The Association Innovation Blog by Jeff De Cagna

FC NOW BlogJam 2005 Post #1

I've made my first post to the FC NOW BlogJam 2005, which began this morning.  I actually put it up a few minutes before midnight (because I'm a geek and I wanted to be the first one to post), and I thought I had blown it because my attempt to change the date and time initially failed, but I went back and corrected it and all is well.  Phew!  ;>) 

In this first post, I made a small proposal:  that Fast Company launch a podcast called FC NEXT.  Now that FC's ownership situation is more settled, I think this would be a great step for the publication to take.  (In addition, I think they should bring back their RealTime conferences, but that is a story for another day.)  I would love an FC podcast, and I am confident that I would not be alone.  The readership of this magazine is deeply devoted to it, so the podcast would have an interested audience from day one.  At any rate, we'll see what kind of reaction I get to the idea.

BTW, association executive and fellow blogger Shawn Lea of The Big Picture is also participating in the BlogJam and will be posting for the next two days.  I look forward to sharing in her brilliance and that of all BlogJam participants.  I suggest you join us! 

More on why best practices don't cut it...

Dave Snowden, internationally-recognized expert on knowledge, storytelling and social complexity, has given us more ammunition in the fight against mediocrity by best practice.  Speaking on Wednesday at an IBM event in Singapore, Snowden offered the following succinct yet powerful observation:

No company who has ever succeeded to be the market leader has ever done it by following the best practices set by the dominant leader in that space.

As I've been typing these words, I've been running a list of market leaders through my mind:  Apple, Google, Starbucks, FedEx, 3M.  Snowden is clearly correct.  None of these leading companies achieved its position by duplicating the work of others.  Instead, these companies focused their energies on advancing original ideas and built their continuing commitment to innovation as a prerequisite for sustainable success.

In his Singapore talk, Snowden also argued that necessity is the driver of innovation.  When the environment in which the organization operates changes dramatically, the pressure that people feel to try new approaches increases as the old ways of working become harder to sustain.  Apparently, Snowden isn't familiar with the association community, however, because necessity is precisely where we stand right now in our need for innovation.  So far, however, the pressure doesn't seem to have caused enough pain and discomfort for a critical mass of association leaders to induce them to make innovation a genuine priority.  I'm not that thrilled with the idea of making innovation happen due, in part, to a sense of fear.  But at this point, I'll take what I can get!

In any event, the next time someone in your association suggests that you look for best practices, tell them to seek out original ideas instead.  The former is almost certainly the road to being average, while the latter is the surer pathway to long-term success and realizing your association's full potential..   

More on the decline of best practices

Here's another reason why I hate best practices.  The words are those of Johns Hopkins University president, William R. Brody, and they come from a speech he delivered at the end of April:

Risk aversion is eventually going to drive America into second-class status in our increasingly global economy. Guaranteed outcomes mean lowering our expectations. And lowered expectations lead to mediocrity and sub-par performance.

We need to ask ourselves: what's going on here? (Emphasis added throughout)

Our interest in best practices reflects our growing desire for guaranteed outcomes and a lack of tolerance for risk.  But best practices do not provide guaranteed or even reliable outcomes.  In fact, they rarely work out the way we have in mind when we copy them.  In the comments to my last posting on this subject, there were suggestions that best practices are useful for learning.  I can understand that view, but I would challenge it.  Best practices typically inhibit real learning by limiting the scope of possible inquiry, i.e., we focus our attention on what we know from the best practice and not on what we don't know, which is typically where things break down and where learning is most needed.  Yet we assume the best practice is comprehensive in its handling of the unforeseen because, after all, it's a best practice.  Unfortunately, that is virtually never the case, because best practices deal only with the very specific, context dependent problems their originating organizations are trying to solve at any given moment.  Most best practices don't produce either genuine insight or foresight until they've broken down or failed altogether.

FREE Learning Opportunity: March 15 session on Google

I'm pleased to announce that on the morning of March 15, 2005, I'll be facilitating a free session for association leaders on Google and innovation that will take place at the headquarters of the Special Libraries Association in Alexandria, Virginia.  If you're going to be in the DC area that day, I hope you'll consider attending.  You do need to register online, and when you visit that page you'll find more information on the session, as well as a link to detailed directions to SLA.

