Principled Innovation LLC

Next axioms of association growth: revolutionaries edition

April 27th, 2008

A few days ago, Ben posted a surprising comment about the revolution:

It’s a revolution alright. But, I’m not convinced that the only way to deal with it is fundamental reinvention.

Now, I don’t know if Ben simply wanted to provoke a reaction in order keep this conversation going, but I’m guessing I’m not the only one who recognizes the inherent contradiction in this statement. You see, revolution is, by definition, a fundamental reinvention of the status quo, and it is happening all around us. An inescapable consequence of being a part of society’s fabric is that our community’s long-term prospects are inextricably intertwined with those of the broader world. In other words, we have skin in this game, and lots of it. So, from my perspective, there are two choices. We either can continue to waste precious time, attention and financial resources because we’re paralyzed by fear and risk aversion, or we can act boldly on the challenging work of creating 21st century associations. I choose the latter.

To provide some direction to the effort of creating organizations that can succeed in the midst of revolution, I want to propose the following “next axioms of association growth.” I know that Kevin Holland posted his “new rules for association growth” a couple of weeks ago (with further thoughts from Tony Rossell) and they are fine, but I don’t believe they go quite far enough. We need to push our thinking about what is possible. We need to test our reflexive assumptions and challenge orthodox beliefs. Here are my reflections on how we can do that:

+Association growth depends on innovation–By now, business leaders in every corner of the Earth have gotten the message: new customers living in a new world seek new value. The only way to play that game to win is to innovate continuously. Innovation isn’t a one-off, occasional or “when we have the time and budget” activity. It is an integral element of any organizational strategy for both short-term profitability and long-term sustainability. As a capability, innovation isn’t about the seductive quality of cool, new technologies. Successful innovation requires a consistent effort to create radical new value through a combination of deep insights, imaginative ideas and inventive solutions.

+Association growth demands new incentives–One prime area for association innovation on which we do not focus at all is incentives. The traditional incentives for association involvement are dramatically less useful when the power to easily coordinate free and always-on interaction with others rests in our hands. What are the incentives for participating on a committee or other official structure when the same work (and more) can be handled in bite-size pieces by many people working on a distributed basis? We need better answers to questions like this one, and those answers will need to come from somewhere other than the organizational core that is so deeply invested in preserving the current incentive system.

+Association growth requires energizing the edge–For decades, Tom Peters has been encouraging business leaders to “hang out with freaks” as a tactic for simplifying innovation. He is absolutely right, of course, because the power to put all organizations, including associations, on new and creative trajectories of success increasingly resides at the edge, and not at the core. Let me put it even more plainly: in all likelihood, over the next decade, the people who will exert the greatest influence on the future direction of your association are not on your board or in your membership today, and they may never be. Do you know who they are? Your task going forward is to identify and build relationships with these edge contributors, so they can help you learn more about “what you don’t know that you don’t know,” and you can strive to engage them as impact players in your association’s work.

+Association growth relies on new platforms for engagement–Associations have typically asked their volunteers to participate in the work of creating industry and/or professional information through a handful of well-known channels. In the Web-enabled world, however, this kind of information is already a commodity, which means we need to craft a different purpose and bring a new focus to the efforts of our contributors. While information itself is plentiful, managing attention, making sense and adding meaning around information are in short supply. By embracing the full spectrum of social technologies, associations can create new and simple platforms for any and all contributors to use to add authenticity, passion, perspective and humanity to transform undifferentiated data and information into genuine knowledge.

+Association growth depends on serving many niche communities–When Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson published his original “long tail” article in the fall of 2004, I doubt many association leaders were even aware of it, and those who were probably never thought it would ever apply to their organizations. But here we are, 3.5 years later, and there are conversations about new business models and “the long tail” popping up everywhere. (I’ve certainly tried to do what I can to instigate them!) This is good news, because I believe deeply that new growth for associations will come from strengthening our ability to connect with, convene and create safe spaces for a deep and wide variety of niche communities that transcend the blurring boundaries we have typically used to delineate between and among industries and professions. This isn’t about being “all things to all people.” It’s actually about being just one thing–a trusted and trustworthy marketplace of conversation, collaboration and collective endeavor that is situated in a meaningful context–for many different contributors, including individuals, organizations, groups and networks.

Revolution is about the fundamental reinvention of the status quo. This is where we are in the history of associations. So if you’re not yet feeling the revolution inside your organization, don’t worry. You won’t have long to wait. It’s happening throughout our community, and your association will not be exempt. But if you are willing to exercise your strategic imagination, there is still time for your organization to harness the powerful forces of revolution and create a remarkable future of growth and opportunity by becoming a 21st century association.

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