If you subscribe by e-mail TODAY (or refer someone who subscribes), you will be included in a drawing for a $10 Amazon.com gift card that I will award tomorrow.
There may not be a Sunday Surprise every week, so don’t wait! Subscribe by 11:59 pm toniteand you’re eligible! If you are not sure how to subscribe by e-mail, visit the May Subscription Drive post. Welcome to the P.I. Blog community!
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Just a quick post to wish a very Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there, and of course to my mom, Natalie De Cagna, and my mother-in-law, Maureen Mast! Thank you for all you do! We love you!
While I was involved in the The Global Summit last week, Jamie shared a really nice post on his blog about my article, “The Next Traditions of Associations 3.0,” which appears in the March 2008 issue of Associations Now. I am humbled and flattered by his words:
I don’t know of anyone who cares more about associations than Jeff, so he is constantly looking at associations from every angle trying to figure out what needs our attention. In this article he points to six huge gaps in associations. These are gaps that I think escape the attention of many association execs, frequently even the good ones. When you’re trying to get the trains to run on time, you can miss these. I know it takes a lot just to make sure things get done in associations these days, but Jeff has identified six areas of attention that are really important to thriving organizations. You rarely find really superior organizations without these qualities, in my experience. So I would challenge you, if you’re in an association, to honestly take stock of where you stand on the six areas that Jeff mentions.
Jamie, thanks for offering these wonderful thoughts, and I also want to thank all of the many readers of both Associations Now and the P.I. Blog who have reached out with nice things to say about the article. Please download a PDF of the article for yourself or to share with colleagues, and do let me know your thoughts!
DON’T FORGET that the May Subscription Drive is just beginning. Please subscribe to the P.I. Blog by e-mail (or encourage others to do so) and you can win prizes!
UPDATE: Jamie pointed out that I forgot to include a link to his blog post when I first published this item. Sorry for not showing the link love Jnott. It’s added!
Thanks once again to Lisa Junker for providing me with a PDF of the NACHO case study. Please download it to use as a learning tool in your organization. And don’t forget to post your thoughts about the case on the Acronym blog!
DON’T FORGET that the May Subscription Drive is just beginning. Please subscribe to the P.I. Blog by e-mail (or encourage others to do so) and you can win prizes!
The May Subscription Drive is in full swing, and I am already seeing a substantial increase in interest in the P.I. Blog. Thank you all so much! It’s great to see an effect almost immediately, and it would not be happening if it wasn’t for the fantastic community of association innovators that has formed around this blog. So please know that I am incredibly grateful for your commitment and support!
For current RSS feed subscribers, I want to point out a simple way to refer others to the P.I. Blog. The image above is a sample feed bubble from Google Reader. At the bottom of every post (and in this case, outlined by the red box), you will see “Feed Flare,” which is a series of additional services that make it easy for you to share posts with others. Among these services is an option to forward posts by e-mail, or share them on Facebook, Twitter and Digg if you have accounts for those sites.
I realize that if you’re subscribing by RSS, you’re probably already familiar with Feed Flare, but I thought I would show it to you just so you’re aware of this simple sharing option. And remember that both new subscribers and the current subscribers who refer them are eligible to win prizes during the May Subscription Drive!The first giveaway period ends at May 17 at 11:59 pm, so you still have plenty of time to spread the word. Thank you!
I’ve received comments from big thinkers Patti Digh and Scott Steen suggesting that I add another rung to the 4-Dos Ladder for association social responsibility, and I have done that. So now, it is the 5-Dos ASR Ladder.
I agree with the Patti and Scott. This version is better. Please keep sharing your feedback!
DON’T FORGET that the May Subscription Drive is just beginning. Please subscribe to the P.I. Blog by e-mail (or encourage others to do so) and you can win prizes!
It was my great pleasure to write a case study for this month’s Associations Now about a fictional association called NACHO, the National Association of Chief Happiness Officers. I have used NACHO as a learning vehicle in various ways over the years, and I’m very pleased with how this case turned out. You can find the case online (don’t forget to rate it and write a review), and participate in the conversation around it on the Acronym blog.
Many thanks to Lisa Junker for being open to my idea for a case and for turning the finished product into something much better than what I originally wrote. I am also grateful to friends Nancy Green and Virgil Carter for their great commentaries on the case itself. When reading the case, take the time to review the keen insights of these two experienced leaders and see whether you agree with them. Post your thoughts to the Acronym blog post to which I link above. So far, Fred Simmons from Gulo Solutions has the best response:
I hope you enjoy the case as much as Homer, but do us all a favor and keep your tongue in your mouth.
DON’T FORGET that the May Subscription Drive is just beginning. Please subscribe to the P.I. Blog by e-mail (or encourage others to do so) and you can win prizes!
