Ann Oliveri

Crowd Sourcing the Future of Associations

Finally, someone is using social media to reform the failed business model of a beloved membership organization, the National Geogrphic Society. 

Alan Mairson, free-lance journalist and former staffer at NGS, is on a crusade to save National Geographic and, in turn, journalism.  Blogging at SocietyMatters.org, Mairson offers up solid reporting and is attracting a crowd to work on the problem.

Last night, I attended the second IgniteDC event as the guest of that perennial cool chick, Rhea Blanken.  It was an opportunity to experience a digital crowd in human form, giving a platform and five minutes to people with a passion.  In Round Two, Mairson did his five minutes and brought the place to life.

Stories from his time at National Geographic made his point, reinforcing his credibility as a writer who worked inside that golden yellow box of images for twenty years.  One story was of a failed membership campaign, appealing to subscribers to "Join the Adventure."   Mairson's point?  By promising armchair adventure as it had for 100 years, NGS failed to engage potential members in their own adventure.

No doubt the magazine is in trouble--all are--and those who love the magazine want to save it.  But when I think of National Geographic, it's no longer the magazine that comes to mind.  I think of exploration and our planet, their fabulous exhibits in Washington and maniacal love of photography and perfection.  I think of the one time NGS involved me in their work--I sent my DNA in to the ongoing "genographic" project tracing our shared humanity.

I haven't looked at the magazine in years--Smithsonian magazine filled that gap--but is the National Geographic just a magazine? And is a magazine journalism?

Fans of the Journal of Association Leadership Unite

I love the Journal of Association Leadership.  Maybe it's the name or the mix of articles or the smart people who support it, but I love it and want to share the love.

How can the Journal be more accessible? More valuable? Editor Peter Hutchins and I are pulling together an ad hoc task group to figure this out and we need your ideas.

For example, I spoke with David Gammel yesterday who suggested that we look at AListApart.com, an online journal for people who make websites.  Just think what we could do if the Journal of Association Leadership worked like this! 

How would you make the Journal a rock star?  

Do You Want More Influence?

"Do people hold up meetings, waiting for you to arrive to make important contributions or interpretations of current events?

"Do people remember what you say and perhaps quote you in other places and venues?

"Do people tell your stories and share your lessons as though those stories belong to them?

"Do people learn things from you that they acknowledge to you and remark about to others?

"Do others seek out your opinion and ideas or share their agendas and beliefs with you in the hope of influencing you to influence the behavior of others more senior than you?"

That's how James Lukaszewski, author of Why Should the Boss Listen to You? measures influence. "Having influence means being remembered, being asked in on decisions and strategy well before the strategies are selected and the decisions need to be made."

Writing in the Fall 2008 issue of Leader to Leader, Lukaszewski pinpoints the problem as limited face time with the boss.  Each of us gets a limited amount of air time in a meeting to contribute. The best use of that limited resource is to embrace "the discipline of being intentionally constructive, with a relentlessly positive approach," he writes. 

For the full text of his Leader to Leader article, Mastering the Art of Giving Advice, click here.

Surviving Reality TV

Reality TV is anything but.  Still, three shows keep us engaged. 

The best is the Amazing Race.  We love it because we travel and some of the stunts engineered to test contestants are not unlike those you can find for yourself. 

We also watch Top Chef because my husband cooks and its fascinating to imagine these temperamental chefs feeding anyone. Another reason to eat at home!

Then there's Survivor which continues to hold an odd fascination with social experimentation, an embarrassing habit rather than entertainment.  Where do they find these people?

Apparently we are not alone in our views, but Heather Havrilesky's assessment on Salon.com today says it better than I can: While most reality TV starts to repeat itself, CBS's "The Amazing Race" and Bravo's "Top Chef" both age gracefully.

The finale of the 13th season of the Amazing Race is tonight.  Will the improbably named Nick and Starr win or the fat, lazy frat boys?  Anything's possible. 

Recalibrating Normal

Five years ago, I wrote an article for Association Management magazine--now Association Now--in response to the editor's question: "When will things return to normal?" My answer? "Maybe normal isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Maybe we lost our way when we became so professional that we lost touch with the passion of those who founded our associations."

That rant was the cover story in December 2003, Recalibrating Normal, challenging association professionals to return to what really matters by starting with the right questions.

"What if your association could attract the next generation of volunteers with a mission that matters and activities that also deliver personal and professional growth--financial success as well as a more equitable society?" 

• What if we were a movement, not an industry?
• What if values created value?
• What if members were our products, not our customers?
• What if work was a calling, not a career?

You can find the original article at Entrepreneur.com.  Oddly enough, it's also for sale at amazon.com.

In this post-abundance era, maybe these questions will provoke another round of responses. Over the next few weeks, I will pick up and examine these questions again in this space.

Are You Fit to be President?

Catching up on my reading this weekend, I noticed an article in the current issue of New Scientist, "Are You Fit to be President?" Like those addicted to horoscopes for encouragement, I am a sucker for personality tests and their application. 

