Principled Innovation LLC

2008: The year for realizing our full potential

January 2nd, 2008

For almost six years now, the driving purpose of my P.I. work has been to help associations realize their full potential. Whether in the context of presentations, facilitations or on-going consulting projects, my overarching goal is always to keep the organizations I work with focused on the strategic necessity of building new capacity for success in a rapidly shifting world.

Quite frankly, taking this approach can be a significant challenge because many association staff and volunteer leaders are more concerned with solving the problems of moment than with creating the future. This problem-centered orientation is perfectly understandable, of course, and yet it often does not adequately account for the unintended consequences of failing to prepare for what’s next. Many of today’s operational problems and tactical disappointments are the result of yesterday’s unresolved strategic concerns. So, despite the difficulties of cultivating the long view in others, I have never given up on the larger mission, simply because it is so important.

In a recent post, however, I expressed my growing optimism that we can make tangible progress in helping associations achieve their full potential this year. To make it happen, we must be willing to engage in fresh conversations on topics that really matter, such as the need for an entirely new mental model for governing, the opportunities of business model innovation and the role of strategic social responsibility in the work of associations, just to name a few. Moreover, these conversations must be qualitatively different in both content and language from those we have had in the past. The good news is that some of these conversations have already started, and the early indicators are encouraging. Nevertheless, as Jamie has noted, there remains formidable resistance within our community to creating a radically different future for our organizations. Stay tuned.

So while my personal commitment to realizing the full potential of associations has always been a source of intrinsic motivation, this year it will be an explicit theme of my work, including my writings on this blog and elsewhere. I hope you will be an active contributor to the conversation I’ll be driving from here. To get things started, let me ask you an opening question: how will your association achieve its full potential this year? Please share your thoughts and ideas as comments below.

Welcome to 2008! It’s going to be a fun year.

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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, Garage Memes, Governing Simply, Socially Responsible Innovation