As long as associations don’t lead, people won’t care
July 27th, 2008
If Ben is correct and “member apathy is a current reality,” we have only ourselves to blame.
Passionate engagement does not emerge from product and service relevance, but by unleashing the imagination of our stakeholders, and by inspiring them with a deep and enduring sense of purpose. But instead of trying to build passionate engagement, we have been embroiled in a distracting and ultimately pointless debate about whether associations should lead or follow their members. Well, I suggest that it’s time to put that discussion to rest once and for all.
If our members don’t care, it’s because our associations have not led.
Those who believe that social technologies are responsible for the problems our organizations face today are wrong. Associations have struggled with the decision to lead for much longer than we have had free and cheap access to social tools. And while social technologies enable purposeful action, their use is not an antidote to apathy. If you are imbued with a sense of purpose, the notion of “ridiculously easy group forming” sounds pretty powerful. But if you don’t care already, the fact that you can blog isn’t likely to make you care.
Going forward, the growth and success of associations demands the design and implementation of purpose-driven business models that fully integrate the passionate engagement of contributors as a strategic imperative. To develop these business models, we must imagine new possibilities, and experiment to create them. What’s more, we must be able to lead our members into the future by reinvigorating our organizations with a renewed commitment to meaningful purpose. But above all else, we cannot allow the flawed logic of the past to determine the future direction of our organizations or our community.
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Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Social Media, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, The Association Innovator, We Have Always Done It That Way, Garage Memes
Ben Martin and P.I.
Association exec Ben Martin, CAE is P.I.’s Architect of Participation. Jeff and Ben help clients harness the power of the Web through the strategic application of social tools.
The AST Executive Summary
The executive summary of the groundbreaking Association Social Technologies survey project is now available for download! The full report will be available in October.
