As I’m sure you know by now, my SocialFish buds Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer are putting on a day-long session called Buzz2009 on July 9 in Washington, DC. This exciting social media marketing conference is presented in collaboration with SmartBrief, and I am proud to be an advisor for the event.
It is my understanding that there are still seats available for Buzz2009, and you can register at a $100 discount off full tuition using this link. Unfortunately, I will be out of town on July 9 and cannot attend, but I’m sure it is going to be a great learning experience for everyone involved!
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The emerging blog debate on the issue of relevance for associations has a definite “vu-ja-de” quality for me, because I posted on this topic some 18 months ago. To be honest, it’s more than a little disappointing that no one appears to remember what I wrote at that time, so I was thinking that a brief refresher and update might be in order.
Relevance continues to be a losing argument for associations. Relevance is a desperately abstract, lowest common denominator, all-things-to-all-people strategic mindset that is tantamount to shouting at the rain. What could be a clearer indication of your irrelevance than the announcement (and subsequent debate) of your own relevance? The question of whether associations are relevant will be answered by their stakeholders, and too many have begun to render their unfavorable judgments.
Still, I do understand the appeal of the relevance argument. It makes life a little easier for association leaders by dampening any appetite they may have for the admittedly daunting challenge of disruptive reinvention and radical new value creation. Unfortunately, the relevance argument is also the ultimate excuse for tweaking our way into the future, and hoping everything works out for the best. This is simply wishful thinking, and it must end. What is required today is a more robust and actionable leadership point of view on the real-world demands of strategic success in the 21st century.
As I argued back in February 2008, associations need to be better than relevant. The future of associating is in designing and developing more vibrant and sustainable approaches to co-creating meaning with stakeholders. Going forward, associations will need to pursue a much greater level of intimacy in truly understanding unexpressed stakeholder needs and providing deep supportto facilitate the success of those stakeholders in a VUCA world. The business model innovation our community needs today and in the years ahead will come from being highly generative in our approach to value creation.
So, as I see it, we have two choices. We can continue to rearrange the deck chairs of relevance, or we can start rethinking and rebuilding the ship before it starts to sink. Which choice will you make?
Rules of Thumb: 52 Principles for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self is the outstanding new book from Fast Company co-founding editor Alan Webber that I’ve been enjoying for a couple of weeks now. This past Tuesday, I had the unique opportunity to connect with Alan twice in the same day. I attended his morning session, an interview conducted by author Dan Pink for the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and then interviewed him myself for this podcast in the afternoon. (Throw in my meeting with a favorite client in between, and you get a really terrific day!)
When I tell you that this podcast is an hour long, does that give you a good idea of how it went? It doesn’t surprise me in the least. The book is a fantastic and fun read, and I’ve been a fan and admirer of Alan since Fast Company began in the mid-1990s. In some ways, I owe what I’ve been doing with P.I. for the last seven years to Alan because FC was such a crucial and constant source of inspiration for me as I figured out my life plan.
Even though the podcast is long, I hope you’ll take the time to listen to it. Alan reflects on the very personal experience he had in creating the book, and we discuss several of the “rules of thumb” that most resonate with me. In spirit of creating a richer conversation, Alan invites everyone to contribute their own “Rule of Thumb #53″ on the book’s website. As promised during the podcast, here is mine:
Leaders need to stop drawing lines, and start connecting dots.
In the common and control organizations of the last century, leadership was all about lines: product lines…reporting lines…bottom lines. Leaders reinforced their sense of control and privileged positions within the hierarchy by drawing those lines. In the networked organizations of the 21st century, leaders have the awesome responsibility to connect the dots by helping others make sense of an increasingly complex and turbulent environment, by supporting deeper collaboration mediated by powerful social technologies and by activating blended networks of contributors to innovate and create new value under ever-changing market conditions. The work of leadership today is very different, but sometimes it feels like the leaders are the last people to know.
Reactions to my rule of thumb? Please share!
The podcast is 60 minutes in length. If you’re viewing this post on the P.I. Blog, you will see an embedded podcast player below. You can download the podcast here.
