A Moment of Malleability

Let’s rewind.

If – on January 1, 2020 – I gave you a preview of what March 13, 2020 and beyond would look like... Online learning. Rethinking how you create community connections for your members. Redesigning your governance timing and meetings. Ramping up information sharing across staff, governance, and general membership. Keeping your crisis response aligned to your strategic direction. Oh, and you’ll do it all while working remotely with minimal human contact.

We've been in that sort of adapting and rapid response mode for the past 9 to 10 months. As new things roll out, the next crisis comes. As we look toward the new year, this is a moment to put in place something which is different, not letting the cycles of crisis set into our norms. Much like taking metal out of a forge while it’s still red hot - you can still bend it, shape it into a different form.

That which is different than what was

hasn't yet become what needs to be.

In the first quarter of 2021 there is a real opportunity to take a look at the key places where associations have put in place new practices and structures. To step back and ask: if we were actually designing those practices, structures, cultures, and experiences what would they look like? What would they be? We have the time to do so. To design what we want, to step back and have the conversation before that which we put in place in crisis response becomes our new norm. In the first quarter of the new year, let’s ask where there are opportunities for our association to take a step back, what the critical places are where serious shift is needed for the organization to survive, and areas we have discovered where our association can thrive.

How do you create the opportunity to get the right people, the right minds, in the room to step back and say, “if we were creating this from scratch with time, what would we actually want to see…

…when we think about how our staff are functioning from at-home environments? What if we had time to design? Would we have given them different equipment? Have different schedules? Would there be updates to our policies?”

…from the technology platform we’ve put into place to deliver value? How would we have designed the value we want to deliver? What would be our methodology of delivery? What experience do we want our members and customers to have in that delivery?”

…at the heart of our organization as we strengthen members’ professional connections and relationships? How do we enable these connections in meaningful ways? How do we go beyond Zoom to catalyze key conversations? How do we help them forge meaningful relationships?

As we think about that which is cited time and again as the value of our organizations – be it individual or trade – we hear about the people you can meet and the relationships you can make. How do we design in this virtual and hybrid space to engender member-to-member connections that lead to meaningful relationships that aren't just happenstance?

The course is not yet calcified. There is still time, in the first part of 2021, in this time where there's a great deal more latitude for experimentation than there has been for decades. Now, before things start to calm, before a ‘new normal’ sets in, before we accept that which we shifted to quickly – now is the time to put a strategic refresh on the calendar. Now is the time to identify those places which have experienced radical shifts.

Let’s define what we actually want to design, what we actually want to create, what we want to embody in our organization, in our systems, in our staff, and among leadership.