August 16, 2005
Are You Experienced? (Part 3)
Last few thoughts from Jim Gilmore's presentation. As Shawn mentioned in an earlier post, he talked about "themes." If you're like me, you're big on slogans -- I love to try and come up with different and interesting slogans for our annual conference, for example. Associations have taglines for membership campaigns, publications, affinity programs, etc.
Gilmore pointed out, however, that a tagline is not a theme, it's just a cue. (He said this standing in front of a giant orange banner that said, "Association Performance to the Xtreme.") A theme is an "organizing principle for everything you're trying to stage."
In a way, I think what Gilmore is suggesting is that a theme is a way to organize your participant's (member's) perceptions. It makes things seem less confusing and yet somehow more profound (real?) when everything is organized around a common idea -- even if that idea is not stated outright (and Gilmore said you should not state it outright).
He gave a lot of examples -- such as W hotels, which have such a simple and obvious theme it's actually hard to guess. Their theme is -- the letter W! From the parking garage ("Wheels") to their famous phone greeting ("Whatever, Whenever"), to the bar (XYZ) to the stylized W signs. Kinda weird, but it works. (Not as weird as the Phoenix Hotel, which chose as its theme -- Rolling Stone magazine. It's not stated, but they took the "feel" of Rolling Stone and turned it into a hotel.)
Posted by Kevin Holland at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)
Death to member service
Heresy you say?
You could argue that it's just a matter of semantics, but Scott McKain, author of What Customers Really Want, suggested that associations with member service departments are underperforming and will not find long term success. Rather than member service, McKain argued for member experience.
It's true that the word experience is starting to get overused -- think "paradigm shift" or "robust functionality" in the 1990s. But let's look at the experience vs. service issue. McKain noted that an organization can have excellent customer service -- the organization is competent, prompt, and all the other things that go along with really good customer service, but in the end, that service does not build loyalty. Strong service is expected, bad service leads to the customer voting with her feet as she walks away. Loyalty happens when your members get emotionally involved in their interactions with your organizations. His definition of an experience is an action that makes an emotional connection with a customer. How do you do that?
Heresy you say?
You could argue that it's just a matter of semantics, but Scott McKain, author of What Customers Really Want, suggested that associations with member service departments are underperforming and will not find long term success. Rather than member service, McKain argued for member experience.
It's true that the word experience is starting to get overused -- think "paradigm shift" or "robust functionality" in the 1990s. But let's look at the experience vs. service issue. McKain noted that an organization can have excellent customer service -- the organization is competent, prompt, and all the other things that go along with really good customer service, but in the end, that service does not build loyalty. Strong service is expected, bad service leads to the customer voting with her feet as she walks away. Loyalty happens when your members get emotionally involved in their interactions with your organizations. His definition of an experience is an action that makes an emotional connection with a customer. How do you do that?
Here are McKain's three steps to creating the types of experiences that will make an association a success.
1. High Concept - a short powerful phrase that will interest and involve your audience. Examples:
Your pizza will be delivered in 30 minutes or it's free.
Absolutely, positively overnight.
We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.
Just do it.
You undoubtedly know exactly which company each of those phrases refers to. McKain didn't using the term, but it's branding. You make a promise that matters and you deliver.
2. Power of Story - The goal of most association communications should not be "effectiveness;" it should be "persuasiveness." You don't want to inform only, you want people to take action, and that happens through good storytelling. Then McKain broke out his little ninth-grade literature lecture. Telling a story involves three parts: (1) introducing character and conflict, (2) the varied efforts where characters try to resolve the conflict, and (3) heroic resolution of the conflict by the characters.
McKain said the fundamental problem with association communications is that they start at the second part - they skip ahead to all the wonderful products and services that can help resolve the conflict, but we don't know what that conflict is, and we don't know who the characters are or why we care about them.
3. Ultimate customer experience - associations get so focused on the transaction and the processing that they do not pay attention to the experience. One thing you must do to create the experiences your customers want is to ask them. But be sure to ask the right questions.
The example he gave was a bus line that transports major personalities to concerts and such. New owners of the line planned a complete refurbish of the buses to be even more luxurious than they already were - that must be the way to attract these stars who have astronomical expectations. They could have asked the stars what features they'd love to see in the bus - marble bath tubs or massively huge high-definition television. Instead, they asked what was the most important thing to them about their transportation by bus. The answer? Good drivers. It makes sense - the drivers had to be flexible enough to get along with Metallica and Britney Spears, they had to represent these acts well to fans, who see the driver as an employee of the group, not the bus line. They need to make the acts feel secure when it's two in the morning and there's a driving hail storm.
What the bus line owners learned is that the most important part of the experience is the people involved.
