Principled Innovation LLC

There’s more than pain…

October 21st, 2006

In recent weeks, I have been grappling with the challenge of persuading others that it is profoundly unhealthy to focus only on the day-to-day “pain” most leaders experience in their organizations. To be clear, by making such an assertion, I am not disputing that this pain is real. On the contrary, I certainly felt it when I worked full-time in associations and I still experience it now (albeit indirectly) through my work with both audiences and clients. But when I was an association staff member, I simply would not allow myself to be defined only by my problems and motivated only by the need to solve them. I felt impelled to commit at least some of my time, knowledge and passion to the task of creating a future of possibility for both my organization and myself. As a consultant, speaker and author in the innovation arena, of course, my work is all about what’s possible, and I am grateful for that.

In my experience, the root cause of at least some of the pain that leaders feel today is the choice not to think creatively when trying to anticipate and explore emerging challenges. This decision leaves leaders with fewer options for addressing those challenges in novel ways before they reach the point of irretrievable difficulty. Indeed, most of today’s operational issues are the predictable outcomes of yesterday’s failure to make prescient strategic choices. If association decision-makers can devote more of their attention to “getting inside” the real implications of the difficult issues they face, and then apply more of their collective creativity to developing better solutions, there is simply no question they will reduce their pain markedly going forward.

The point of this post is not to be critical, but to implore my association colleagues to avoid resigning themselves to the erroneous belief that “pain management” is the defining competence of 21st century association leadership. When we choose to innovate, we commit ourselves to creating better and stronger organizations, work that includes a dedicated effort to drastically reduce pain. We cannot rid ourselves entirely of the adversity that comes with leadership under conditions of uncertainty and complexity, but nor can we simply accept it as a fait accompli. We must always act confidently and decisively to create a more vibrant future. We owe it to our members, as well as ourselves, to live up to this critical responsibility.

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Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Social Media, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, The Association Innovator, Simplicity, We Have Always Done It That Way