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We are all familiar with the cliché, “that’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.” Unfortunately, many associations are still baking their own bread and making members slice it themselves.

Think about your own life… Do you make your own bread at home? Doubtful. Why not? After all it is often better quality than the store bought stuff. Like most people, you do not make your own bread because it is easier, quicker, less costly, and is good enough quality to justify buying it at the store. The reduction in quality is acceptable to most of us given the benefits of buying store-made bread.

Does your association still bake bread? Are there programs, products or services that you offer that are able to be offered by another source that is easier, more convenient, or perhaps cheaper for members, even if the quality is not quite as good as yours? Can someone else provide your members with the education credits they need for license renewal? Can your news clipping service or even your magazine be replaced by RSS feeds from Blogs? How about your awards programs? Are you still giving out white bread awards when members are getting whole grain awards from their company?

Look at every program, product or service your association offers and ask, “Who else is providing this to our members?” If the answer is “no one”, then you might have a winner. If the answer is “someone else,” you may have a loaf of homemade bread on your hands.

To remain relevant, find services that your association is uniquely positioned to offer and stop offering services that members are increasingly getting from other sources. If you do, the value proposition for your members will taste as good as fresh bread right out of the oven.

The following is an outline for a presentation to Association Executives:

3 Steps to Building a Strategic Culture

1. Get Leadership Buy-in
2. Have a Living Strategic Plan
3. Take Time to Do Strategic Thinking

Getting Leadership Buy-in

• Do your homework. Read Glenn Tecker’s The Will To Govern Well: Knowledge, Trust and Nimbleness
• Start with a President-elect and convince him/her of the three pillars of a strategic culture: Knowledge, Trust and Nimbleness
  • Knowledge vs Opinion (data driven decisions)
  • Culture of Trust – common agreement on what constitutes success – strategic plan
  • Nimbleness – responding efficiently and effectively

Knowledge-based Decision Making

• Become a data junkie
• Discuss issues before they become urgent
• Dialog before deliberation

Dialog before deliberation

• Avoid Robert’s Rules and adopt Bobby’s Suggestions
• Separate discussion from decision making using 4 knowledge based question
• After open discussion, consensus on what to do is easy

4 Knowledge-based Questions: What do we know about…

1. The needs, wants and expectation of our members/customers
2. The capacity and strategic position of our organization
3. What’s going on in the member’s business
4. The ethical implications of our choices

Building Trust – delivering on the promise

• Transparency
• Keep members informed about what you are thinking of doing
• Ask members their opinions before decision
• Set expectations and exceed them. Must have an agreement between staff and Board as to what constitutes success (strategic plan).

Nimbleness – The ability of the organization to seize opportunity

• Set boundaries, allow action without asking permission – define customer
• Doing the right things and not the wrong things
• Determine what your association is best positioned to do

Conclusion – Strategic organizations that use knowledge-based decision making, practice transparency to establish trust, and set clear boundaries to guide their nimble governance structure are more attractive to volunteers, more effective in delivering timely services and provide a more rewarding a stable staff experience.

This was an excellent blog post I wanted to pass along.

Signs of Healthy and Unhealthy Associations by Jeff Hurt

Experience means something completely different in the world of associations than it did 10 years ago. When the baby boomers were firmly in charge and the economy was somewhere other than the toilet, experience was what you needed to participate as a leader in a volunteer organization. Today, experience is what volunteers expect to get from participation in a non-profit organization.

I’m not talking about the type of experience you put on your resume; rather, I’m talking about volunteers having an experience that warms their souls, tickles their funny bone or allows them to change the world.

Associations that get it are the ones that are trying to deliver a positive volunteer experience.

Think of it like Starbucks. What makes us happy to pay $2 for a regular cup of Joe at Starbucks, yet complain that it cost $8 for a whole bag of Starbucks coffee beans at the grocery store? It is the warm and fuzzy experience of walking into the coffee shop, smelling the wonderful aroma and feeling cool when you order a Grande vanilla latte with a black eye and touch of cinnamon.

If you are seeing a drop-off in participation in your association, you can simply blame the economy, or you can re-evaluate the experience you are delivering.

Can I get a muffin with that?

Have you ever heard a member ask if the association is staff driven or member driven? I love hearing this question but I hate how it is generally answered. Most of the time (including by me until about a year ago) the answer would be “the members chart the course and then let the staff do the driving.”