If you have any questions, send me an e-mail.  I look forward to seeing you there!

7DoB Day 3: ASAE/The Center Merger and HBR 20 Breakthrough Ideas (AUDIO)

A rather long audio post (sorry text lovers!) about the merger between ASAE and The Center, as requested by Ben Martin, CAE of VSCPA. Also, a brief mention of HBR's list of 20 breakthrough ideas for 2005, and the essay of Dean Roger Martin of the University of Toronto's business school. Very good stuff!

BIG NEWS:  As of right now (10:55 pm on 2/2/04) you can download a FREE COPY of the HBR 20 Breakthrough Ideas from the website I listed above.  Just look for the link in the frame marked "Harvard Business Review."  I don't have any idea how long the offer will last...

7DoB Day 2: Three years and counting

I feel like I shortchanged you guys yesterday by only posting the Einstein quotation, and very late in the evening at that.  Sorry about that.  The days just seem to get away from me and I find myself blogging late when I'm too tired to compose.  I'll try to work on that.

Today is the three year anniversary of my consulting practice, Principled Innovation LLC.  I don't write about my company too much on the blog because I want this conversation space to be free of the whole biz dev thing.  But the last three years have been incredible fun and a truly powerful learning experience for me.  So, for right now, I'd like to share six things I (think) I know now about being "out on your own" that I didn't know then.  I'm sure I will add to this list in the months ahead.

7DoB Day 1: Just a quotation

To get the TSOB going, I just want to offer the following quotation tonite from Albert Einstein:

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

Words to live by if you're an innovator.  I'll have more for you tomorrow.

Dan Pink in February Wired

The Phoenix edition of the Center's Great Ideas Conference is coming up in just about two weeks (February 13-15, 2005), and former Fast Company writer and Free Agent Nation author Dan Pink will be delivering the Monday keynote presentation, "Giving Your Organization a New Brain."  (Dan also spoke at the Orlando edition of Great Ideas in December 2004, and I thought he was great.)

Anyway, Dan's presentation is based on his forthcoming book, A Whole New Mind:  Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, which will be available in March.  An excerpt from the book appears in the February 2005 issue of Wired magazine, and so I thought I'd bring it to the attention of TAIB readers who may be attending the conference or know people who will.

Heard at PCMA II

I attended a session yesterday during which a speaker on negativity in the workplace suggested that we stop using the word "why" when asking questions. She mentioned some research that contends "why" questions induce a physiological reaction of defensiveness.

To be honest, I'm rather skeptical of the research claim and in profound disagreement with the speaker, because I believe very strongly in the importance of asking the hard "why" questions. In my view, it is the failure to ask those questions that creates most problems for organizations and their leaders today.

I've done a little quick searching on Google and cannot find the study to which she referred, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If you are aware of this research, please e-mail me using the link just below my photograph. I want to blog on this subject more, but would like to do so with more complete information because I think it is very important.

All in all, PCMA's meeting in Honolulu has been a great success. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, although I am looking forward to returning to DC. BTW, it's about 80 degrees here once again...that part I will miss when I leave tomorrow morning! ;>)

T5/05: New Sci-Tech (#3) and Intangibles (#2)

For issues #3 and #2, I've decided to do a single post to make sure I get both of them in before the year comes to a close.  In 2005, I am convinced that both new science and technology (#3) and intangibles (#2) will become more important issues for all associations.  On the sci-tech front, we are beginning to see some extraordinary developments in a range of fields, including nanotechnology, biotechnology, genetics and computing.  I'm not saying that understand it all...but it is very cool and important stuff and I'm trying to learn as much as I can.  The reason I'm trying to learn is that it is becoming increasingly clear the emerging scientific revolution of the next decade is going to have a profound impact on every facet of human endeavor and we had better start getting ready for it right now.

As for intangibles, we're not so much talking about a new issue as one that's been largely neglected.  Associations are organizations that can create value only by working with their intangible assets, such as knowledge, networks and relationships, brand, and reputation and influence.  With the possible exception of the advocacy arena, I would submit that most associations do a terrible job of managing and fully leveraging these intangible resources.  I also would argue that many associations suffer under the crushing weight of their "intangible liabilities," such as ineffective governance structures, member intransigence and politically-motivated (instead of strategic) decision-making.