If you’re receiving this post by e-mail or RSS, you will see a second download link below. (55 MB download)
This week, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Bob Johansen, Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future, about his important new book, Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World. When I first discovered this book earlier this month, I was immediately struck by its focus on capabilities that are not the usual leadership development fare. As Bob points out in our interview, he is a futurist, a “ten-year forecaster” to be precise, not a leadership development expert. In my mind, this future orientation makes the ideas in the book that much more compelling and valuable.
You can scroll down to see a summary of the ten skills discussed in Leaders Make the Future. In our interview, Bob and I focus on three skills–maker instinct, smart mob organizing and commons creating–in the context of associations. We had a great conversation, and I really hope you’ll take the time to listen to it. When you’re done, visit the book’s site to complete a self-assessment on the ten leadership skills.
Association CEOs and boards should definitely add Leaders Make the Future to their reading lists. It will challenge your assumptions, and inspire you to think very differently about the purpose and practice of leadership in the years ahead.
The podcast is 31 minutes in length. If you’re viewing this post on the P.I. Blog, you will see an embedded podcast player below. You can download the podcast here.
If you’re receiving this post by e-mail or RSS, you will see a second download link below. (29 MB download)
TEN LEADERSHIP SKILLS FROM LEADERS MAKE THE FUTURE
Maker Instinct–Ability to turn one’s natural impulse to build into a skill for making the future and connecting with others in the making. The maker instinct is basic to leadership in the future.
Clarity–Ability to see through messes and contradictions to a future that others cannot yet see. Leaders are very clear about what they are making, but very flexible about how they get it made.
Dilemma Flipping–Ability to turn dilemmas—which, unlike problems, cannot be solved—into advantages and opportunities.
Immersive Learning Ability–Ability to dive into different-for-you physical and online worlds, to learn from them in a first-person way.
Bio-Empathy–Ability to see things from nature’s point of view; to understand, respect, and learn from nature’s patterns. Nature has its own clarity, if only we humans can understand and engage with it.
Constructive Depolarizing–Ability to calm tense situations where differences dominate and communication has broken down—and bring people from divergent cultures toward constructive engagement.
Quiet Transparency–Ability to be open and authentic about what matters to you—without advertising yourself.
Rapid Prototyping--Ability to create quick early versions of new innovations, with the expectation that later success will require early failures.
Smart Mob Organizing–Ability to bring together, engage with, and nurture purposeful business or social-change networks through intelligent use of electronic and other media.
Commons Creating–Ability to stimulate, grow, and nurture shared assets that can benefit other players—and allow competition at a higher level.
Last Friday, blogger bud Maddie Grantposted an assignment for association leaders, summarized nicely by this simple yet provocative question:
How could associations be Googlier?
In various ways, I’ve been pondering this very question for the last few years. Back in 2004, I wrote an article for FORUM on what associations could learn from Google about innovation. (The link is to a PDF of the article.) Even though time has passed, I think most of the lessons in the article still resonate.
As Google has grown, matured and enjoyed continued success as a company, it has given us more great ideas and powerful insights we can use as inspiration for our own efforts to adapt associations to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. What Would Google Do, Jeff Jarvis’s excellent new book, is a superb guide to thinking like Google.
Maddie and I are going to write an article applying the thinking in Jeff’s book to the association community, and we’re looking for your input. Please share your perspectives, stories and questions with us. Contribute your brilliance, and we’ll keep you posted on our progress!
+I’m launching a brand new bi-monthly newsletter next month called Serious Questions: Conversations with the Association Community. This new content platform will share provocative ideas and perspectives, as well as P.I. news and special subscriber-only offers. It’s going to be a very compelling resource, and I hope you’ll sign up for it.
Today, I am one of many bloggers worldwide participating in the 24 Hours of Innovation event, offering “half time pep talks” for innovation in 2009. When I announced my involvement in #24hoi a couple of weeks ago, I posed the following question and solicited your input:
What should we be doing to make innovation a more significant strategic priority in associations and in our community as a whole?
Sadly, I did not hear from any of you, which makes it a bit more challenging to offer a meaningful pep talk, In all candor, the total lack of response to my question makes me wonder whether innovation is even on the radar screen in most associations right now. If that is the case, how can we alter this dynamic for the rest of 2009 and beyond?
