BostonBlog

Scott Steen, Greg Balestrero, and Seth Kahan did a fantastic session based on a Journal of Association Leadership article about future trends impacting associations. Specifically, they talked about complexity, globalization, and demographic changes. It was a refreshingly deep and important conversation.

One takeaway: if you are still trying to figure out if globalization and demographic shift is happening or not, you are way behind the curve. The really “cool” statistics about how Honda makes the car that has the most American parts in it are several years old!

Another: as you move to incorporate the broader world into your association, or even a broader mix of people within the United States, be prepared to change the way you do things in your organization. You must be willing to look critically at your own “model.”

Posted by Jamie Notter at 07:37 AM | Permalink

I go to a lot of sessions on generations because the topic really interests me, and Claire Raines was hands down the best one I’ve been to so far. I thought she really distinguished herself form other speakers about this topic in many different ways. She presented clear differences among the generations that seemed to resonate with the people in the room. She did put out the “Generation X are not joiners” line, which in the association context needs a little more thorough exploration, but ultimately I felt her description of Generation X was accurate and (unlike many others) not overly negative. Similarly, she did not make fun of Generation X or the millennials, which I think is common when the speaker and most of the audience are Boomers. She warned everyone about the danger of using these generalizations to stereotype people, which, again, many speakers on this topic seem to leave out. She also made the important point that generation is just one of many factors of our identity that impact who we are and how we behave.

She also did her homework about associations for this talk and didn’t merely re-state points in her book. Some of her recommendations to associations:

-Develop generational literacy
-Use a generational lens to review things like marketing, products, etc. regularly
-Solicit feedback from focus groups or representative individuals
-Ask members and prospects about their needs and preferences
-Foster acceptance of other generational perspectives throughout your organization.

Posted by Jamie Notter at 07:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It’s so hard to keep up with the content at this conference!

I thought the morning general session was outstanding. Takeaways:

Nobody is as smart as everybody. Create an “architecture of participation” to make broader connections and have more conversations in order to innovate and be more successful.

Looking at the industry the way everybody else does—including the customers—won’t get you traction. You have to go outside your world and experience things.

Posted by Jamie Notter at 07:31 AM | Permalink

The attendance at the Benefits and Risks of Certification Programs session once again shows the strong interest and need of association executives for more guidance in this area. We’re discussing some of the most problematic issues facing certification programs, including:

Maintaining autonomy in decision-making by the certifying governing body from the association’s board of directors. The body does not have to be independently incorporated, but at minimum, it must have autonomy in decision-making of all essential certification decisions.

Establishing fair and reasonable eligibility requirements. Be careful of antitrust violations. Requiring membership is not recommended.

Establishing defensible grounds for revocation. Here are 3: criminal conviction in the area of responsibility covered by the credential; gross negligence or malpractice; and misrepresentation of information in the certification or recertification process

Being careful about what you promise. It’s safe to say that your certificants meet your rigorous standards, but not safe to guarantee they are competent or say they’re better than someone else without the credential.

Having disciplinary policies and procedures in place before launching the program (versus creating when the issues arise!). Key elements are notice of the violation, opportunity to respond, and fair and impartial decision-makers.

Posted by Mickie Rops at 09:28 AM | Permalink

Bill Taylor is making some great points this morning...

On strategy: Products and services don't transform an industry, but the ideas you stand for can. So then, the essence of strategy is to advance ideas, not to offer new products or services.

On innovation: Great ideas come from all levels of the organization and outside of the organization, but the best leaders are smart enough to ask.

On human resources: The people are the company. You can't wait around for them to come to you (through traditional job ads, for example); you need to seek them out.

Posted by Mickie Rops at 08:59 AM | Permalink

The super session I went to yesterday was done by Bill Strickland, and it was unbelievably powerful. I can’t do it justice in a blog post, frankly, but I wanted to share what a powerful session this was. Bill has an amazing story, building a training center in a poor neighborhood in Pittsburgh that provides world-class training in areas ranging from art to medical technicians.

What was most inspiring to me was Bill’s clarity of purpose and his simple but powerful conviction to get things done. He was faced with the same barriers that we all face in organizations—the same lack of resources, the same opposition, the same societal obstacles—but they just didn’t phase him. He was clear, and he got it done. He’s evidence that we underestimate our own power.

