What if for every hour you volunteered, you could earn more, learn more, gain a new skill, connect with peers, and change the world for the better?
The Zen of Associations blog is for those of us who believe that a life of purpose is the ultimate member benefit. For a selection of favorite posts since 2006, go to the www.BestOfZen.org.
Ann Oliveri is a marketing coach and brand strategist who works with responsible association leaders and mission-driven entrepreneurs, mobilizing power for good.
What are you reading this summer?
In my beach bag for light weight summer-reading are three paperbacks:
* the dog-narrated, zen of auto racing book, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein;
* the Pulitzer winning Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, set in Maine;
* and, Amagansett by Mark Mills, a murder mystery on Cape Cod.
My top pick, though, this summer is a giant, hardback volume, Iain Pears' latest, Stone's Fall. If you can only take one book with you on a trip, especially if you are expected to pass it on to everyone you are traveling with, this is it.
Stone's Fall is a wonderful historical-adventure-mystery-thriller by the author of The Instance of the Fingerpost as well as the slender art forgery escapade, The Immaculate Deception.
Three books in one, Stone's Fall is a mystery wrapped up in the dead, enigmatic, arms manufacturing capitalist John Stone's financial manipulations that is as current as today's headlines, but set on the eve of WWI. It's intelligent espionage, conspiracy and romance.
A heavier read, but in paperback,is a painfully true to life, office-noir literary gem, Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. This pitch-perfect novel, narrated in the first person plural, conjures up cubicle-culture and group consciousness, office politics and rumor. It's a modern masterpiece, but not for those who want to escape from their work in a big office. My book club--mostly self-employed counselors and therapists--loved it.
Want to tackle something weightier still, say placing the decline of the Roman empire and rise of Christianity in context? Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman, now in paperback, made some waves two years ago from bristling religious reviewers.
A respected classical scholar, Freeman's goal is to provide a backdrop to today's face-off between organized religion and science. His take on the God v. Science debate can be boiled down to the philosophical underpinnings of each side's assumptions, best summed up as Aristotle v. Plato.
(BTW, if you need a quick philosophy refresher, there is none better than Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar... by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein who reduce Freeman's question to Reason v. Revelation. The chapter on logic is worth the price of the book. "If a man tries to fail and succeeds, which did he do?")
For another take on organized religion v. Darwin, try Robert Wright's new book, The Evolution of God. His lens is the Abrahamic religions, and the exploration of Islam is a good addition to Freeman. (The Salon.com interview, God, He's Moody, provides the basic argument.) Although Wright's Nonzero is one my all time favorite books, I was disappointed in his latest, only because he is a fan of St. Paul--the misogynist primarily responsible for making me a recovering Catholic.
So what are you reading this summer??
According to a recent survey, more than one-third of new association CEOs are coming from the industry or membership's ranks. CEO Update reports that "Recruiters agree that specific background has been a hot commodity this past year as organizations seek CEOs well-versed in policy and the players."
AEM blogger Dave Patt interprets this trend to mean that members are taking the top job because they are content experts. Dave points out that "Hiring a content expert does not bring the association anything it didn't already have. So, let the content people manage content. When you need association management, get an association manager."
My take on the report is that it's not about content or management. It's about leadership.
Association selection committees want leaders rich in relationships, highly credible people with access to policy makers and industry heavy-weights. Will they take the CEO's call? Can the candidate cut through and get results?
Insiders are also proven, trusted, known entities, earning their reputations over time. They are part of the informal network, and know who to go to for what. They share history, language, and even passion for the profession or issues.
You can buy content. You can rent process. You need a leader that influentials respect. I am just surprised that the percentage of CEOs coming from the association's industry or profession isn't higher.
Mistakes were made, as we say in Washington.
Speaking in Baltimore at the Membership and Marketing Conference, I defined my goals for the session at the outset, but failed to provide sufficient context for my large and varied audience. (Only a handful identified themselves as marketing professionals.)
So what disclaimers can I make next time to get us all on the same page? Imposing the rigor of Twitter's 140 character limit, I distilled my point of view about the practice of association marketing, organized like course prerequisites in a college catalog. Is this sufficient warning?
Association Marketing 101: It's about their lawn, not your grass seed. Discounts and a directory are features, not benefits. Promise possibilities. Find out who cares.
Association Marketing 201: Members are your products. Differentiate them from their competitors. Build trust. Grow leaders. Reduce time needed to master practice.
Association Marketing 301: Marketing is a
perspective, not a title. Get the right
people in the room, united by one mission, yet free to design their own experience.
Post-Doc: Put it all into play on a larger stage. Advocate SR--shared responsibility. Start where you are. Engage members and those members serve.
Maybe speaker introductions should capture the speaker's POV--point of view--not their bios.
How can we engage members in our work if association employees are leaving the better part of themselves at home? For all the lip service given to "engagement" these days, I am amazed by the lack of engagement among association employees.
Recently, I was hitting a brick wall of stony indifference with the senior management of a well known association, so I peeled them off for personal interviews. One on one, I was impressed with each exec's energy and ideas, but when restored to the group, everyone shut down and spoke like robots.
The behavior was not a product of the recession--fear of losing one's job--this was the culture, engineered by the CEO to maintain an illusion of control. The result was a senior team that quit long ago, but are still on the job.
There is an alternative, one neatly articulated by Henry Mintzberg in the July-August Harvard Business Review on "Rebuilding Companies as Communities."
Mintzberg argues for an alternative form of leadership, "a more modest form of leadership that might be called engaged and distributed management," what he calls communityship. "A community leader is personally engaged in order to engage others, so that anyone and everyone can exercise initiative."