Posted by ScottBriscoe at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
Are You Experienced? (Part 2)
Question: Why does the world need green ketchup? Answer: It doesn't. But it's available on your grocery shelves anyway. And its popularity with kids is undisputed.
In his presentation yesterday, Jim Gilmore referred to the creation of green ketchup as "sensorializing." If you want to turn something into a memorable experience, pick a sense that was previously ignored and change it. No one "sees" ketchup. We know it's red. Until it's green. Or purple or whatever.
Same with the roller-coaster gumball machine (or the singing bartender). No one expects to "see" or "hear" something during these transactions.
Associations are full of experiences: tradeshows, conferences, seminars, publications, websites, membership campaigns, board meetings, you name it. Each of these can be turned from plain-old experiences into loyalty-inspiring all-caps EXPERIENCES by hitting what Gilmore calls the "sweet spot."
Here's a sketch of the model Gilmore presented on the sweet spot:
An experience that is absorbing and passive is entertaining.
An experience that is absorbing and active is educational.
An experience that is immersive and active is escapist.
An experience that is immersive and passive is esthetic. Note that's esthetic with an "e" not aesthetic with an "a". Esthetic is an architectural term for "the value of just being there."
The sweet spot is the center -- enabling members access to all of these experiences. For example, if a meeting offers components that are educational, entertaining, escapist, and esthetic -- that feeling that a place is just worth being -- then that meeting has hit the sweet spot.
In other words, it's an experience that people ENJOY ... where they LEARN ... where they have to GO away from their everyday concerns ... and where they feel they need and want to BE.
That doesn't just apply to meetings, though. That sort of experience should be sought in everything an association does for its members.
I want to touch on Gilmore's thoughts on theming in a later post.
Posted by Kevin Holland at 03:25 PM | Comments (1)
Are You Experienced? (Part 1)
Jeff posted an audio interview with Jim Gilmore earlier -- go listen to it -- but I wanted to put some thoughts down about his presentation yesterday on "The Experience Economy."
Gilmore's discussion started off with the scary-sounding phrase "Progression of Economic Value," which is actually a simple concept underlying Gilmore's message: We have gone from the industrial economy, through the service economy, and are now living in an experience economy.
People are making purchase decisions, such as joining your association, based not so much on the products you offer or the service you provide, but on the experience you provide them.
He offered this example: moms and birthday cakes.
Mom used to bake cakes from scratch. For a few cents, she purchased commodities, such as eggs and milk, and made the cake herself.
Later Mom discovered Duncan Hines, and switched from commodities to goods, costing a few dollars. It's easier to make a cake from mix, and worth a few dollars.
Of course, cakes from cake mix aren't necessarily better than homemade, and there's still some work involved. So Mom decided to purchase a service for several dollars more and buy you a nice big birthday cake from a bakery.
But there's more to a birthday than a cake. Today, Mom's just as likely to outsource the whole party to Chuck E. Cheese because it makes for a much better experience.
From a few cents to several hundred dollars ... for what is, essentially, the same thing.
Gilmore showed us a picture of something called the Gumball Wizard. It's a gumball machine, like any other, with one important difference: rather than popping out of the little metal dispenser, gumballs roll down a long loopy slide that looks like a roller coaster.
Same product as other gumball machines. Worse service (it takes longer to get the gumball out). But ain't it fun to watch the gumball loop its way down the slide?
Taking something rather ordinary (like buying a gumball, or being served a drink by a bartender) and turning it into a surprising and engaging experience is key to success in the modern world, Gilmore says. The experience itself becomes the product.
More posts later, including thoughts on green ketchup, how to hit the "Sweet Spot," and why a theme is not a tagline.
Posted by Kevin Holland at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
More on Gladwell
I had two takeaway points from the Malcolm Gladwell general session... Kevin blogged on one of them in the post right below this one, so please read his takeaway about the tennis coach.
My other takeaway, which Gladwell illustrates with a number of different stories, is that more information does not lead to better decisions. “There is real value to taking information off the table,” he said. “You need to get rid of the stuff that is not relevant” because it gets in the way of making a decision. “You have to zero in on the stuff that really matters.” If you expect your boards or volunteer leaders to make decisions, think about how to take information off the table when you’re putting together the board books or council prep package.
Posted by ScottBriscoe at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)
Passion Play
(Last post from Stan Slap's Sunday Session ... I swear)
According to Slap, the key ingredient to any successful brand is one thing: passion. Passion attracts and keeps customers, and attracts disciples to work for the organization (which he pointed out is especially important if you can't necessarily afford to hire the "best and brightest").
Apple is the obvious example. It only has 3.1% market share (and Slap joked that their slogan must be "Never 3.2!"), but its market is slavishly devoted.
