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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

ONCE A MONTH, I’LL ROUND UP SOME LINKS TO POSTS FROM AROUND THE INTERNET ON OUR CULTURE TOPIC OF THE MONTH. HERE’S THIS MONTH’S READING LIST FOR YOU ON GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES. First of all – if you want actual data on Millennials – go to Pew. Millennials And ‘Their Destruction of Civilization’ (Forbes) This is a great […]

It doesn’t take a lot of searching on the web to find essays, posts and articles that declare generational differences a big lie. Many of them center around Millennials, particularly because that generation has been covered in the press with many different names (Gen Y, NetGen, etc.) and many different start and end dates. I […]

I saw a story in the Wall Street Journal about Millennials in the banking industry. Short version: Millennials don’t seem to agree with the banking industry’s suggestions that they keep their heads down, focus on their work and learn how to pay their dues, so they’re moving to other jobs. This apparently “confounds” the banking industry. […]

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 […]

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 […]