Principled Innovation LLC

Reinvention, not relevance

March 18th, 2010

My friends at TMA Resources are sponsoring a series of three webcasts on the topic of relevance in associations.  I was honored to serve as a panelist for the first webcast last month, and I participated as an attendee in the second session earlier this week.  From the outset of this series, I have been firm in my conviction that the discussion of relevance is a needless distraction from the real challenges facing associations in the 21st century.  After two webcasts, I have heard nothing that changes my thinking.  On the contrary, I now believe even more strongly that this conversation needs to be focused on reinvention, not relevance.

Earlier this week at the South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) conference in Austin, Here Comes Everybody author Clay Shirky told attendees, “institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.”  The relevance discussion feels like a reflexive institutional response to the loss of control associations have experienced over the last 20 years as their stakeholders have become less dependent on them for access to information, education and connections.  We may say we’re searching for fresh answers, but it is not clear to me that we are willing to ask different questions.

In a world of ubiquitous and rapidly-growing networks that distribute and accelerate knowledge flows and make interaction simple and inexpensive, our community must reinvent its approach to associating from the edge.  We are no longer selling a product, service or even an experience.  Rather, we are negotiating updated agreements with our stakeholders, designing a new social contract for the next generation of digital co-creators who expect customized and highly favorable terms in exchange for their commitment and engagement.  Going forward, the thick value associations want to create must come not in the form of pre-packaged widgets, but as unique expressions of meaning, situated in context, and crafted (as well as remixed) using a variety of media.

To reframe this conversation around reinvention, let me elaborate on the three key themes (decentralization, transparency and fearlessness) my friend and colleague Jamie Notter identified at the end of the last webcast:

Decentralization requires trust–Jamie and I agree that associations must radically decentralize the value creation process.  But as I pointed out in the first webcast, a more distributed approach will require much greater trust in their stakeholders than most associations demonstrate today.  The rules and structures associations have put in place over many decades create a kind of synthetic trust (to borrow a term from Robert Putnam) that is no substitute for the genuine article when the imperative is to nurture and support sustained self-organized collaboration.  Under these conditions, there is no alternative but for associations to place new trust in their stakeholders.  At the same time, those same stakeholders, through their decisions and actions, must display clearly that they are worthy of that trust.

Openness requires responsibility–Jamie spoke of transparency, a term I have come to view primarily as a legal construct, not a strategic mindset.  Being open is about much more than which information is shared and with whom.  It is about systems that are inviting and inclusive, and engage the available talents in ways that are meaningful to those people.  Openness does create the potential for increased risk exposure, however, which makes an intrinsic sense of shared responsibility a critical element of success.  There is good reason to believe that trustworthy leaders and stakeholders will eagerly embrace their responsibilities on behalf of organizations that genuinely value them as people, as well as the contributions they make.  Nevertheless, associations need to act decisively to build robust open system cultures in which everyone is expected to make an important contribution to stewardship.

Courage requires imagination–Jamie also spoke of the need for associations to be fearless in trying new things.  I absolutely agree with him, but it is important to remember that courage is not defined as the absence of fear, but the determination to proceed even when fear exists.  In my experience, the best way to build that kind of determination is to use the gift of imagination.  When we are able to imagine not only novel possibilities, but their positive implications and outcomes as well, the choice to innovate is far less daunting.  We are imbued with an unbridled spirit of discovery that is infectious, making it easier to inspire and engage others.  While we always remain keenly aware of potential downsides, we do not dwell on them, and we act with courage as authors of the greater good.  Once again, associations need to cultivate the raw imagination of their stakeholders, as well as the refined commitment to courageous action it fuels.

There is one final webcast in this series, and I urge the panelists to reflect on this blog post as they prepare.  We should abandon further conjecture on the ephemeral question of relevance, in favor of guiding leaders in the association community through a deep and substantive exploration of how they can meaningfully reinvent their organizations for the 21st century.  It’s time to change the conversation.  Will we?

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