His key message, by the way: It’s the way you think about people that determines their behavior. People are a function of expectations. Bill trains poor people, and he treats them like world-class citizens in his programs. And they produce extraordinary results.

Posted by Jamie Notter at 07:55 AM | Permalink

I liked what Jim Collins had to say yesterday (see all the live blog posts below!). I’ve always been a fan of Good to Great. But I think that some of his points should come with a warning or caveat.

For example, he made the point that association greatness is not attained simply by being more like businesses. I agree. But don’t let that be an excuse for ignoring what businesses do to be more effective.

Similarly, he talked about the difference between the executive leadership corporate CEOS have, versus the “legislative” power association CEOs must wield. Again, this is an excellent point—there is no single leader in an association. But I worry that this might be an excuse to NOT be bold and decisive. Even within the legislative model, there is room for bold moves.

So I hope that people will take what Jim says and think about it some more. It’s great stuff, but it’s not necessarily the “answer.”

Posted by Jamie Notter at 07:44 AM | Permalink

Last year's highest rated speaker, Matt Weinstein, is making a repeat performance here in Boston. I guess I'm not the only one who wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I arrived at room 205 to find a standing-room only crowd. Here's the scene as I saw it:

Posted by Ben Martin at 02:45 PM | Permalink

A quick post from a blue chair in the Connection Cafe about the opening general session. I thought that last year's opening session in would be difficult to top, and unfortunately I was right. Last year's opening session featured a Cirque de Soleil style acrobatic troupe, which was just incredible. Today's entertainment portion of the general session was a rapper, some "fly girls" and a magician. The theatrics were good. But not great.

I think this stood in stark contrast to the general session keynote presentation by Jim Collins. Jim's session was excellent, just as I had hoped it would be. There are a number of posts already on the Boston Blog, so I won't go into detail about his presentation, but suffice it to say that it was great.

Perhaps the most entertaining part about the opening general session was seeing ASAE's President & CEO, John Graham, decked out in gold chains and more bling-bling, get behind two DJ turntables, don a pair of headphones, and "scratch" (the DJ setup was part of the rapping and fly girls routine I mentioned earlier). Not only did John's headphones fall off (twice) but his scratching was totally out of sync with the track. It was a Milli-Vanilli moment to be sure.

I give the opening general session an A for substance, but a B for style.

I've heard stories about an ASAE or GWSAE meeting from several years ago when a UFO or a spaceship occupied the stage. Apparently those theatrics were the stuff of legends, and people compared future events to the "spaceship meeting" for many years. I have a feeling my expectations for general sessions may be exceedingly difficult to surpass because of my experience at last year's annual meeting in Nashville.

Posted by Ben Martin at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A quick post from a blue chair in the Connection Cafe about the opening general session. I thought that last year's opening session in would be difficult to top, and unfortunately I was right. Last year's opening session featured a Cirque de Soleil style acrobatic troupe, which was just incredible. Today's entertainment portion of the general session was a rapper, some "fly girls" and a magician. The theatrics were good. But not great.

I think this stood in stark contrast to the general session keynote presentation by Jim Collins. Jim's session was excellent, just as I had hoped it would be. There are a number of posts already on the Boston Blog, so I won't go into detail about his presentation, but suffice it to say that it was great.

Perhaps the most entertaining part about the opening general session was seeing ASAE's President & CEO, John Graham, decked out in gold chains and more bling-bling, get behind two DJ turntables, don a pair of headphones, and "scratch" (the DJ setup was part of the rapping and fly girls routine I mentioned earlier). Not only did John's headphones fall off (twice) but his scratching was totally out of sync with the track. It was a Milli-Vanilli moment to be sure.

I give the opening general session an A for substance, but a B for style.

I've heard stories about an ASAE or GWSAE meeting from several years ago when a UFO or a spaceship occupied the stage. Apparently those theatrics were the stuff of legends, and people compared future events to the "spaceship meeting" for many years. I have a feeling my expectations for general sessions may be exceedingly difficult to surpass because of my experience at last year's annual meeting in Nashville.

