Transform Culture

It’s worth stopping for a second to think something through. Imagine, if you will, that we didn’t have members. What if our associations’ efforts were not entirely focused on those people who already pay their membership dues? I know. It sounds crazy – a membership association without members? How will we make money? Who will we serve? Won’t […]

The measure of a project’s success tends to be in the quantifiable effects it produces. We might look to membership numbers or revenue, for example, to assess how successful our particular ventures have been at this level of effect. However, it is not always useful to focus on these final outcomes when implementing a project. Especially when […]

Associations Catalyzing Entrepreneurship (ACE) is a group made up of association executives and stakeholders who think outside the association box about the future. We have conversations about an entrepreneurial approach to association leadership and implement the resulting great ideas in our jobs. In our most recent conversation live in DC, with a virtual component hosted […]

Culture change is not rocket science. Conventional wisdom may say that it is hard, that it is undefinable, or that it takes many years to accomplish, but I disagree. People participate in culture change all the time—they just don’t realize that’s what they’re doing. My business partner, Maddie Grant, and I have been doing change work […]

Editor’s Note: Associations Catalyzing Entrepreneurship (ACE) is a group made up of association executives and stakeholders who think outside the association box about the future. They have conversations about an entrepreneurial approach to association leadership and implement the resulting great ideas in their jobs. This article is a culmination of takeaways from their most recent conversation live […]

Your association’s brand is your image, or the perception of the association by your target audiences. In short, it’s your association’s personality. Often we think of a rebrand as changing your association’s logo—but it’s more complicated than that. Rebranding also involves your color scheme, tagline, and messaging. It includes your print and digital communications such […]

I believe that technologists too often focus on technology. Key organizational problems are no longer technology specific, and technology issues themselves are not the target of our broader problem-solving efforts (or at least they shouldn’t be). Instead, technology is implicated on a broader, more strategic level, across the entire structure of the organization. This means that […]

I am lucky to work for an organization that values lifelong learning. For me, keeping on top of my field and enhancing my skill set does not come second to my day-to-day work—it is an integral part of it. How can organizations make professional development a part of their culture and the air that they […]

Language matters. It matters for many reasons; not least because when different perspectives and priorities collide, the way we communicate can set the stage for moving forward. Thinking carefully about language and communication when implementing a culture shift in your association can help establish and cement the tone of the change, and turn a potentially challenging […]

In Part I of this series, I explore the wicked problem facing the education system in the United States. Part II considers what our associations can do to rise to this challenge. The value of associations There is no greater value that associations can provide than helping people get a job, keep a job, and get a […]