Principled Innovation LLC

Vu-ja-de and relevance

June 25th, 2009

The emerging blog debate on the issue of relevance for associations has a definite “vu-ja-de” quality for me, because I posted on this topic some 18 months ago.  To be honest, it’s more than a little disappointing that no one appears to remember what I wrote at that time, so I was thinking that a brief refresher and update might be in order.

Relevance continues to be a losing argument for associations.  Relevance is a desperately abstract, lowest common denominator, all-things-to-all-people strategic mindset that is tantamount to shouting at the rain.  What could be a clearer indication of your irrelevance than the announcement (and subsequent debate) of your own relevance?  The question of whether associations are relevant will be answered by their stakeholders, and too many have begun to render their unfavorable judgments.

Still, I do understand the appeal of the relevance argument.  It makes life a little easier for association leaders by dampening any appetite they may have for the admittedly daunting challenge of disruptive reinvention and radical new value creation.  Unfortunately, the relevance argument is also the ultimate excuse for tweaking our way into the future, and hoping everything works out for the best.  This is simply wishful thinking, and it must end.  What is required today is a more robust and actionable leadership point of view on the real-world demands of strategic success in the 21st century.

As I argued back in February 2008, associations need to be better than relevant.  The future of associating is in designing and developing more vibrant and sustainable approaches to co-creating meaning with stakeholders.  Going forward, associations will need to pursue a much greater level of intimacy in truly understanding unexpressed stakeholder needs and providing deep support to facilitate the success of those stakeholders in a VUCA world.  The business model innovation our community needs today and in the years ahead will come from being highly generative in our approach to value creation.

So, as I see it, we have two choices.  We can continue to rearrange the deck chairs of relevance, or we can start rethinking and rebuilding the ship before it starts to sink.  Which choice will you make?

If you're new here, I hope you will consider subscribing to the P.I. Blog. Just click on this link to add it to your RSS reader. You can also receive e-mail updates by subscribing via the box located on the blog itself. Thanks for visiting!

Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Social Media, Audioblogs & Podcasts, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, The Association Innovator, Simplicity, We Have Always Done It That Way, PI Services, Garage Memes, Embrace the Revolution