Thanks For Playing

Friday Top 5

2012-01-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

I've got some crazy travel coming up, so T4P will be going on a brief hiatus (probably just a week). Top 5 Things That Are GREAT About Me Taking a Break:

You'll have ample time to read all the other amazing association bloggers out there. Need a place to start? Check out the Acronym blog roll.
I'll come back charged up with a bunch of new thoughts and ideas to write about.
Breaks are good for the soul.
You can always check out Carpe Annum, my picture a day Tumblr, if you start to go through withdrawal.
How can you miss me if I won't go away?

See you in a week or so...

What Is Your Brand?

2012-01-26T09:59:00.000-05:00

It's not your logo or your colors or your font. Those things are your brand IMAGE, but they aren't your brand.

Your brand is an idea...a feeling...an experience.

To quote David Ogilvy: brand is "the intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it's advertised."

Think about that: intangible - attributes - reputation.

What you think your brand is doesn't matter. What matters is what your audience thinks it is.

And all of us good little marketers nod our heads in agreement with the above. Yet we consistently talk about brand and act in ways that indicate that what we really believe is that brand is something *we* determine and *we* control and that *we* can change from anything to anything at will.

And that's just wrong.

You can't control your brand directly.

What you can do is act consistently in a way that supports the thoughts, images, and most importantly, emotions and experiences you want to be.

What can you do today to find out what your audience really thinks of you? What's one action you can take to help move that perception into closer alignment with what you'd like it to be?

What I'm Reading

2012-01-25T13:57:00.001-05:00

Need fundraising tips? One of my organization's former corporate partners writes a great blog on this topic, Fundraising Fundamentals, you should check out.
Facebook is changing big time, again - is your organization ready?
Jamie Notter breaks down what generational differences can and can't tell us.
Another great piece from Jamie Notter on how conflict affects decision making.
Speaking of decision making, great advice (via Vinay Kumar): just do the next right thing.
SEO myths debunked.
Facebook: creating a home for the marginalized?
Running out of ideas for your brand to post on FB?
The last of the “for 2012” tips, I promise, these on making work more enjoyable.
Help! We're Being Disrupted! It's behind the Technology Review subscription wall, but given that it's $25 a year and that I'm constantly singing its praises, what are you waiting for?
What is the cost of being you versus the cost of NOT being you?
Recognizing it a little late, but fantastic post by my friend Hecate about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
FB expands the “like."
Just in case you missed the great #assnchat Nikki Jeske (aka @Affiniscape) moderated recently, she's also blogged about it: What inspires you?
Speaking of inspiration, I've been re-reading a lot of TC Boyle recently. Right now, I'm on The Inner Circle, his fictionalized account of the research team around Alfred Kinsey.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

2012-01-24T10:08:00.000-05:00

The title of the fourth book in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "So long, and thanks for all the fish" is the message the intellectually-superior-to-humans dolphins leave as they depart Earth just before the Vogons show up to demolish it to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Don't worry - the dolphins save the day by constructing a duplicate Earth and transporting everything from the original Earth onto it before the Vogons destroy the original Earth, thus saving the human race.

So what does this have to do with associations?

What happens to your members when they retire from the industry your association serves?

Do you offer them nothing more than active professional benefits at an active professional price? Do you kick them out because they no longer meet the standards of membership?

Or do you provide ways for them to move to an emerita/us status and stay engaged in different ways that make sense to people who've stepped back from active day to day involvement in the profession?

What might that look like? Has your association been trying to launch a mentoring program? Most mentoring programs suffer from too many prospective padawans and not enough Jedi masters (to mix my sci-fi metaphors for a moment). Retired members and young members are a match made in heaven (or at least on Tatooine) for cross-mentoring. Are you short volunteers who can help with the doing, not just the planning and issuing of orders? Your emerita/us members have time and expertise. Do you need people who can help orient new members? Trust me, your staff doesn't know what members need to know, but other members do. Are you trying to run a fundraising campaign and need people to make initial contacts? Your retired members can give, use their Rolodexes to help you identify prospects, and use their career's worth of contacts to open doors.

Don't leave your retirees with no option but to say, "So long, and thanks for all the fish!" Find ways to engage their expertise in and passion for your industry or profession in ways that make sense for them.

Always the Last to Know: Tool Roundup

2012-01-23T13:01:00.000-05:00

OK, sure, we're in mid-January, but this was too good not to share: Ray vanHilst's 2011 holiday best productivity and tech tools roundup. Bonus? Most are freemium tools. Thanks for sharing, Ray!

