Principled Innovation LLC

Are my simple questions simple?

November 22nd, 2006

Tom over at the Convergence Blog wonders whether my three simple questions are as simple as I claim. Well, my answer to that inquiry is also simple: yes and no.

I know this sounds like a typical consultant response, but there is more to it than that. The questions themselves are simple, but the answers clearly aren’t. And as Scott Briscoe observes in his post, the answers don’t reveal your deeper motivations as neatly as I suggest. But in a time of considerable and still-growing complexity, being forced to confront deceptively simple yet compelling questions can help us clarify our thinking and focus on what is most important to achieving our long-term success. And that is the fundamental point of these questions.

To say that taking risks isn’t really a part of the association culture, is like saying that it is tricky to play ice hockey at the Equator. Associations simply abhor taking risks and the depth and breadth of this aversion is something we must confront directly. Fear, in its various forms, is at the heart of far too many decisions in the association community, leaving our organizations poorer as a result. In the short term, it is our members who pay the price, but in the long run, our society suffers most when we are unable to overcome, or at least set aside, the fear of risk and its implications. We must realize once and for all that we can manage and, yes, capitalize on risk. Risk certainly cannot be avoided, and thus must be embraced as an essential ingredient in our effort to build for a more vibrant future.

Associations face profound challenges in the 21st century, and our staff and volunteer leaders are long overdue to accept that fact. It is now time to move on to developing fresh solutions that do not embody the same flawed assumptions and decaying approaches on which previous actions have been based. It is time for all of us to tap into the many wellsprings of innovation that exist everywhere in an increasingly creative and collaborative world. With any luck, three “simple” questions can set that process in motion.

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