Posted by Ben Martin at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Unless you've been living in a cave, you're likely aware that ASAE &The Center were planning to release the 7 Measure of Success at the meeting today. Well, finally, here they are, the seven measures of success of associations:

Customer service culture
Alignment of products and services with mission
Data-driven strategies
Dialogue and engagement
CEO as broker of ideas
Organizational adaptablility
Alliance building

Posted by Mickie Rops at 08:52 AM | Permalink

Let me tell you, wireless Web access ROCKS! The wifi at the BCEC is awesome and it is FREE! It is wicked pissa.

Outgoing ASAE chair Paulette Maehara of the Assocation of Fundraising Professionals says she generally gets three reactions when telling people that she runs a professional association:

+A blank stare
+The very sincere question, "So you're a lobbyist?"
+The even more sincere question, "Do you get paid to do that?"

Paulette is right on. Whenever I call my mother to tell her about something I'm doing in the association community, she always asks me to hold the phone. When she comes back, I ask her, "Did you just get a piece of paper and a pen to write this down so you could explain it to other people?" Her reply is always yes. Why is association work such a mystery to people?

More when Jim Collins takes the stage.

Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 08:47 AM | Permalink

The general session will start in about 30 minutes, and I'm blogging from the lobby directly outside the general session ballroom. The bass is thumping, the lights are swirling -- I feel like I'm about to stop into a nightclub! The first 30 minutes of last year's annual meeting are an unforgettable time for me. Those first 30 minutes influenced me enough to believe that last year's annual meeting was the best annual meeting ever. It is now the standard by which I compare every other event I go to, and it's a very hard standard to live up to. Which leaves me feeling a little nervous for ASAE & The Center. Can they top last year's fireworks? Can they impress us just a little bit more than last year? I certainly hope so, but Nashville will be tough to beat. And I've got some skin in the game too: I've been telling people they simply CANNOT miss the first 30 minutes of the general session. So my reputation is on the line, too -- well, just a little.

Posted by Ben Martin at 07:55 AM | Permalink

During a session today on communications and marketing audits, Kevin Whorton presented a case study on Catholic Relief Services, where he used to work, and showed a picture of a direct mail package sent by the organization that he admitted was "ugly." It had very little color, an old-fashioned look, black-and-white photos, lots of text ...

Ugly it might be, but he said it also consistently produced the best results of anything else they sent out, and as a control package in tests consistently beat out all their other packages.

He said every time he sent it out, he heard from some consultants who saw it and would say, "Hey, we can make that package much better for you, we can make it four-color, we can make it look really good!" To which he would say, "You don't know much about direct mail, do you?"

I've written about this before on my own blog, but it bears repeating and I'm glad Kevin's experience backs up ours: the marketing and communications pieces that we pass around the conference room for everyone to go "ooh and ahh" over aren't necessarily the pieces that get the responses we want. If you're asking for money (whether that's a direct appeal, like the organization Kevin profiled, or if you're selling a product or event to a price-conscious market), sometimes sending something that looks expensive won't get you the best results.

Posted by Kevin Holland at 05:59 PM | Permalink

Live blogging Larry Johnson's session: Destroy the Status Quo, leading change in a changing world (handout).

Larry weaves storytelling, audience participation and visual elements to help attendees understand managing and leading change.

Three good ways to help teammates and stakeholders embrace change:
* Use incentives
* Let people know that change is coming
* Explain why change is necessary

People experience three kinds of pain in change:
* The pain of not changing (P1)
* The pain of not knowing what to do (P2)
* The pain of changing (P3)

When P1 + P2 > P3 then change occurs.

To help people change, a change leader should:
* increase the pain of not changing (P1)
* increase the pain of not knowing what to do (P2)
* decrease the pain of changing (P3)

Healthy options for dealing with unpleasant situations:
* Proactive change (make change happen)
* Accept (just deal with it)
* Leave

Posted by Ben Martin at 04:49 PM | Permalink

If you were not one of the fifty or so people in the preconference Innovation session that fellow blogger Jeff De Cagna facilitated - you REALLY missed out! Regardless of whether you are an association executive, business owner, supplier, consultant, etc. this session had the group excited and energized about creating innovative ideas within their organizations.

Participants crafted an innovative idea for their own organization and utilized the network within the room to build on their idea. We explored the concept of association innovation from a 360 perspective - taking a look at the political and implementation issues around getting innovative ideas through the "giant hairball".

Posted by Amy Smith at 11:56 AM | Permalink