Category: Culture
Nowadays, there’s a lot of conversation of what cannot be done. Many say we are in uncharted waters, and that is true because uncertainty keeps reaching new orders of magnitude. The Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates to tame inflation, job openings break new ground surging past 10 million, military conflict persists in Ukraine, gasoline prices are heading higher again. Some say that a longer-term cohesive industry growth strategy is not feasible.
The global economy is making a pivot from just in time to just in case and there are opportunities to unleash supply chain innovation. As noted in a USA WIRE article, supply chain innovation is underway. From the private sector all the way to strategic partnerships between Industries and Trade Associations, collaboration and outside the box thinking is happening in real time.
American Eagle’s Chief Supply Chain Executive Shekar Natarajan is working to unclog retail supply chains and modernize them. The company created a supply chain that can be shared among different companies with an end goal of squeezing out inefficiencies and satisfying customers. It’s a strategic partnership strategy, and it’s a frenemy network too where retail companies share resources to drive down costs and increase efficiencies.
Some great strategic partnerships were created to weather tough times. COVID-19 was an especially difficult time, impacting profits, workers, families, and the U.S. economy. Most writing on strategic partnerships focuses on how companies have combined their strengths and mitigated their weaknesses to expand customer bases and achieve far more together than they could separately. However, there are more prodigious, inclusive, and ambitious types of strategic partnerships—the sort that change the game for entire industries. These take shape between industries and their trade associations.
As described in a recent MarketWatch article, the U.S. has experienced considerable volatility and change over the past two decades. Keep in mind, volatility and change are part of U.S. history. The speed of change and policy uncertainty opens the door to reimagination, especially when it comes to U.S.-produced energy.
Market consolidation is a reality for many Associations, however, can this powerful global market trend be overcome? NPES, an Association representing over 400 global suppliers of printing, publishing, & converting technologies equipment thinks so.
Through relentless ROI focus & human connections, Ralph Nappi, President & CEO, along with his team build member relationships, identify needs, & deliver real time business solutions. Spending 100+ days in face to face meetings, Nappi actively reinforces NPES’s connection with board members & members.
NPES operating profit performance is driven through 3 key strategies:
Through its 4 other organizations, NPES adds market support, industry brand visibility, & advocacy of an important industry standard:
Running counter to global market forces demands close member interaction & flexible strategies in order to achieve positive results. In NPES’s case, they report 94% member retention, & from 2009 through 2011 over $1.5 million in net operating performance.
For a free copy of the “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” eBook, request your copy at www.potomaccore.com.
Organizational Culture and Mission Drives 66% Growth. Associations and Societies are busy revisiting their strategic plans and business models. After all, new paths to member engagement and revenue growth are essential nowadays. While CEOs employ different approaches, one in particular applies culture as a growth accelerant. A.S.P.E.N., the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and it’s CEO Debra S. BenAvram leverage culture and their mission to operate a functional and thriving community ( http://bit.ly/1GWhVgL). A strategically engaged board combined with an energized and innovative staff are consistently hitting on the right cylinders.
Imagine a Different Future
A.S.P.E.N. works to insure that all patients receive high quality nutrition. They reinforce their vision by trumpeting the best evidence based practice for support to patients in need of specialized nourishment. Starting her career as the organization’s Director of Education, BenAvram developed leadership values and strategies that would best support the board’s goals and motivate a high performing team. Moving into the CEO role, she applied years of thought and study to develop a strategic plan and an “outside the box” staffing model.
Open Communication
As CEO, BenAvram wants “imagery around culture and values all of the time.” Unlike many organizational charts with tiered or complex structures, they employ a “staff circle model.” The approach looks to achieve excellence focused on high engagement and high quality performance.
Balanced Revenue
With a staff that has grown to 20, A.S.P.E.N has a healthy mix of revenue almost evenly divided across membership, their annual meeting, and peer review journals. Serving a diverse constituency of medical professionals ranging from Pediatric Surgeons to Endocrinologists, they utilize data and feedback to stay connected to their members and their mission.
