associates at all levels. I make lots of notes -- and my best ideas almost always come from our people in the field.

Sounds to me like he gets the value.

I spoke last week to the Board and senior staff of a large association about Web 2.0 and what these technologies mean for associations. I was asked by the moderator to boil down the single greatest value of Web 2.0 for associations. For me, one of the greatest lessons is the idea of creating network effect businesses where the product or service is more valuable to each person the more people use or purchase it.

Associations must create a network effect of member value in everything we do. In fact, I believe that associations are better positioned to create a network effect than most other businesses and organizations. We start as informal networks! But I think we move away from this over time as organizations mature and build up a bureaucratic middle.

Imagine how much value your association could create for your members if a network effect of value is built into your services and products. The path to doing so, I believe, is to pay attention to what is going on with the Web these days around participation and social networks and develop ideas for how to create the same dynamics with your members. As you plan events, products or services, simply ask "How can we design this so that each person who joins/buys adds value to all the others who do so as well?"