That always seemed like a nice, politically correct way to handle this question that was generally laced with mistrust or subtle innuendo. But, something never really felt right about that answer, even as the words came out of my mouth. It seemed like a comeback answer or some sort of crafty retort to a slightly threatening question.

After struggling with this answer/question for years, I finally figured out the real answer for a properly functioning association was “neither.” In fact, the question is a trap question similar to the catch-22 question, “do you still beat your wife?” No matter if you answer “yes” or “no” you are not going to provide a good answer.

The correct answer to the staff driven/member driven question is “neither, the association is driven by our strategic plan.” Once that answer is given, the false impression that there is some sort of power struggle between the staff and members is removed from the discussion. With that barrier removed, the association can move forward with staff and members working toward the same goals.

Whenever you get two or more association executives together, the conversation often turns to a discussion of the question, “how big is your board?” That very question came up recently in a conversation with a newly discovered colleague.

“How big is your board,” he asked.

“Around 200,” I replied with a swelled chest and proud grin.

“Yikes, that’s rough,” he responded with a grimace of someone who had just tasted sour milk.

“Not really,” I responded to his surprise. “I think the larger board ensures we have buy-in from a large segment of our membership.”

“But the inefficiency,” he retorted.

“Associations, by design, aren’t supposed to be efficient. If we were, we’d leave most of the members behind. How big is your board?”

“13… I tried to convince them that’s not enough, but they do not want to add anyone else,” he explained. “We have member categories that are not represented at all. But, we get our meetings over quickly.”

So, how big is the ideal board? The easy answer is, “it depends.” There needs to be enough members on the board to fairly represent the constituencies of your association. In my case, we have 30,000 members in PA with around 50 local associations (chapters). I think we need a 200 person Board to make sure that broad base is represented.

Some of my peers (and many of my members) wish for a smaller, easier to manage board, but I warn them be careful of what they wish for… Easier, more efficient decisions are not necessarily better decisions. It is much more important for the long-term health of the organization to make decisions that have broad-based buy-in than it is to make quick decisions.

While I think it has always been the case that buy-in is more important than speed, the good news is that modern communications allow us to act quickly even with a large board. Issues can be vetted, input received, and changes can be made in a fraction of the time it took 15 years ago. The bad news is that large boards can be costly and that presents a challenge as we all try to do more with less.

Balance is the key. Find the sweet spot between too large and too small and you will be ready the next time a colleague asks about the size of your board. Clearly, size does matter for boards.

Being a leader often sucks! No matter what you do, someone is going to get mad at what you did. Leaders are always second-guessed, often with the benefit of hindsight, and no matter how successful your actions, there will always be things you could have done better.

Maybe this is why “leadership” is the number one most sought after skill in associations today (followed closely by teamwork skills). Why would anyone want to be the leader in a non-profit when the best you can hope for is that at least half of the members agree with what you did? Many leaders would rather go into the for-profit sector where leadership is just as tough, but the pay is better.

But, I believe, there is great joy in leadership and that non-profit leadership is more rewarding than the highest paying corporate job. Unless you are purely driven by the love of money, non-profits offer you a greater opportunity to feel good about yourself than any corporate gig. In non-profits, we get more chances to do the right thing for our communities, country, and all of mankind than our corporate counterparts who are obligated to only do what’s right for a small group of shareholders.

Now, let’s not be too Pollyannaish about the benefits of being a non-profit leader. Many corporate leaders get to make an enormous impact on the human community, far greater than any non-profit, but as a whole, I think leading non-profits are more rewarding on a human scale.

Even if you agree with me on this, you may still be wondering if being a leader is worth it. Serving humanity is a nice thought, but followers get to do good things too. Why expose yourself to the critics, wear a target on your back, and have an increased risk of being fired just to be the leader? There is no logical answer to that question, but many of us choose to lead anyway. The world and our lives are both better because we do.

Here are a few words of wisdom I have used to help me lead anyway:

· Don’t take the criticism personally. It is human nature for members to judge you, so embrace it, welcome it, and thank the member for the feedback.

· Celebrate the positive accomplishments. Helping a volunteer or staff member grow beyond what they thought they could or seeing a major goal accomplished is a high-five moment.

· Failures are the best learning experiences…don’t fear failure, grow from it.

· No good deed goes unpunished, but don’t let that stop you.

· If things don’t work out and you lose your job, it is not a reflection on your talent. Leaders “fit” at some organizations and not at others. Find a place that fits you and vice versa.