To find out if you have the personality to be a successful U.S. President, take the test online at the web page of the Foundation for the Study of Personality in History.

Developed by a forensic psychologist, Steve Rubenzer, in 2000, the test was used to evaluate past U.S. presidents, using their biographies to answer the questions, grouping these leaders in eight types: Dominators (LBJ); Introverts (Adams); Good Guys (Eisenhower); Innocents (Grant); Actors (Clinton); Maintainers (Truman); Philosophes (Lincoln); and, Extraverts (FDR). You can see the results here and learn more about their methodology here.  Among the project's findings?

• The ability to lie and deceive is an important quality of success in the White House, and presidents who are less straightforward typically make better presidents.

• Presidents are much more extaverted today than in the past and less intellectually curious than in the past.  They may also be lower in character.

• Jimmy Carter is the only modern president that much resembles Jefferson, Madison and Lincoln.  Eisenhower is the only modern president much like Washington.

The greatest president, according to test authors?  George Washington. "Washington embodies the traditional virtues of duty, responsibility, self-discipline, leadership and courage," they write, although "He falls quite short of the modern political commodities of warmth, empathy and open-mindedness."

Find out how you fit the profile.  Take the test.

Ode to the Elevator

Nick Paumgarten has written one of those essays that makes your annual subscription to The New Yorker worthwhile: Up and Then Down--The Lives of Elevators.

Consider this: "The Otis Elevator Company, the world’s oldest and biggest elevator manufacturer, claims that its products carry the equivalent of the world’s population every five days." 

And, as any vertical-transportation-industry professional knows: "Two things make tall buildings possible: the steel frame and the safety elevator. The elevator, underrated and overlooked, is to the city what paper is to reading and gunpowder is to war. Without the elevator, there would be no verticality, no density, and, without these, none of the urban advantages of energy efficiency, economic productivity, and cultural ferment."

LOHAS Journal

Remember Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?  The more fully evolved are now embracing Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) "focused on health and fitness, the environment, personal development, sustainable living, and social justice."

According to LOHAS.com, companies appealing to this market segment practice "responsible capitalism," using sustainable business practices and supplying such products as socially responsible investing, alternative healthcare, organic clothing and food, eco-tourism and more.

Some 20 LOHAS Associations are also listed on the website, from CERES, the national network of investors working with companies on issues like climate change, to the Green Restaurant Association , helping restaurants and diners become more environmentally sustainable in convenient and cost-effective ways.

Aloha, Lohasians.

New Scientist

If you read magazines, even newspapers like USA Today, to stay in touch with what people are thinking about, I suggest subscribing to the weekly, New Scientist. For scope and variety of topics, and writing that truly informs and challenges, New Scientist is my favorite poke-in-the-eye-with-a-sharp-stick and ideal reading on airplanes and subways.  New Scientist's concise, interesting reporting penetrates your brain and give you an endorphin rush.

Each issue is a wild cross-section of recent findings.  For example, one very short piece noted the differences among blood types' resistance to disease.  Given that I am B-negative, I learned that I am more susceptible to malaria.  Type Os are less likely to die of malaria, but watch out for cholera as Os are eight times more likely than me to have a severe case.  (There's also a new malaria vaccine that is getting a lot of attention.)

The issue with the blood type story also covered disputes on dating a portrait of Shakespeare, the reliability of Wikipedia authors who are not regular contributors, self-righting turtle shells, racism, and the latest thinking on the migration of modern humans--modern meaning 50,000 years ago not the earliest humans moving around 150,000 years ago. 

My favorite articles are on, of all things, quantum mechanics and the latest takes on the Theory of Everything, including one surfer's hypothesis that it's the mathematical pattern E8.  Let's just say things have been progressing nicely since I took physics in high school.

If your understanding of science comes from a confusing barrage of news stories on network TV, I strongly suggest that you cancel your subscription to TIME and switch to New Scientist.  You will be not only better informed, but much more hopeful.

Wired

Have you looked at Wired magazine lately?  After dog-earring a half-dozen pages before getting to the main features, I had to stop and look at the cover again.  Wired?  "Who knew it was still being published," someone noted as I was contemplating a fold-out story on tall buildings.

Gone are the breathless stories of technology triumphing over evil.  You will find a wild oriental bazaar of ideas.  For example, on page 64, the story "Podcast Lectures 101" lists four free lectures you can download from iPod, including a lecture by high school teacher Lars Brownworth on "12 Byzantine Rulers."  The editors note that he exhibits "an infectious passion for his subject...(and)slashes through a dizzying succession of wars, coups, and poisonings to bring Byzantium...to life."

Or on page 108 there is a brief column from Dan Pink on conceptual art, "Paint by Numbers," recounting how he bought the painting "41" for his wife from www.onethousandpaintings.com.  Think of it as EBay meets fine art. (BTW, the number "573" is still available for a lot less than "41" cost Pink.)

Check it out.  You will be surprised.  Also look for my blog post on a December Wired main feature, "Commercial Break," at Acronym, ASAE's blog.