Interestingly, Apple's customer base proves its devotion not through blind acceptance of the company's actions. In fact, Apple devotees parse every single statement issued by Steve Jobs, reading between the lines, arguing back and forth over every company announcement, filling message boards and blogs with their criticisms and suggestions as well as their praise. You'd think they owned the place.
Because they do. It doesn't matter if they own stock or not. They have an ownership stake in Apple for the simple reason that they've claimed ownership. The Apple customer is devoted; she's passionate; Apple's actions matter, because it matters to her.
When your association's CEO issues a statement, does it provoke a similar reaction from your members?
Many associations, because we are built around the concept of consensus, fear controversy. We'd be much happier if everyone got along ... if people worked through "proper channels" rather than airing critical thoughts in public. However, if your association is not the topic of pro-and-con conversation among your constituents ... if your trade press is not analyzing your actions and measuring your success ... if you're not being criticized sometimes ... then you have to question how relevant you really are.
Passion is not blind allegiance. It's a commitment to the idea of an organization and a fervent desire to see that idea succeed.
The way to inspire such passion is to feel it yourself. It's not enough to put out competent publications, develop a solid educational program line, copy member programs from other organizations that worked well for them, send lobbyists to work the legislature, form committees to set standards, etc.
That's "stuff" that many associations do. But it's not what your association is. Are our members sitting around engaged in animated dialogue about our associations? Does our acronym pop up in members' minds and conversations several times a day? Do we feel and inspire real passion for what the association is -- what the association stands for?
Do your members even know what your association stands for? Do you?
Because that's your brand. As Slap said, you can't create your brand. It's not a tagline that emerges from a committee. Your brand is the experience you create for your members and your customers -- good or bad.
Posted by Kevin Holland at 07:11 AM | Comments (0)
60 Technology Tips in 90 Minutes
During the 60 Technology Tips session on Sunday, we promised to upload our handout to the blog since we ran out in the room. So, here you go! (PDF)
Art Saffran, our fearless Tips Leader, introduced a new segment to the presentation this year which was titled "Stump the Geek" where the audience was to ask us their toughest tech questions. Kudos to the audience for not only stumping us on a few things but also for answering each other's questions and somewhat ignoring us. Now that is xtreme!
Posted by David Gammel at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2005
Best damn program of the day
Some very excellent take aways from Capt. Michael Abrashoff, who turned around one of the Navy's worst performing ships and made it into the best damn ship in the Navy. Here are some of his key points:
1. We can order people to get a mission accomplished but we can't order people to create great results.
2. We all want to feel like we're being listened to.
3. Before we can ask our crew to be better, we have to become better.
4. We need to create an organization of owners, not employees, who are free of fear.
5. Don't focus on things we can't control, and don't use them as excuses for poor performance.
6. We can't order our people to trust us -- trust has to be earned.
7. If we treat our people like they're the best, they'll perform like the best.
8. If our crew makes a mistake, we need to ask OURSELVES: Were my instructions clear? Did I allow enough time? Did I provide the proper training.
Posted by Ben Martin at 05:55 PM | Comments (1)
Catching a buzz
No this isn't a post about Club Energy. That will come later. Much later.
This is about the session led by Dave Balter, CEO of BzzzAgent and cofounder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Very good session that built nicely from the morning's general session, in which all the panelists acknowledged the growing importance of this nontraditional marketing technique. I'm sure we'll hear more about it in Tuesday's general session as Malcolm Gladwell, author of the seminal Tipping Point as well as his latest best seller Blink, speaks.
Rather than provide a long summary of Balter's session, I'm going to highlight one thing that promises great opportunity for associations. Balter highlighted a study his firm did with a restuarant to find out just who spreads word of mouth marketing.
They looked at "Trendsetters" first, but these people weren't very helpful. They were too cool and would only buzz about something new.
The "Heavy Loyal" was next -- these folks loved the establishment, practically lived there. Again, not very helpful as they had already told the people he knew, and, truth be told, didn't really want his hangout to get too crowded.
The "Expert" -- in this case a restaurant reviewer, liked the place, but could only provide limited buzz, citing reputation for fairness.
Finally, a group you wouldn't expect was actually the best at creating buzz. This group is called the "Light Loyal." They like the place but are pretty infrequent visitors. But when given an opportunity, such as a coupon and/or customer loyalty rewards, they were quick and eager to spread the word.
In the association world, we have a different name for "Light Loyal"... "mailbox member."
Posted by ScottBriscoe at 05:54 PM | Comments (2)
The Credibility Gap
(Next-to-last post from Stan Slap's Sunday Session)
According to Slap, the better your advertising, the more dangerous it is. Because it makes a promise you have to live up to, and all too frequently, companies (and associations) don't.
When a company is having trouble keeping customers because its customers don't like its product or the company's service, one of the first reactions is to come up with better advertising -- so they can disappoint a whole bunch of new customers.
