The 4 skills associations should be teaching
Marketing associations share best practices for leveraging social media. State bar associations develop sessions on the new statutes. Associations for HR professionals teach about Affirmative Action. We are really good at teaching profession-specific skills. What we are lacking are life skills that can make our member’s lives (and jobs) significantly better. Life skills that can […]
Webinar: The membership economy
What do Amazon, Starbucks and Adobe have in common? They have all entered the “Membership Economy,” recognizing the advantage of forging long-term relationships with customers over simple one-time transactions. As an association, you can pat yourself on the back, because you’re well ahead of this curve. However, as private sector companies gain consciousness of the […]
What employee engagement surveys aren’t telling you
There’s a lot of talk in the business world about employee engagement, much of which centers around Gallup survey data. They’ve been measuring employee engagement, both in the U.S. and abroad, for about 10 years. The definition can get a bit squishy, but it’s ultimately about giving discretionary effort. An “engaged” employee is one who […]
4 ways associations can prepare for the future
We talk a lot about technological disruption on AssociationSuccess.org, but our recent interview with Peter Diamandis elevated a previously speculative discussion to a realization of inevitability. We cannot ignore what is coming. Our world is undergoing incredible changes thanks to technology, and this is occurring at an accelerating rate. What does this mean for the industries […]
How do you change the association industry status quo?
I first came across Maggie McGary after reading an impassioned message she wrote in the about frustrations she experienced in the industry. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, and what she was saying made a lot of sense. I thought, “who is this bad-ass woman and how can I hear more of what she […]
3 tips to engage millennials
As a Millennial expert, I get this question a lot: How can we get millennials to engage at our association? I remember presenting at a direct marketing conference and getting a similar — and almost desperate — question from the audience about how to get millennials to listen to their marketing messages. My answer was […]
What’s your greater cause?
Every once in awhile I hear the story of someone whose desire to do good is the main driver of their work, which serves as a gut check for my own path. Can I go home at the end of the day feeling proud about what I do? I’m at that point now, but it […]
How to put being a change leader into action
Have you read the first part of this blog post yet? Here, we talk about how to put being a change leader into practice. So how can you be a change leader? How can you learn to strategically nag and lead change? Ask ‘Why’: Channel your inner toddler and ask “why” a lot. Asking why […]
Do associations fit into the future?
I don’t know about you, but I do a lot of reading on technologies that are in the pipeline. Driverless cars, virtual reality, you name it. It’s one thing to know what’s coming, but a whole other to predict and grasp the impact it will have on our day-to-day lives. For example, have you ever considered […]
Technology: Disruption or path to freedom?
Disruption. It’s a buzz word that is widely circulating, and I think people are misusing it, and even worse, overreacting to it. Panic is ensuing over it when what we’re really identifying is the latter stage of a trend that started years ago. What some call disruption, I call the logical result of actions or events. […]