Regardless of debates on traditional and nontraditional management structures, one thing is clear: A business model minus silos can stimulate innovation and collaboration, mobilize board leaders, and energize staff performance to exceed expectations.
Staff leaders acknowledge that the second wave of innovation and growth is even more challenging to achieve. Undaunted, CEO BenAvram and her team are more confident because they already understand Peter Drucker’s axiom “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Why? $2 million growth is a reflection of just how important culture is to engaging and satisfying members.
For a free copy of the “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” eBook, request your copy at www.potomaccore.com.
Can Silos Stunt Association Revenue Growth? “We’ve met the enemy head on and it is us.” Is this true? Absolutely, yes. Silos at Associations can do more harm than good. Why? Although a well defined organizational structure is effective in defining roles and responsibilities, they at times erect unnecessary walls and can create a fiefdom.
Beware of the Silo Effect
The symptoms are easily recognizable. If Senior Managers consistently debate boundaries, direct reports challenge colleagues and managers to “stay out of their portfolios” then your Association is seeing some of the silo effect. Regardless of the motivation it’s harmful to your bottom line. In time, Association morale and focus is diminished along with focus on members and revenue growth.
Can the silo effect be avoided or changed? Yes!
3 Steps to Motivate Association Revenue Growth
Regardless of the time of year, CEOs can alter their Association’s trajectory and focus. Implementing these three steps can help increase member satisfaction, elevate retention, drive member growth and deliver sponsorship and conference attendance increases. Really? Increasing your market satisfaction and execution in a highly competitive environment can’t help but up your game:
An Association recovering from its worst revenue performance ever implemented all three of these steps the following year. They achieved dramatic improvements in total revenue, new member growth, retention and exceeded their net growth objectives.
At a time when Associations need collaboration and accelerated market focus, staff silos blur the external vision necessary to satisfy members and achieve revenue growth objectives. Removing the silos and creating a culture of collaboration will up your Association’s game. Actually, it just might have your team coming from behind and winning just like the Hickory Huskers.
For a free copy of the “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” eBook, request your copy at www.potomaccore.com.
Association Culture change has long been the stuff of hocus pocus and black magic. Many people talk about it, but it seems difficult to find real success stories because the levers of success are less than obvious.
What is known is that a direct assault on Association culture doesn’t work; you don’t alter behavior by publishing new values and running workshops on the new expected behaviors. It’s been tried and it never works.
Association Culture is not the result of new talk. Association Cultural change is the result of new actions, routines, roles, and expectations for specific and defined actions. The structures and processes of an organization’s management system is what shapes these factors more than anything else, and so when the management system is changed, the culture changes. This assumes the leaders of the organization are serious about the changes they are making, and work hard to be models of the new ways.
Here are 10 things to remember as you think about Association culture, its role, how it is shaped, and how it can be changed:
1. Culture is the great lever of Association change
2. Culture determines if a given change will be accepted or rejected
3. Today’s economic world demands Associations move quickly
4. The speed of an Association is governed by the speed of decision making
5. Your management system defines your decision making strategy and quality
6. A culture that moves decisions to where the knowledge is greatest, which is the front line, will make the fastest and best decisions
7. To set people up for success in their decision making, management has a lot of work to do in advance
8. Leaders have to accept that change is now the constant, and the only way to keep people is to let go of centralized control
9. Culture change is much more readily accepted when people gain control not lose it
10. More than any other thing, changing the management system causes the biggest shift in Association culture
John. M Bernard, Chairman & Founder, Mass Ingenuity
One of the biggest surprises for me in learning about organization development has been understanding the relationship between the complex nature of human beings, and the work they do. What I have learned is that mechanical things such a strong, healthy, and structured business reviews can have profound impact on cultural components such as human beliefs, behaviors, and trust.
The better we understand the interplay between structured management processes and human behavior, the more control we have in shaping Association culture.