In the association world, if an organization is losing members, the reaction is frequently the same -- we need a membership campaign! A new brochure! A new website! A new plan!
None of these things get at the real issue -- which is that you're losing members. Getting new ones doesn't help if they're just going to drop out, too. The issue is the experience we're providing as organizations. Don't create the cool new membership campaign until you're ready to back it up with a membership experience that's spectacular, signature, and sustainable.
As Slap said, "Don't say something until you stand for something."
Another interesting point he raised is that a lot of people aren't going to believe your advertising (or membership marketing) anyway. Being bombarded by 3500 commercial messages a week, we're all pretty jaded.
It's not enough to create marketing messages that make a lot of promises. We have to figure out how to create credible messages, backed up by a service experience that our members will love -- and that's hard, because people judge your advertising's credibility based on their experience, not with you, but with everybody else's advertising.
Slap suggested that organizations are going to have no choice but to become more honest and credible in their marketing -- because customers (and members) are going to force us to be held accountable. In a world where anyone can publish their opinions about your association on a blog, accessible by everyone, organizations are not going to be able to hide behind clever marketing slogans or ra-ra news releases. The truth, as they say, will be out there.
Posted by Kevin Holland at 04:47 PM | Comments (1)
Membering and customering
Earlier, Ben Martin gave a brief snippet about the Monday general session, and here I offer mine as well. It was during the panel discussion among the marketing thought leaders, and it's the exchange around which there was discord -- parts of the conversation that I usually find the most illuminating.
Jim Gilmore challenged the use of the word "marketing." He noted that Phil Kotler had quoted from Drucker, who said that marketing is what makes sales superfluous. Gilmore took it one step further, saying that creating experiences makes marketing superfluous. "'Marketing' is inherently about markets. Why isn't it called membering or customering?"
Needless to say, Kotler, author of Kotler on Marketing and Marketing Management, wasn't ready to do away with the term, and cited a trend that marketing is no longer just for the marketing professional, but it is an activity the entire company engages in every time there is customer contact.
Posted by ScottBriscoe at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)
Planning to Plan
(More from Stan Slap's Sunday Session ... say that three times fast)
Slap says that most strategies in most organizations don't work. At least, they rarely work the way they were supposed to work. Successful companies look like they have a strategy that works when in fact what they usually have is a whole bunch of strategies coming one after another in rapidfire succession. When one strategy goes off in an unexpected direction or hits a snag, that's okay, 'cause here comes another one.
Most people think that "strategies" have to be planned well to succeed, and Slap says "nuts!" to that. Implementation matters, not planning. Most plans skip over a lot of the implementation (Slap says they go in the order of "1, 2, 3 -- 10!") because we're not very good at predicting the future.
That's okay, as long as we know how to "implement" well. The secret to successful "implementation" is knowing when to change with reality (instead of blindly following a "plan".)
Still more to come, including an explanation of why good advertising is dangerous.
Posted by Kevin Holland at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)
How to tell a story
Stories capture our attentions and are more memorable than mere facts and figures. A well developed story will help you communicate more effectively. During their session "What is Your Story? Crystallizing a Leadership Experience" I learned from Lori Silverman, Karen Dietz and Mark Anderson, CAE about how to craft a meaningful and impactful story. Here are a few tips from their session:
Storytelling is not just art -- it's a science
Allow your audience to draw meaning from the story, however...
Always give the moral (a key point) at the end,
And give a call to action.
Posted by Ben Martin at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
Martin on Kotler on Marketing
This morning's general session was less 'xtreme' than yesterday's, but some great concepts were shared nonetheless. Kotler shared some profound thoughts on marketing, and here are some of my notes:
1. The aim of marketing is to diminish the need to sell.
2. Downstream marketing is the day-to-day operations of the marketing process; upstream marketing is the environmental scanning and strategy of marketing.
3. Precision marketing is using data to target customers. Using predictive analysis will help associations maximize their marketing investment by increasing the likelihood that their targets will buy from a given piece of marketing.
4. Companies are beginning to organize by customer segment rather than product lines.
5. Some members are more equal than others: Associations should pay special attention to their most loyal and committed members.
6. Kotler implored us to build brand loyalty through integrated marketing and positive member experiences
7. Retain your members by delightfully surprising them.
8. Marketing is a customer-centric mindset.
After Kotler's speech, a panel discussion followed with a lively debate between Jim Gilmore and Dr. Kotler. Gilmore asserted that marketing is an antiquated concept and that focusing on customer experience is the new way to keep and get new customers.
Some innovative thoughts shared by Gilmore were:
1. You deliver a service, but you stage an experience.
2. "The Set" or place is not the experience. Experience occurs inside of a person.