Friday Top 5

2012-01-20T11:22:00.000-05:00

One surprising (and good) unintended consequence of this year's New Year's resolution has been that, in an effort to find interesting and different things to photograph every day, I've gotten much more dedicated to taking a break to take a walk mid-day. If this isn't something you do on a regular basis, I highly recommend it. Top 5 great things about taking a stroll at lunch:

Apparently, sitting all day is killing us. A lunchtime walk gets you up and out.
Fresh air.
Sunshine (especially important during the shortened days of winter).
Chance to clear your head after the morning and plan the rest of your day.
That colleague you wanted to tell off or argument you wanted to start? Have that conversation in your head and return to your office serene.

The Birth of a Word

2012-01-19T07:18:00.000-05:00

Very cool TED talk by Deb Roy about data and how we learn language.

SOPA Blackout Day

2012-01-18T00:01:00.000-05:00

Thanks for Playing is participating in a national online blackout on January 18th, 2012 in opposition of both the PROTECT-IP and SOPA bills.
If these bills pass, the U.S. government will have the ability to block any website—including any funding partners and external websites that link to the blocked website—based on accusation alone from a copyright holder.

Go to AmericanCensorship.org to learn more about these bills and how our Internet freedoms are at risk.

Success with Member Get a Member?

2012-01-17T13:07:00.000-05:00

I'm working ASAE's Membership Development Committee this year, and we're looking for your most amazing MGM campaigns. Have you done something a little unusual or out of the ordinary that had great results? We'd love to hear about it (and potentially steal it, of course), so share in the comments.

Friday Top 5

2012-01-13T10:39:00.000-05:00

Monday is the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Many of us will be off work, and there are lots of things you could do with the free day: clean out your garage, watch some of the movies in your Netflix queue, shop the sales, visit the monument if you're in the DC area and haven't yet (hint hint)...or you could participate in the National Day of Service.

A lot of the big organized projects that require preregistration (like those with Greater DC Cares) are closed at this point. Top five ways YOU can still get involved:

Go to the service day site and plug in your ZIP code under "Find a Project" - there are still plenty of options out there (I found 39 attached to my own ZIP code).
Pick up trash on your block.
Call a local shelter or soup kitchen, ask what supplies they're currently short on, go buy them, and drop them off.
Drop in on an elderly neighbor and ask if s/he needs any errands run or chores done.
If you're in the DC area, go to the Greater DC Cares site and check out their ongoing volunteer projects. Although they're most known for the Big Three Servathons (MLK Day, spring which will be April 20-21 this year, and September 11), they have volunteer projects all year long. A good choice for January? It's National Mentoring Month, so you could sign up to mentor at-risk youth or, through ASAE, a young professional in association management.

Image credit: me!

Do We REALLY Know What Our Members Need?

2012-01-12T10:02:00.000-05:00

For ONCE I was able to participate in #assnchat this week! KiKi was taking the week off, so Nikki Jeske (aka "Affiniscape") hosted. Nikki did a great job, but I thought her closing question was particularly good:

[Q7] What's one thing you could do TODAY to better serve your members? Go do it! #assnchat
— Affiniscape, Inc. (@affiniscape) January 10, 2012

And....there was silence. And this was in the midst of a hoppin' #assnchat. Which I think was really informative. I don't think we know the answer to that question. I think, if most of us association professionals were honest with ourselves, we'd admit that we're so insulated from our members that we don't know what they need. We know what WE THINK they need, but we don't truly know what they think they need.

So my real A7 is: find ways to have more interaction w mem so I can answer that question from place of knowledge #assnchat
— Elizabeth Engel (@ewengel) January 10, 2012

Of course, that begs the further question: how? How do you - how do I - ensure that meaningful member interaction between large numbers of our members and large percentages of our staff takes place on a regular basis? And how do we capture the knowledge that results?

I don't know the answer to this - but I damn well am going to try to find out.

What I'm Reading

2012-01-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

Big list this week:

Good advice for all of us: take it easy on yourself and others.
Avoid these common networking mistakes.
Tips to get more people sharing your blog posts.
Jay Daughtry's innovation lessons from football - love it!
The App Fallacy. (I feel compelled to point out that Lindy Dreyer said it first.)
Fantastic advice for young and aspiring leaders.
10 New Year's resolutions for fundraisers (you could swap out "member" for "donor," and they're equally applicable to association professionals).
The most annoying business terms of 2011.
Stefanie Reeves's 7 lessons from 2011.
Shelly Alcorn's 5 terms for 2012.
Vinay Kumar reminds us that, in order to have space to say "yes," sometimes we have to say "no" first.
120 social media terms you should know. (Actually you probably do already know all or most of these, but this is a convenient collection of definitions when you have to explain something to someone else.)
What stories are - and aren't - we telling ourselves? And why?
Deirdre Reid recommends some great new habits for 2012.
MIT's Technology Review has a fascinating piece about privacy in a world without walls (login required).
Are we reaching a social media saturation point? Maybe – here’s some good advice to make sure your ratio of signal to noise remains strong.
5 challenges for nonprofits in 2012, via the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Jeffrey Cufaude, facilitator extraordinaire, is going to be examining the concept of facilitation every Friday in 2012 to "help you change how you think, and ultimately, change the consequences you help create."
Solid Google+ advice for nonprofit brands.
After having recently re-read Julia Child's My Life in France, it only seemed natural to move on to re-reading Julie & Julia. I have to say, I was really disappointed with the movie adaptation. Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci were fantastic as Julia and Paul Child, and I normally love Amy Adams, but I thought she did a lousy job as Julie Powell. It seemed like they were trying to make Julie Powell "nicer" for the movie (cutting down on the drinking, swearing, and Silence of the Lambs jokes), and all they succeeded in doing was removing her edge and making her whiny. Anywho, the book remains good fun.

Here Comes Clay Shirky

2012-01-10T10:34:00.000-05:00

This is it: my final post in my irregular "What I highlighted and why while reading Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody" series:

"Open source doesn't reduce the likelihood of failure, it reduces the cost of failure; it essentially gets failure for free."

Shirky, chapter 8, p. 246

"...in a world where anyone can try anything, even the risky stuff can be tried eventually."

"In the open source world, trying something is often cheaper than making a formal decision about whether to try it."

Shirky, chapter 8, p. 249

There's an important point here about the sunk cost of failure - when you've spent a ton of time and money studying whether or not to try something and discussing whether or not to try something, if you finally do decide to try it, there's that much more pressure to succeed. Not only do you need the thing itself to work, but you need it to work well enough to make up for the opportunity cost of all the time you spent discussing and studying and dithering.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying (and I don't think Shirky is either) you should always just go with your gut and only your gut, data and debate and consideration be damned. But what if we flipped the decision model? Instead of killing ideas and energy and momentum with study after study and piles of data, what if we decided by doing a broad survey of the available information, going with our intuition on the right decision, and only if failure is sufficiently costly, do a deeper data dive for quantitative support of our decisions.

I think this would get us to faster, and I'd like to argue, better decisions. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. Data can get you to the decisions that are an extension of what you're already doing, but it can't get you to the imaginative leap you need to make for capital C-hange and capital I-nnovation.

Always the Last to Know: Flavors.me

2012-01-09T13:45:00.000-05:00

Flavors.me is yet another attempt at a truly functional social media hub, allowing you to manage all accounts/presences in one place.

Both Joe Flowers and Maddie Grant are using it. Anyone else? What do you think?

Friday Top 5

2012-01-06T10:51:00.000-05:00

Curmudgeon time. We just got through "we can't get anything done because it's the holidays and the kids are off school" and people are already starting to talk about "we can't do anything in weeks X and Y this spring because it's spring break, and we have to take the kids on vacation." Depending on the percentage of your staff with school-age kids, 50% (or more) of your office could be out over the course of a few weeks, because their kids are all probably in one of a few school districts.

I realize my perspective is skewed by not having kids. But I also *was* a kid, and I only remember once in my entire childhood that my family took a trip during spring break (a long weekend in Washington, DC, when I was 14).

I know we're in a different world now than we were in the mid-80s. However, for those of you who do have kids and don't want to drive your childfree colleagues crazy with yet another series of weeks lost to "but the kids are off school!", I have a few suggestions:

A week at Grandma's.
Day camp.
Hire a neighborhood teenager to watch the kids for a week - s/he could probably use the cash.
Is one of your kids at least 14? Let her/him watch her/himself and the siblings. Use random calls to the landline phone and threats of hiring a babysitter and embarrassing them by telling all their friends as a check if you're concerned.
Are your kids working age? Encourage them to use the week to get more hours at their after school jobs.

Harumph.

:)

Meme Time: Changing the World in 2012

2012-01-05T10:23:00.000-05:00

Maddie Grant has thrown down the gauntlet of the first meme challenge (that I'm aware of) of 2012: How am I going to change the world in 2012?

The responses are already starting. I particularly like Jeffrey Cufaude's reframing of the problem: start by changing your own world and maybe you'll be able to change THE world.

What's my answer?

I've long believed that when the same thing keeps popping up for you over and over, you should probably start paying attention, since clearly the universe is tapping you on the shoulder.

What's been tapping me on the shoulder lately?