So my pep talk for association leaders struggling today to make innovation a priority consists of three simple points:
+Now is the time to put down fear–Everyone is worried about the future, both for their organizations and themselves. That is understandable. But fearlessly leading others means leaders must first put down their own fears. At this moment, it isn’t the pursuit of innovation that should scare us. Our greater worry should be working in organizations that will be unprepared to create the kinds of radical new value our members and customers are going to demand in the months ahead as today’s tentative indicators of economic improvement gain strength. When we make innovation a true priority, we can put down that fear as well.
+Now is the time to shift our focus–To make innovation a priority and deeply integrate this critical work into our organizations, it is essential that we shift strategic focus away from simply replicating what has worked in the past and toward proactively designing and creating the future. We will not build 21st century organizations on the basis of 20th century capabilities or so-called “best practices.” We need a new focus developing on “next practices,” ideas and approaches for rethinking what we do and how we do it that are consistent with the on-going transformation of our society and our associations within it.
[NOTE: I’ll have more thoughts on “next practices” in some upcoming posts. In the meantime, I suggest you listen to the podcast I recorded following the first day of World Innovation Forum 09 for background.]
+Now is the time to have some fun–Yes, you read that correctly…fun. I recognize the notion of having fun at work may feel utterly incongruous with this moment, and quite possibly a bit frivolous given the challenges before us. But we need to unleash the creativity, imagination and passion of our staff and volunteer contributors, and by far the best way to do that is to create environments in which having fun is embraced and appreciated as the gift that it is. Ask yourself the following question: would you rather be the leader of a fear-based organization or one that is fun-based? For me, it’s no contest.
So that’s my pep talk: less fear, more fun, new focus. Think you can make it happen? I do.
We can make innovation happen. You can make innovation happen. Let’s get started.
Yesterday’s post about Twitter has drawn good-natured pushback from fellow bloggers Wes Trochil (see the comments to the original post) and Kevin Holland. In the interest of advancing this dialogue, let me offer three observations to amplify yesterday’s core message:
1. Debating the seriousness of Twitter is a pointless exercise. It is a popular service with a growing user base. That makes it serious, and questioning the judgment of the many millions of people worldwide who use Twitter everyday simply because we don’t understand the service’s value is counterproductive.
2. Neither the fact that Twitter is free nor its lack of a clear business model bear on the question of seriousness. There are other free web technologies that have failed to achieve half the impact of Twitter in twice the time. (Can you say RSS?) The lack of a business model is relevant to Twitter’s sustainability, but other nascent technology companies also took some time to discover their business models. (Can you say Google?)
3. Twitter is still very much in its experimental phase, so its future trajectory cannot be known with any precision. But Twitter has quickly become a platform for enormous end user creativity, and that is a big part of what will make it serious going forward. Watch the video of the talk given by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams at this year’s TED Conference, and you will learn how Twitter has changed over the first few years of its existence, driven in large measure by the inventive uses of the service imagined and implemented its rapidly-expanding community. Look for more of this co-created innovation in the years ahead.
So rather than debating whether Twitter is serious, or comparing it to pet rocks or disco, I invite association leaders to pursue a different line of inquiry: what can I learn from Twitter? Leaders who do so with an open mind will be pleasantly surprised.
With the economy beginning to show signs of a fragile turnaround, association leaders need to ask themselves a critical question:
Will our organization be ready to create the kinds of new value our stakeholders want and need?
After a prolonged cycle of cost-cutting and managing for the downturn, the vast majority of associations will answer this question with a resounding no. So now is not the time to ignore the future. Now is the time to identify, design and build the necessary organizational capabilities to create a vibrant future for your association.
Beginning on May 20 for three consecutive weeks, I will be presenting the Boston Conference Association Innovation Webinar Series, and I will show you how to grow your association’s capacity to make innovation happen. We will look at how associations can “govern for innovation,” how to build innovation as a deep capability and how to engage innovation contributors at the edge of your organizations. This first-of-its-kind webinar series will the most comprehensive look at the demands of innovation for associations ever!
If you’re thinking about how to make your association and its members successful during the rest of 2009 and beyond, you do not want to miss this seminar series. I hope you will consider registering today.