Posted by Ben Martin at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
Hunting white whales
In one of the sessions yesterday I heard a term that resonated very well with me as an issue associations need to think about. I work on ASAE & The Center’s magazines (formerly Executive Update and Association Management, and the new Associations Now). A couple of the editors have issues that haunt us, that we want to write about, but we just never can quite get it started in a meaningful way. We’ve labeled these article ideas “white whales.” (For those of you who know her, ask Kristin Merriman-Clarke on our magazine staff about associations in schools -- one of her white whales.)
My white whale is the idea of how people have started to form groups – in person and online – separate and apart from more traditional associations. Hannes Combest, managing director of member programs for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, was in a session I attended and asked a question, using the term “community competition,” which is a good way to look at my white whale. I caught up with her after the session and asked her about community competition.
“Our model works pretty well for baby boomers like me,” she said. “We know how to get involved and the community we’ve established is important to us. For Generation X and younger, they don’t have the same needs. They’ve developed community in ways that are different than what we are used to. They have their own volunteering needs and they want to contribute in ways that are different than our existing models.”
She noted that GCSAA is beginning to take steps to address this dichotomy. Perhaps there will soon be a case study that will help me catch my white whale.
Posted by ScottBriscoe at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)
Stories You'll Never Hear
You know the drill: You and your organization come up with a new strategy or idea. Perhaps it's a new commitment to improved member service, or a new mission to pursue on behalf of your constituency. You call the association staff together and roll it out. You talk about how important the new strategy is. How it's going to make a big impact on the association's future (or bottom line). How everyone needs to pull together to make it a success.
Guess what? After your kickoff meeting, your staff will have a kickoff "meeting" of their own. Where they talk about you, your idea, and how it's never, ever going to happen. You won't be invited into this conversation. You won't hear what's said. You'll just wonder why your great idea didn't work out the way you thought it would.
In his thought leadership session yesterday, branding and customer service consultant Stan Slap didn't talk about "branding" as a verb (it's not) or as, god forbid, a logo. He talked about branding as a tribute -- something given to an organization -- based on the experience that organization provides to its customers.
To be rewarded with the brand you want, an organization has to focus on process as much as product. In fact, the most successful companies treat their process like a product. Customers, and members, must enjoy the experience of being served by you. Your member experience must be spectacular, signature (something unique to your organization), and sustainable (affordable and, most important, consistent).
The biggest stumbling block in creating this process is, actually, employees. In a segment of his address that I'm sure most of us who manage people found disquieting, Slap told us the biggest deadly sin in implementing spectacular customer service (or anything else):
"Failing to respect the power of the culture to bury you."
It comes back to the stories the staff in the example above are telling about you in response to your great idea. Not to you; about you. Slap described culture in anthropological terms as "shared beliefs about the rules of survival and prosperity," which are reinforced by the repetitive telling of stories and legends.
In any organization, the stories people are telling are about their managers. You'll never hear the stories. The stories are about you and how you act, and the messages you send to staff about what they must do to keep their job and get rewards.
The most important thing to remember as managers is that we are not part of the staff culture. We can't become part of the staff culture no matter how hard we try. The only thing we can do, to try and get plans implemented, is to align our strategies with what's important to staff.
Not what's important to the organization. Or even what's important to the members. What's important to staff. Because they're going to implement it.
Of course, as Slap pointed out, most strategies in most organizations don't work, anyway. More on that in a future post.
Posted by Kevin Holland at 08:38 AM | Comments (0)
Sunday: Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman gave a nice “thought leader” session Sunday morning on emotional intelligence. I’ve been reading his stuff for some time now, so it didn’t sound like he was reporting on any new research, but it is still absolutely compelling.
I can’t do justice to summarizing his basic points, but here goes. Because of the way our brains are designed, emotional intelligence (our ability to be aware of and manage our emotions, as well as our relationships with others) is a critical factor in our success, both as leaders and followers in organizations. Yet our society (and our organizations) tend to value IQ much more, even when research shows that IQ is a lousy predictor of future success (4 to 10% effective in predicting career success, he said).
He had lots of reasons to explain this, but one stuck with me more than others, and it had to do with the basic notion of attention span. When we are emotionally distressed, our brains are occupied with that distress, thus we have less capacity to focus on the task at hand. People with high emotional intelligence can manage their emotions into a productive state of flow—not too little activity (which is boring) and not too much (which is distracting).
I thought his conclusions were compelling and backed by research, and judging by the reactions in the room (and the standing room only audience), people agreed. But will anyone apply it? The next time you hire someone, will you attempt to measure their self awareness, or will you look more at their technical expertise?
