Principled Innovation LLC

Tradition is a toxic asset

April 6th, 2009

Perhaps the subtitle of this post should be, “Ah, what a difference a year can make.”

Let’s first reflect on what I wrote in my article, “The Next Traditions of Association 3.0,” which appeared in the March 2008 issue of Associations Now:

It is axiomatic that an abiding reverence for tradition lives deep inside the DNA of associations—and certainly within those organizations measuring their longevity in multiple decades or centuries. On some level, of course, our community’s enduring adherence to tradition is understandable, since it is a core element of the resilience many organizations have sought to build over time.  But when associations face myriad unprecedented challenges requiring bold, inventive solutions, we cannot continue to honor our heritage at the expense of continuously innovating on behalf of our posterity.

More than a year later, and in the middle of a still-fluid and highly uncertain period of creative destruction in the global economy, one thing is increasingly clear:  tradition has become a toxic asset for associations.

I don’t make this statement lightly, of course.  The phrase, “toxic asset,” has not been a welcome addition to our national discourse, to say the very least.  The description, however, is sadly appropriate.  No longer a meaningful source of resilience in the face of growing societal upheaval, adherence to tradition has become a dead weight that is strangling the potential of our organizations, making it impossible for much-needed institutional reinvention and renewal efforts to move forward.

The current economic crisis is an unprecedented opportunity to remake associations for the 21st century.  Association staff and volunteer leaders must put everything on the table and challenge all contributors to take bold action to design and create what’s next for their organizations.  Instead, most associations appear to be adopting defensive postures, perhaps with an eye toward preserving a scaled-down “status quo” by cutting back now and hoping everything turns out okay by the end of 2009 or early next year.

For example, an Association Trends survey of trade and professional society executives published last month (subscription required) revealed that 45% of respondents would implement across-the-board budget cuts in the event of a revenue shortfall this year.  As Jamie Notter suggested in a recent post, it is difficult to view this kind of indiscriminate cost-cutting as a serious strategic move.  Here is some more telling data from the Trends survey:

Setting aside the truly confounding notion of “strategic planning to provide value,” what this chart shows is a troubling lack of commitment to make the hard choices and meaningful investments necessary for building a future-focused organization.  After all, why plan to provide value if you’re not also going to focus on strengthening the capabilities, such as new program/product development and applying new technologies, that actually make it possible for associations to create and deliver value?

It would be unfair to suggest that tradition is the driving force behind all of the shortsighted decision-making in associations today.  But the longer we hold on to the last vestiges of a past that is never coming back, the closer we bring the pace of change in this community to a standstill, and that is simply not an acceptable response to what is happening all around us right now.

So what do we do about this situation?  The bottom line is that we must rehabilitate the toxic asset of tradition and, unlike other sectors, we will need to do so without any “bailouts.”  Even though a year has passed, hopefully there is still some merit in the approach suggested in my article:

…what if we choose to view tradition differently? What if instead of as a set of practices, we decide to make use of tradition as a platform for innovation? What if instead of ways of doing, tradition is simply a commitment to respect certain ways of thinking and being as an association, even as the world around us changes? As leaders in our organizations and guardians of the purposes they pursue, we can choose to reimagine our associations for a brand new world by inventing our next traditions. By living in the future and focusing our energy and attention on what’s next—instead of living in the past and dwelling on what has been—we reinvigorate our pursuit of mission, the most sacred covenant that exists between and among our predecessors, our successors, and ourselves. On the strength of a renewed intergenerational commitment, we can undertake the challenging work of building third-generation associations that are able to succeed in the long run.

What do you think it will take?  Share your ideas, insights and new perspectives in the comments.  I look forward to the conversation.

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