When is the last time you thought up a truly good idea at work? The kind that will make a clear impact
on the value you deliver to your association members, improve an administrative process, save the
organization money, or, ideally, the trifecta?
Maybe you confidently answered, “all the time!”
Okay, but here’s the better question: When is the last time you thought up, defined, planned, implemented, managed, reviewed and iteratively improved upon a truly good idea at work, entirely by yourself?
Yes, association management professionals are a scrappy, resourceful bunch, but everyone needs a
hand occasionally. Particularly in small- and medium-sized staff environments, there may only be one or two team members with the specific knowledge and skill needed to successfully take an idea from start to finish. How can we expect good outcomes with such limited resources?
Enter the power of sharing.
Think about it. Whatever your truly good idea is, chances are that some other association management professional has already done it, or they’ve thought about doing it, or they hear about it and want to try it within their organization. Although there can be mission-overlap in the association space, our organizations are generally not direct competitors. By their very nature, associations and their employees are well-positioned to participate broadly in knowledge sharing and collaborative activities, with relatively low risk of losing competitive advantage by doing so.
We know how professionally fulfilling it can be to attend Ohio Society of Association Executives (OSAE) meetings or to communicate virtually on the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Collaborate discussion board, but even more in-depth methods of sharing knowledge that may
benefit association management professionals include:
Work Groups: Invite a cohort of professionals working at other associations with expertise in the business area of your idea (membership managers, meeting planners, education directors, whatever it may be) to join a work group that meets monthly over the length of the project to give outsiders feedback on your progress and share experiences of what has and has not worked before. Every participant will take away valuable insight, not just the representative(s) from the organization that is implementing the new initiative.
Observation & Interviewing: Identify associations similar in staff size and member scope to yours and ask if you can attend one of their meetings as an observer, making sure to return the favor at your events. Or take benchmarking to the next level by buying coffee for a fellow association professional and digging deep in an interview to unearth fresh perspectives on an idea you are considering for your organization. There are many approaches, but the outcome of immersing yourself in the experience of a peer is to have fresh eyes for your idea when you return to your desk.
Contribution: Volunteer to be a peer-reviewer for conference submissions or awards applications (Either through OSAE or ASAE - both offer such opportunities). Author content for association publications on a pro-bono basis. Be an overly-eager respondent when reliable sources send requests to complete surveys about the association industry. Such avenues of participation expose you to the association world outside your doors, inevitably improving your position to act upon your next new project.
Everyone has something to give, regardless of role, responsibility or tenure in the association management field. The greater the number of those meaningfully contributing to the shared pool of knowledge, the better the swim is for all of us. So, the next time you have one of those truly good ideas that will change your organization for the better, ask yourself not only “how can I make this happen?” but also “who will help me?” The more you boldly pursue shared knowledge outside your four walls, the more fulfilling the implementation journey will be, resulting in a more informed and better final product.