To create community at work, Mintzberg recommends that you:
"(H)ealthy organizations take corporate social responsibility seriously and gain significant benefits in return. Employees of a company that barely functions as a community can hardly be expected to care about any other community. But members of a company that has a robust sense of community realize how much their organization depends for sustained success on constructive engagement with the communities around it."
Do less. Be more. Engage members through opportunities to learn and grow, professionally and personally, reflecting on shared experiences in a community of practice, pursuing social justice while making a living. And do it in every single activity you offer.
That's engagement. The rest is empty promises of features and benefits in a brochure.
Flipping through the new Fast Company, I started to pay attention to the NOW calendar listings, including the entry for July 12: Infectious Disease Cruise Conference. Setting sail from Italy, this conference is a University at Sea(R) Cruise, promising Credits While You Cruise! for healthcare professionals.
Tongue in cheek, FC notes: "One tip to avoid the spread of infectious diseases: Don't gather in confined spaces. Like, you know, a ship at sea." But this isn't this conference weirdly appealing? Think of the promotion opportunities? But maybe it's a lesson for all of us these days.
If you can't fix it, feature it.
For a terrific demonstration of responsible association leadership, see the press release posted by the consultant to a project supported by Industry Canada and the Canadian Society of Association Executives today on CSR Wire.
"The Canadian Society for Association Executives (CSAE), advised on the development of the CSR/Sustainability Roadmap and will introduce the tool to its members through a new sustainability education and resources section of its website.
"This is the kind of business-enhancing tool we like to offer our members," said Bob Hamp, Director, Communications and Advocacy, CSAE. "Each of our association members represents many organizations; so by equipping them with the Roadmap, we can help spread sustainability awareness and action throughout the marketplace."
The Sustainability/CSR Roadmap for Associations and the companion article, CSAE Members Lead the Way: Integrating Sustainability into their Organizations, are available free of charge at the consultant's web site: www.corostrandberg.com.
Congratulations to Industry Canada and the leadership of CSAE for identifying social responsibility as the key strategic move for making associations relevant in a global economy. Now if only...
What would you do with the money if you won the lottery? One friend claims winning the lottery is her retirement plan. As for me, I would set up the Get A Life Foundation and serve as its executive director. Proceeds would fund friends' visits to Italy, to get a life.
Until that happy day, we are happy to find our way to Tuscany each year and work on living Italian style. If you forego city hotels for rural agriturismo accommodation, it's cheaper to live in Italy for three weeks than it does to stay at home.
This year, family and friends totaled 20, including Rogier and Esther's bambino, Gjs. For a few photos, see the album for Italy 2009.
The 2009 cultural highlight was the della Robbia exhibit in Arezzo. Never really focused on just how many artists named della Robbia there were until now. The ubiquitous glazed terra cotta sculptures were produced by three generations of artists, losing favor only when oil painting emerged the winner in the arts and crafts wars.
The real find was getting to the Bialetti store in Florence when it was aperto! Difficult to find gaskets for 10-cup Bialetti coffee pots at home so Bill brought his pot with him to make sure we got the right size. We later discovered the Bialetti outlet store at our exit off the A1--the only real shopping we did besides the local markets.
And, most importantly, we finally learned why the sunflower fields of Tuscany are disappearing--the government subsidy was eliminated! Photographers now must settle for endless golden fields interrupted by roads lined by cypress. Such a tragedy.
Last February, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association signed on to the Global Principles for Socially Responsible Associations and Nonprofits. ASHA's executive director Arlene Pietranton told me it required a brief board discussion because the Global Principles align with ASHA's values and culture. When we met at the Great Ideas Conference, her question was "Now what?"
That question led us to tee up a larger conversation, a half-day experimental workshop, bringing together a cross-section of association executives and experts to talk about corporate social responsibility.
BOMA's Henry Chamberlain volunteered his boardroom and brought his senior management team. Arlene Pietranton brought Janet McNichol, ASHA's HR director, and staff responsible for the internal green team and community service activities.
Creativity guru Rhea Blanken designed real-life role playing exercises that let us all practice how we talk about corporate responsibility, and as BOMA's Pat Areno said, "see yourself as others see you."
Here's what we learned:
Susan Gorin, executive director of the National Association of School Psychologists, said: "Sustainable social responsibility requires ongoing discussion among all members of a community or organization (and) ensuring that there are different perspectives around a table when a plan is being formulated enhances the outcome."
For more on the workshop and a list off all the terrific people who participated, see my commentary in the June 5 Association Trends. For more ideas on how to start your own conversation on corporate responsibility, look for the forthcoming Journal of Association Leadership (Spring 2009) and my article, Shared Responsibility: Collective Action for a Sustainable Future.
The Summer 2009 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review has a terrific article by Satish Nambisan, Platforms for Collaboration.
"Some of the brightest ideas for social change grow in the spaces between organizations and sectors. Yet few organizations have systems to make collaboration happen. To foster innovation, organizations need to develop places where they can come together and work creatively--that is, platforms for collaboration."
Nambisan identifies three types of collaborative platforms:
No matter the purpose, collaborative platforms demand new capabilties:
This issue has other timely articles on the history of KIVA.org and B (Beneficial) Corporation certification as well as the cover story: Ethics and Nonprofits: How Nonprofit Leaders Can Promote Ethical Behavior Within Their Organizations.
Restoring trust is not limited to financial markets. Associations and nonprofits face the same skepticism and scrutiny.
Other...: www.bestofzen.org