Posted by Jamie Notter at 07:42 AM | Comments (2)
Book Club
Remember, this conference is not only about the formal sessions with the cocktail rounds, powerpoints, and interactive exercises. There are also opportunities for a dozen people or so to sit together and have interesting and powerful conversations. That’s what we did this morning at the Annual Meeting version of the Executive Management Section Leadership Book club. Diane James of the Jacobs Institute for Women’s Health was kind enough to lead the discussion on a great book by Sydney Finkelstein, titled Why Smart Executives Fail: What You can Learn from their Mistakes.
My favorite point from the discussion: we can sometimes be our own worst enemy. There are lots of “positive” things in organizations, like team spirit or company pride, that can end up creating blinders for us. Because it is so important for us to be fulfilling our grand mission, we turn a blind eye to negatives, which should have been warning signs. We won’t share bad news with people, and it brings us down in the end.
Posted by Jamie Notter at 07:36 AM | Comments (1)
Saturday: First 100 days
Sorry to take so long to post on the first session I went to on Saturday. I went to a panel discussion on surviving the first 100 days as a new association CEO. The panelists had some scary stories to tell. Some of them, on their first day as a new CEO, were brought news like "we don't have enough money to make payroll on Friday..." or "our subisdiaries are going into chapter 11 and we're being sued..."
They survived to tell the tale, of course, so there were some positive stories as well. Here are some of the take aways I gleaned:
A big job in the first 100 days is discovering what you didn’t know. No matter how much they tell you and how much research you do, you won’t have the whole story, so you have to be pretty nimble in those early days as you start discovering the “truth” about the organization, both good and bad.
Firing people is not necessarily a bad thing. I wish we could have had more time on this topic, because it is obviously complex, but many panelists told stories of waiting too long to either fire or “out counsel” people.
There’s a difference between a CEO who is doing her job and one who is merely “keeping” her job. You’re probably replacing someone who was doing the latter, so the change can be a shock to people.
Posted by Jamie Notter at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2005
Opening general session
At the opening session this morning, Thomas Kuhn, ASAE President, and Ralph Nappi, ASAE Chairman, gave out some interesting facts and figures.
- Membership in ASAE is increasing. (We now have 21,288 members.)
- Retention rates are up by 10%.
- Only about 15% of members attend the annual meeting.
Posted by Shawn Lea at 10:27 PM | Comments (1)
Resilient leaders
You were born to survive.
That’s the message Teena Cahill, Psy.D., left in her energetic thought leader super session on resilience. The point being, each of us has, hard-wired into us, the ability to cope and overcome adversity.
She provided a litany of strategies and modes of thought for leaders to use in their work and private lives. One of her interesting observations is that when communicating with someone else, the person speaking does not hold the power, the listener is the power part of that interaction. The reason is simple, listeners can choose to listen and analyze what is being said, or they can choose to ignore it. To be a resilient leader requires listening.
She also points to the need for purpose and a sense of contribution, calling them the “granddaddy” of strategies for building resilient leadership skills. “People who feel joy and gratitude are the ones who are leaders. They understand that it’s not about them, it’s about the contributions they can make to make the world a better place.”
She related a bit of cultural anthropology to illustrate the point. We are one of the only species where the female lives beyond menopause. The reason is because men didn’t hunt the sabre-toothed tiger on his own while women stayed behind to care for the offspring; “Mom and dad went out and hunted together, and picked a few berries along the way. It was grandma who stayed behind to care for the kids and to cook and clean.” That contribution was so necessary that it is part of our biology.
Throughout the presentation Cahill used inspirational quotes from the likes of Churchill and Patten, but, to show that wisdom can come from unexpected sources, she chose to end her session with that outspoken philosopher Kim Bassinger, who said: “I feel as if I have two people in my head: me and my intuition. When I go against her, she screws me every time.”
Posted by ScottBriscoe at 07:11 PM | Comments (1)
Self-forming Groups
On Saturday, I presented/facilitated a session along with Kristi Graves Donovan and Betsy Boyd-Flynn where we introduced some ideas we had each written about in the Journal of Association Leadership (PDF) on what discussions association execs should be having but aren't.
I addressed the phenomenon of self-forming groups that are coming together via collaborative web-based tools on the Internet. Below is the scenario that I introduced for the attendees to discuss in small groups.
Self-forming Group Scenario
Situation
Your association has long had a small segment of members who have not felt well represented in your governance and programs. The leadership of your organization have made periodic efforts to be more inclusive of the group but at the same time their small numbers limit how much attention the Board felt they could give them when balancing all priorities.
In the past few months, several people in this segment have gotten together and launched a new web site focused on their particular needs. The site features weblogs, forums and wikis where the early participants are busy collaboratively creating content and forming their own community.
This effort was under your radar for a quite a while but something occurred recently that has placed it prominently on your Board’s next agenda: the site has secured sponsorship by one of your top advertisers. Your advertising manager discovered that the amount was only a few hundred dollars, enough to defray the costs of hosting the web site, but your staff view it as a foot in the door that has them worried.