Following The Global Summit, I’ve come up with a simple tool to help association leaders think about their social responsibility efforts. Not surprisingly, I call it the “4 dos ladder of association social responsibility.” Here is a brief explanation of each level:
do something–Individual staff or members organizing to take some form of personal or small group action, including “going green,” using fair trade products or making time/financial contributions to SR-related causes.
do good–Associations choosing to act in a socially-responsible manner through focused charitable, community service or philanthropic endeavors.
do more–Associations recognizing ASR as a strategic imperative with long-term business implications for both the association and the industry, profession or field.
do well–Associations integrating social responsibility into all strategic decision-making, adopting metrics to evaluate performance and seeking out opportunities to serve new markets by supporting or engaging in socially-responsible innovation.
What is your feedback on the 4 dos ladder? Do you find it helpful? Where is your association on this ladder right now, and what will you do to climb to the next level? Give me your feedback and share your thoughts!
DON’T FORGET that the May Subscription Drive is just beginning. Please subscribe to the P.I. Blog by e-mail (or encourage others to do so) and you can win prizes!
Okay, so here’s the deal. I want to continue growing the P.I. Blog community, so I’m launching a subscription drive this month. I’ve got some great content planned for May, and I’ll be doing two prize giveaways as well! Here is what you need to do to qualify for the giveaways:
You will find this subscription box on the blog’s right sidebar. Enter your e-mail into the box where I have typed, “Type e-mail here and click below!” This will take you to a page with information you need to complete. Please select e-mail as your method of delivery for P.I. Blog updates. This is the easiest method for me to track new people for the drawings. You will only receive e-mails when I post to the blog.
If you’re already a P.I. Blog subscriber, thank you so much. To show my appreciation, I want to invite you to participate in the subscription drive prize-winning fun by referring your colleagues to the blog. Refer as many people as you can and increase your chances to win!
If you’re a new subscriber and someone refers you to my blog, please include that person’s name and e-mail address on the confirmation page. The fields to enter this information will appear below spam protection code that also must be entered before your account can be confirmed.
During the May subscription drive, both new subscriber and referrer will win a prize if either name is chosen in the drawings. So, for example:
+John refers Mary to the P.I. Blog.
+Mary subscribes by e-mail and lists John as her referrer.
+Either Mary’s or John’s name is drawn for the giveaway.
+Both Mary and John win a prize!
Of course, once Mary subscribes to the blog, she can also refer others to subscribe, thereby giving her more chances to win! So all new subscribers this month, don’t forget to invite others to join you!
The first giveaway is the just-released book, The New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-Created Value Through Global Networks by C.K. Prahalad and M.S Krishnan. I will be doing a podcast with C.K. Prahalad this week, and I expect it will be posted by Wednesday at the latest. I hope you will check it out! In addition, all winners in both giveaways will receive a $10 Amazon gift card.
The first giveaway period is now open, and will close on May 17 at 11:59 pm EDT. The winners of the first giveaway will be announced on May 19, along with the prizes for the second giveaway. The second giveaway period will open on May 18 at 12 midnight EDT and end on May 31 at 11:59 pm EDT.
I look forward to welcoming many new subscribers to the P.I. Blog this month, and I hope you will consider joining our growing community of ideas!
It’s pretty late on Thursday night as I sit down at my Mac to write this post, so I’m going to keep it (relatively) short. There are three quick observations I want to share on where we are:
+From my vantage point, at least some of the conversation we’re having around social responsibility is still focused on community service, charity and philanthropy. These are all necessary and important efforts, to be sure, but as we grapple with how to clearly define “social responsibility,” I suggest we maintain a strong and explicit link between the moral imperative to solve big global problems and the business imperative to build financially sustainable organizations. In this context, nurturing meaning out of good works is insufficient. It must be married to the process of designing and developing new markets for which our organizations (and our members) can create radical, new (and socially responsible) value. The SR conversation has profound implications for future business models, and we must be willing to engage from that place first.
+In the Summit’s physical and virtual spaces, there is a palpable commitment to the importance of SR. There is little or no argument around the correctness of the cause or the need to take action, a condition that feels just a little bit artificial. After the Summit itself is over, our work will be scrutinized by the sympathetic and skeptical alike, and some initiatives and proposals will face real resistance. We must be well prepared to overcome the immovable object of entrenched opposition by transforming our endeavor into an irresistible force for genuine paradigm shift in our community. At the moment, we are not there, but I hold out hope that we will make progress on this front beginning with tomorrow’s design work.
+Returning to yesterday’s post, I remain concerned about how we will go about revitalizing organizational capabilities that are essential to our long-term success in the S.R. arena. Today, I proposed a specific initiative that I believe can make a positive contribution: design a global network of associations committed to pursuing socially responsible innovation. This is definitely intended to be a game-changing idea, one that will challenge organizations throughout our community to stretch themselves in ways that will have enduring benefit beyond their work on social responsibility. In my view, we should be able to have the inaugural members of this network connected and collaborating before the end of 2008, and perhaps sooner. I won’t go into the details of this idea here, mostly because it is time to go to sleep, but I believe we will have the chance to explore its potential in small group work tomorrow.
There is much work still to do, and it certainly won’t all be done by the time we adjourn tomorrow afternoon, but I am cautiously optimistic that we are headed in a productive direction. Can’t wait to find out what happens next!
