CEO Solutions :: KST Consulting

It’s US Census time!  Completing the census form prompted me to do a bit of personal reflection on how my personal and professional life has changed markedly in the past ten years. In fact, my life has been transformed. I am:

•  enjoying a different career as an association consultant after 35 years working inside associations,
•  married to a different man,
• grandmother to four children,
• live in a different home,
• a blond instead of brunnette (gray doesn’t fit my self image!)

just to list a few of the changes my life has undergone in the past 10 years. How has your life changed?

Better yet, what do you think has changed in your organization? How have your members changed? How have the demographics of your membership changed? What new programs/services are you offering and how are they being delivered differently? If you haven’t carefully considered these questions very recently, it is time to take a Census for your Organization.

I recommend you do it annually rather than waiting ten years. In fact, you need to keep in touch with the pulse of changes in your organization constantly with significant assessment periodically. So much can dramatically change in so little time that it is not enough to tweak your offerings, you may need a significant overhaul to your value proposition and how it is delivered.  You may need to be on a path of transformation through reinvention and innovation just as I have been personally and professionally for the past ten years. The changes I made didn’t all happen overnight or all at once. It was a progression of events and choices that resulted in my current life. Most of them occurred within a five to seven year timeframe.

A few things to think about:

• How will you attract and retain young professionals (millenials/Gen Y born 1977 and beyond) to engage them as future contributing members?
• How are you integrating social media into your marketing and communications initiatives if you haven’t already and are you gearin up for more changes in the social media environment?
• Are you successfully meeting and exceeding the expectations of four or more generations of culturally diverse members and staff?
• Do you engage in global initiatives? If not, are you missing opportunities?
• What language does your staff need to speak–English, Spanish, French, Chinese, other?
• What are your core business hours in a 24/7 world? Do you offer flexible schedules for staff? Operate up  from virtual offices?
• What needs to change, what needs to stay the same, what needs to be stopped so you can be the “go to resource” for your market five and ten years from now with a talented and engaged staff and cadre of volunteer leaders?

These are just a few questions that I encourage you to talk about with your stakeholders. What is your self image for the future and how will you achieve it?

Wishing you successful transformation in the next ten years, Karen

While on a wonderful cruise last week on the new  Oasis of the Seas, I was struck by how “fresh” all of the staff were. The magnificent ship is huge, holding over 6,000 passengers and a couple thousand staff.

 Week after week the staff greet and care for a new batch of several thousand guests on a ship they live and work on for several months without much down time. The staff work very long days. 

Watching the cruise staff interact with the passengers reminded me somewhat of association staff working an annual association conference. Association conferences are typically shorter than a cruise for most staff, lasting about 5 days. Some staff may be onsite for up to 10 days for pre and post meetings. There are some differences between the cruise staff and association staff. For instance, lots of extra time is devoted by association staff throughout the year to prepare for the annual event. The last few weeks are a definite push, with the staff usually feeling like it won’t all get done. Somehow it does! The leader has to cheer the staff to the end, assuring them of their expected success.

As staff, we come home exhausted, and usually take a few days of R&R. Yet, the cruise staff welcome a new crop of guests each week with the same energy and enthusiasm as the last. The ship’s captain oversees the whole operation week after week as well. He depends on the staff to work together as a well oiled machine, a team he can depend on to be his eyes and ears.

How do they do sustain that fresh energy and focus? What is the magical ingredient for them that enables them to remain so engaged in their work, week after week? Is it the gratuities many of them are counting on earning? Maybe the abject poverty of their home country and families depending on them to send home money, so they must keep their job and be eligible for another contract?  Are they unique in their makeup, somehow hard wired differently than the association staff? No matter the source of  their motivation, how do they avoid becoming exhausted?

It strikes me that these questions may be worthwhile to contemplate and discuss with your staff. See what might surface that could help you and your staff achieve a similiar level of energy and engagement with your members week after week.

Yes, I know a cruise is different from an annual conference and the cruise staff are not spending extraordinary time engaged in preparatory work before the next week’s cruise. Or are they? Surely, some must be. Food, fuel and other supplies must be ordered and placed onboard and registration must be prepared for the next group of vacationers to mention a few things. 

I don’t have the answers. Just the questions. What do you think? Could you be “up and on” week after week if you were interacting so closely with your members? If not, why? If so, what is your secret formula for success? Others would love to know. So would I!