Another item of concern is that there are also talks (completely in public on their web site) among the members of this informal group about launching a new conference for their specific area of focus. Your organization has never developed a stand-alone event for this segment because the numbers simply didn’t add up to even break even. You are worried that you are at risk of losing the entire segment within a few years (maybe less!) if this group is successful where your association was not.
The Chairman of your Board has asked you to develop a set of options for the Board to consider at their next meeting as they decide how the association should react to these developments.
Discussion
- What are the risks in this situation? Opportunities?
- What options would you recommend that your Board consider?
- In addition to prepping your Board, what else would you do?
Betsy has already posted some of the ideas and questions that came out of the session.
For me, I think one of the key ideas to consider in this situation is how both the association and the self-forming group have their own strengths that are actually quite complementary. The trick is to figure out how to work together to get the benefits of both while still allowing their individual value to still express itself.
Posted by David Gammel at 11:07 AM | Comments (3)
Environmental Scan and CAE Session Recaps
I split my time between two sessions this afternoon. I spent the first half of my 3:30 - 5 p.m. slot in the Karl Albrecht session, "Don't be a Sitting Duck: Track the Forces that Are Shaping Your Association," on the environmental scan his firm conducted on behalf of the Center for Association Leadership. The environmental scan is meant to be a tool that associations can use during their planning process to consider trends outside their influence that may influence their business.
One key finding in his session was that 97% of associations have a horizon of FIVE YEARS OR LESS in their strategic planning process. This made me think: Are associations in survival mode? Is this the planning equivalent of living paycheck to paycheck? Are we simply responding to event after event, and failing to create our desired long-term outcomes? If virtually all associations are choosing to ignore the long-term planning, can they ever expect to achieve truly great results? I realize that the world we live in changes so rapidly that sometimes it's virtually impossible to focus more than 5 weeks out, but something in me says it's necessary to continue long-range strategic planning.
An executive abstract of the environmental scan, titled "Mapping the Future of Your Association" is widely available at the Annual Meeting, as is a CD-Rom containing additional tools to help association executives apply the information.
I also attended half of "Earning the CAE: Your Path to Success." Greg Melia, CAE and Richard Poppa, CAE facilitated this session on the nuts and bolts of how to apply for, prepare for, and pass the CAE exam. I was particularly interested in this session as I will be walking across the stage this week in the CAE walk tomorrow evening. Greg covered the nuts and bolts of how to navigate the CAE application and examination process.
Posted by Ben Martin at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2005
Dirty, Dirty
Why is it, when the topic of "sales" is covered in an association workshop, you tend to hear a lot of carefully worded sentences beginning with phrases like, "Well, if your organization's culture allows for it, you could do ..."
Because, unfortunately, there are still some associations for whom "sales" seems like a dirty word. "It's about the mission," they say, "and relationships. Not sales." Call me crazy, but I don't see how those things are mutually exclusive.
In fact, without sales providing the profit necessary to run all those cost centers we associations cherish so much, it's pretty hard to fulfill your mission -- and it's only going to get harder.
At a session today entitled "Identify the Right Sales Structure for Your Organization," we heard from some associations for whom sales is definitely not a dirty word. Execs from the American Water Works Association, American Association of Blood Banks, and AWFS (which represents the woodworking and furnishings industry) engaged in a back-and-forth based on their experiences managing an in-house sales force.
They pretty much focused on the tradeshow end of things. And one of the most interesting takeaways from the session wasn't mentioned in the workshop, it was included in the handouts. Did you know:
-- 70% of Tradeshow Week's "50 fastest growing tradeshows" are managed by for-profit companies
-- 55.5% of the top 200 shows are run by for-profits
-- 82% of all tradeshows are managed by for-profits
As one woman in the audience from a professional society bluntly remarked, "Our lunch is being eaten by for-profits." And another exec admitted of her organization, "We're good at producing things, but not good at selling them."
Interestingly, each of the panelists had moved from an outsourced sales model to an in-house sales model, and met with greater success. Though one admitted that she'd experienced some political growing pains when they first made the move, as other senior staff in the organization were uncomfortable with the commissionable sales model. What if, gasp, the salesperson made more money than other people in the office?
More power to him or her, said the panelists, because obviously, if you structure your commission base properly, that means the organization's making a lot more money as well. (AWFS shared their learning experience with commissions -- they started out with something fairly straightforward but moved to a more nuanced structure based on net from the different sponsorship and advertising products sold.)
The entire workshop was structured as a dialogue, with panelists answering rapid-fire questions from the audience rather than dwelling on their stories. (Well-written case studies on each were in the handouts.) Lots of good discussion on inter-departmental competition (consolidate the function), who sells what (each company should deal with one person who is responsible for cross-selling all available products), and commission structures.
