7 Measures and small associations
Still in the "Dispelling Conventional Wisdom" session, and Mick Gallery has shared that there's been some concern that the 7 Measures study focused on larger associations, and I've heard that mentioned in hallway conversations. While he admits that is true (the smallest association studied had 50 staff), he offered two facts to consider:
1. Participation was a huge commitment for participating organizations...they were each asked for 15 years of data. Even the 50-staff associations found this a challenge, and smaller organizations would face a capacity problem. However, the task force believes that the factors identified will apply to any size organization. As an example, being mission-focused: who more than small associations needs to be mission-focused?
2. The participating associations were selected via a nomination process; 1000 CEOs were asked who they benchmark against. The likelihood of smaller organizations being mentioned is somewhat negligible.
A great next step, says Gallery, would be to study how the principles apply to smaller organizations. Given the number of small associations in our universe, that's a very good idea.