I just wanted to post a quick note to let you all know that I am currently traveling in British Columbia and I'll be back in DC on Sunday evening. As the summer draws to a close, I plan to return to making more regular postings to my blog on a variety of topics. Just to prime the pump for the thinking to come, let me offer a few questions I'll try to answer and a few thoughts I'll try to develop in the weeks and months ahead:
1. What are the "new fundamentals" of association success?
For years, I have thought that the most important question for association leaders to ask is, "What will help our association remain relevant?" While I continue to think this is an important question, I no longer view it as most important. Indeed, I think that mere relevance has become nothing more than a baseline consideration for association survival and success. There are two higher-level issues--renewal and resilience--to which association leaders must also devote their attention in order to identify new trajectories of organizational vitality.
2. What is the relationship between economic VALUE and individual/collective VALUES as they pertain to associations and the need for innovation?
In today's world, we are seeing growing convergence between people's desire to economic value and their desire to hold true to their personal values. This issue is being written about and talked about in various circles. As a result of my on-going inquiry into innovation within the context of associations, I have come to believe that the more compelling rationale for the pursuit of innovation in our organizations isn't purely economic, but grounded in the most basic common value that "associations" and innovation share: freedom.
3. What is the role of intangible factors in driving association growth going forward?
I have written on this topic on this blog before. My view is that we don't pay sufficient attention to intangibles, such as influence, reputation, networks, knowledge and so forth, not only as drivers of more tangible growth but also as critical forms of growth in their own right. The emerging paradigm of association success (relevance, renewal and resilience) will absolutely demand that we learn how to think about, talk about and steward intangible resources in new ways in the years to come.
I hope I have whet your appetite for more thinking that will challenge the prevailing orthdoxies of the association world. I look forward to your comments and questions.
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