Tips to orient your board
Let’s assume we’re all on the same page that board culture matters, and it should be fostered, nurtured and reinforced, just like a staff culture. You want the culture of the board to drive the specific behaviors to make that board successful (just like a staff culture). Okay? Good. That means we need to seriously […]
Defining and Maintaining a Board Culture
For most organizations, culture is internal to staff. There is a fairly sharp line defining who is inside the organization and who is outside, and it’s those on the inside who are responsible for culture. With associations, obviously, it’s not that simple. We like to point out that members are simultaneously the owners, customers AND […]
3 tips to work with multiple generations in the workplace
I hope we’ve made a compelling case that the generations issue is important to how you run your association. It’s not about responding to the newest generation – the Millennials – in a reactive way. It’s understanding there is a bigger shift happening right now. We certainly have to understand and deal with the Millennials […]
The big demographic shift
I remember years ago when people in the association world began to freak out when they learned Generation X were “not joiners.” True, Gen X does have a strong bent towards independence, and roundabout the time “Bowling Alone“ was a popular book, many associations were seeing a decline in membership. Help! Gen X isn’t joining! But […]
What associations can learn from Millennials
For the last 10 years or so, we have been complaining mightily about Millennials. It’s honestly one of the reasons I got involved in the whole topic of generational diversity in the first place; I was sick of all the complaining. They’re spoiled. They’re entitled. They wear flip-flops too often. They got too many trophies. They’re […]
Cultures That Work For All Generations
One of the truths about generations that doesn’t get much attention is the basic, demographic fact that organizations always have been — and always will be — made up of multiple generations. I mean, even in the small-staff associations, you’d be hard pressed to find an organization without at least two generations represented, and as […]
Yes, we are still talking about generations
Every now and then, I get some serious pushback when I write about Millennials or generations in the workplace. People get almost mad when I imply that these differences are (a) real and (b) important to running a really good organization. The biggest objection seems to be the fact that I make generalizations about huge […]
3 Tips for Integrating Culture & Strategy
So this month we tackled the overlap of culture with strategy. We challenged the notion that culture eats strategy for breakfast and we asked you to at least think about what our beloved-process of strategic planning is actually doing to your internal culture. Then we might have made you even more uncomfortable by talking about how associations need to […]
How to Build a Nimble Culture
One of the biggest strategic challenges associations face today is being nimble. Because let’s face it, agility has not historically been one of our community’s strong suits. We’ve been good at traditions. We’ve been good at saying “We have always done it that way.” We’ve been good at consistency. We’ve been good at “not on […]
Strategy at the Speed of Change
There is something comforting about a strategic plan. You do some really good, strategic thinking and then translate it into a series of goals and action steps to get you there. Even though the world seems like a swirling, giant hairball of complexity, your strategic plan can make you feel like you know exactly what […]