When should an organization consider outsourcing? One other panelist, representing National Trade Productions, a for-profit company that manages trade show sales for associations, said the associations that should definitely look into farming sales out are those that really operate an "order-taking" environment -- they may call it sales, but it's really exhibit logistics. You can't take the order unless you ask for it first.
Posted by Kevin Holland at 06:12 PM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2005
Networking, Part II
I think I'm the first of the bloggers to make it to Nashville, as I'm all comfy-cozy in my Opryland hotel room.
I wasn't initially going to use the term networking, preferring the term “conversation.” I want to encourage everyone attending to have a real conversation with at least two people they don’t know every day they’re here. Here’s my first one.
On the ride from the airport in an Opryland “shuttle” (actually a full-size bus), it was me and one other person. That other person happened to be Gene Fondren, chair of ASAE in 1991-92 and executive director of the Texas Automobile Dealers Association for 32 years before retiring early last year.
Always on the lookout for a story idea – for the blog or the new magazine or wherever we can use it – I asked Gene if he had any advice for someone about to retire. Gene is a lawyer and has proven his dedication to his members by doing a bit of pro bono legal work for them since his retirement.
“I think the biggest thing that surprised me was not having a staff any more,” he said, noting that TADA had a staff of 30-something when he was there. “You really come to rely on them for a lot of things that you just don’t think about – from getting organized to finding out information for you. It took some adjustment.”
So there you have it. And for those readers who know Gene, here’s a tidbit that might help you get to know him better. He’s especially excited to be here at Nashville because he’s a huge country-western music fan. In fact, he paid his way through law school spinning records for a country music station. “Patsy Cline. I believe she had the finest female voice ever,” he said. “There hasn’t been anyone like her since.”
Posted by ScottBriscoe at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2005
Blink wins!
On Tuesday, August 16, Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, will address the ASAE & The Center Annual Meeting and the XtremeASAE Bloggers will be there in force! In our poll for extended session coverage, Gladwell's session was the decisive winner, and so we'll be there to cover his talk from a wide variety of perspectives. We encourage you to post your specific questions about Gladwell's presentation as comments, so we can try to provide answers to them in our posts next week.
Thanks to everyone who voted. Please regularly check in with the XtremeASAE Blog for updates on the meeting beginning this Friday afternoon!
Posted by Jeff De Cagna at 06:15 PM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2005
Center Learning Communities gather in Nashville
X-Blog Contributor Kathi Edwards submitted this important post:
Unique Conversations…that Matter!
"In the new economy, where ideas and information are key currencies of exchange, conversation is the mother of invention"
--Alan Webber, co-founding editor, Fast Company, attributed in the book The World Café
Come join your peers from ASAE & The Center’s online learning communities – Small Associations, Professional Development, Emerging Leaders, and Technology – and engage in meaningful conversation around a key question each has identified over the past few weeks. You don’t have to be a community member to participate! Each "Conversation Café" offers a fun and engaging format in which to explore a powerful question and discover the possibilities that might open up for you and your organization. Particularly if you identify with one of these communities, give yourself the gift of participation! The conversations around these questions will begin in Nashville and will continue afterward in the online communities. Make new connections while you have those "what if?" conversations you rarely get to have!
Please note: arrive early – space may be limited. Click the "Continue reading" link to learn more about each session.
Small Associations (staffs of five or fewer) – Saturday, 3:30-5:00 pm
Doing more with less is a way of life for executives in small-staff associations. There is so much we need to think about to ensure our associations stay vital to our members. What are the most important issues? Our question:
What conversations might we have, around what important questions, with our volunteer leaders and members that could open up new possibilities for the future of our organizations?
Professional Development – Sunday, 3:30-5:00pm
In today’s fast-paced world in which effective learning is becoming increasingly important and ubiquitous, professional development practitioners are faced with a variety of issues related to staff and member learning opportunities. Together, we’ll be exploring possibilities:
What questions do we want to explore together that will generate breakthrough thinking and innovation in how we approach learning in our organizations?
Emerging Leaders – Monday, 10:30 am-Noon
Association executives who are coming into their own as leaders in the profession and in their organizations often seek ways to truly make a difference. Imagine the power of a room full of emerging leaders pondering this question:
What is it we don’t know that if we explored together could generate new learning and new possibilities for innovative and creative action within our organizations?
Technology – Monday, 4:15-5:45 pm
Technology professionals keep our IT infrastructures fully functional and in top shape, and yet agree that they have so much more to offer their organizations. If you’re an association executive specializing in technology, join us to explore this question:
What conversation might we have, and with whom, that will generate new thinking and new possibilities for our role within our organizations?
Posted by X-Blog Contributor at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)