What relevance isn’t
October 16th, 2009
Last month, my friend and fellow blogger Jamie Notter wrote an excellent post on why relevance is not enough for associations. In his post, Jamie graciously mentions my continuing pushback against the relevance-oriented thinking (ROT) that is still framing the way most leaders in our community approach crucial decisions about the future of their organizations. We need to cultivate a fundamentally different leadership point of view, and this is what I think it should be:
+Relevance isn’t a purpose–How will your association’s pursuit of relevance nurture an authentic connection to purpose among your stakeholders? The answer is it won’t. There is nothing compelling or inspirational about being relevant. The quest for relevance is a quixotic effort that undermines your association’s capacity to deeply engage its most passionate stakeholders in co-creating truly distinctive forms of value, and wastes precious organizational attention, energy and financial resources.
+Relevance isn’t a strategy–Since we’ve been talking about relevance for such a long time, you would think more associations would have cracked the code by now. So why are so many organizations in our community still doing so much irrelevant stuff? Why are so many associations still trapped inside their legacy programs, structures and systems? It’s because relevance isn’t an actual strategy, merely a cognitive device we use to justify the painfully-slow incremental change we prefer over the systemic innovation our organizations require.
+Relevance isn’t a business model–As we enter a “reset economy,” associations are understandably concerned about the sustainability of their existing business models. Arguably the most significant innovation challenge (and opportunity) associations will have during this still unfolding period of uncertainty is the task of designing and developing generative new business models that are grounded in purpose, and built on meaning, intimacy and support. The relevance argument does nothing to advance our work in this regard, and associations should abandon any mental model that interferes with their ability to identify ways they can be better than relevant.
Associations face serious and complex problems today and in the years ahead, and relevance-oriented thinking will not help us solve them. It’s time to start thinking in a brand new way about what will.
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