Association Culture does not have to be the accident accumulation of unspoken norms and behaviors. It can and should be intentional.
Thanks for joining me in this series on Association culture.
Every leader, whether it is in the Association world or any other work arena, must deal with their own version of “chin music.” Even Mike Tyson is right that “Everybody’s got plans, until they get hit.” Unexpected surprises come out of nowhere and sometimes even worse than expected circumstances land in the leader’s lap. Since Management and Board Members expect results, leaders know they must swing into action and get the job done.
Good leaders can find the pot of gold, even when there is no rainbow. New York Yankee Manager Joe Girardi for instance, looked to the 2013 season with optimism. Why shouldn’t he? A storied franchise with star power and a $200 million plus payroll helped him field a powerful team. Then thirteen players suffered injuries and landed on the disabled list. What many viewed as a nightmare scenario is instead an interesting case study on managing effectively, despite crisis.
With most of his team out for the foreseeable future, Girardi and the Yankees’ General Manager Brian Cashman collaborated on fielding a team of some veterans and many replacements. Fans who expected a team collapse and even Yankee haters might be scratching their heads. At least for now, the 2013 Yankees sit atop the American League’s highly competitive Eastern Division.
The tough situations can define the most effective leaders. Joe Girardi’s leadership reminds executives that while a field of play can’t be changed, it can be managed. For Girardi and Managers in general, building on a solid foundation of trust is a sure winner.
With more than one half of the Major League Baseball Season yet to be played, it’s tough to know how the New York Yankees will finish the season. What’s been accomplished thus far is a teachable moment for Managers. Even the toughest of challenges can be overcome. Using similar approaches, one Association executive, after losing a top sales performer, turned their year end into a success from almost certain failure.
Do optimism, praise, preparation, consistency, clear vision and the golden rule by themselves assure success? No, but they offer a solid framework for any Manager to utilize when the worst happens. “It ain’t over till it’s over” said Yogi Berra, and now with 6 strategies built on a foundation of trust, leaders could have the capacity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
For a free copy of the “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” eBook, request your copy at www.potomaccore.com.
This is the ninth in a series on Association culture, its role, how it is shaped, and how it can be changed.
As you likely know, the concept of “management as a system” is not commonly talked about even among experienced Association leaders and academics. However, if you understand that a process is a collection of activities that target a specific output, and that a system is a collection of processes that target a larger aggregated output, then buying the concept of a management system isn’t much of a leap.
When we understand that management itself is in fact a collection of specific processes, it allows us to apply process thinking and tools to the work of management. So, like any other process, the management process can be understood, assessed, measured, and improved.
It took a long time for me to understand the connection between an Association’s management system and its culture. In fact, I learn something new about that relationship almost every day as I interact with customers and discover things I had not seen.
What is clear is that as an Association moves from an informal management system to an intentional and effective one, such as the Now Management System®, the leaders start to actually gain control over their results. This happens because process improvement is all about transparency (seeing where things are breaking down), accountability (measuring results and making it clear who has the responsibility to fix problems), problem solving (ensuring that process owners know how to fix processes), and the elimination of fear (which creates the safety to risk taking action on the problems).
While the Now Management System systematically creates clarity, it shifts culture by establishing clear norms of accountability, new routines for transparency, and standard disciplines for solving problems. Our system achieves its maximum return on investment by shifting culture at the heart of these dimensions.
John M. Bernard, Founder & Chairman, Mass Ingenuity
Culture is all about patterns, roles, routines, language, and expected behaviors. A good management system addresses every one of those dimensions of organizational functioning. As an example, one of our clients recently held their Quarterly Target Review and reported improvement in 46% of their processes measures quarter over quarter. This organization has dramatically shifted its culture to one of transparency, accountability, problem solving, and shared success.
All in all, I have never seen anything change culture as effectively and as positively as changing an Association’s management system.
Next week, the final post on this 10-part series on Association culture.