Diversity and inclusion.

First there was Joe Gerstandt's amazing Fly Your Freak Flag session at ASAE11.

Then Jeffrey Cufaude wrote a fantastic blog post that drew a ton of comments and that, rumor has it, is about to appear as a full lengthe article in an upcoming issue of Associations Now.

Those two inspired this post.

Then I had the chance to meet the amazing Constance Thompson from ASCE at the October idea swap, which also provided food for thought and, with a little luck, a session at an upcoming ASAE conference.

Then, of course, the calendar year ended with this.

How *are* we doing on D&I in associations? Short answer? Not well.

And I can't change that by myself. And neither can you.

But I can light one candle. And so can you. So that's what I'm going to do: do what's in my power to shine a spotlight on diversity and inclusion and where we fail and how we can pick ourselves back up and try again.

Taking a page from Shelly Alcorn's blogging book:

Need a little inspiration on how you're going to change the world? Check out these apps and sites for some ideas.

On to the tagging:

KiKi L'Italien
Maggie McGary
Eric Lanke
Vinay Kumar
I'm re-tagging Acronym/Joe Rominiecki and encouraging them to recruit guest bloggers who maybe don't have their own blogs to weigh in
My dear friend Hecate

Additionally, I'm tagging a few people who haven't written in a while to help jump start their blogging in 2012:

Y'all are it!

What I'm Reading

2012-01-04T11:37:00.000-05:00

This week's reading is focused on tips to help us all be more productive this year:

Ramp up your productivity at the office.
Did you know that multitasking costs you more IQ points than being stoned?
Zen out to get more done.
5 things you should STOP doing (gotta clear some space).
Even more productivity tips.
Want to REALLY focus? (To be honest, my goals aren't usually this clear, and so far that hasn't really been a problem for me, but it does remind me of the process a close friend of mine follows, so who knows?)
Throw out 50 things. (I would argue that you might want to sell, donate, freecycle or recycle instead, but I am definitely a fan of getting rid of things you don't need or don't use.)

New Year, New Goals

2012-01-03T12:34:00.000-05:00

You know it - it's time for the annual New Year's Resolution. Missed the backstory on how this works? You can get it here.

After much consideration, I've stolen an idea from a good friend who used this to document a year abroad: Taking (at least) one picture a day.

Why?

Well, I tend not to take photos.

OK, that's a lie.

I NEVER remember to take photos. I have a very nice, small Canon Powershot camera. And my iPhone4 takes decent pictures, too. I always have my phone with me, and the camera's small enough that it will fit in a coat pocket or a reasonably sized (i.e., not an evening bag) purse. And I NEVER remember to take photos.

Consequently, most major events in my life since I moved out of my parents' house and my dad stopped covering photo duties for me are undocumented. I'd like to change that.

Also, I'd like to become a better observer of the world around me. I suspect that having to take a picture of at least one thing a day will make me, to quote Ferris Bueller, slow down and look around.

Also, this.

Want to follow my photographic journey? I'm documenting the whole thing on Tumblr.

What do you want to learn this year? How are you going to stretch yourself?

Happy New Year!

2011-12-30T10:09:00.000-05:00

However you choose to celebrate - on the town with a huge crowd, with just your closest loved ones, or something in between, I wish you a joyful New Year's celebration, and health, happiness, and excellent adventures in 2012!

(Back Tuesday)

Image credit: El Dorado Cocktail Lounge

Book Review: Humanize

2011-12-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

If you're one of my regular readers - or someone who knows me IRL - you probably know of my disdain for business books. Generally, they state the obvious or the *painfully* obvious at a fifth-grade reading level, with LARGE print on pages with LOTS of white space. I firmly believe that, with very few exceptions, reading them actually makes you dumber.

So I don't say this lightly:Humanize is genius.

Authors Maddie Grant and Jamie Notter use the lens of social media to examine our "modern" business, management, and leadership practices and find them au courant...with the Industrial Revolution. At that time, perhaps a mechanical view of the world made sense, or at least more sense than it does now. But social media has spurred a revolution in the way people relate to each other on the individual, micro, and macro levels. The genie's loose, and he's not going back.

And while we shouldn't - and in many cases don't - even want to go back, our organizations are not keeping pace. Our focus on best practices (imitation) over innovation, a strategic planning process that assumes that the future is knowable and unchanging, human resources management that relies on hierarchy, org charts and knowing (and keeping to) your place, and leadership that's viewed as some sort of "secret sauce" that individuals either have (so they get to be at the top of the org chart) or don't (so they're one of of the proles) keeps us stuck in those old systems and patterns that are killing us.

Maddie and Jamie go on to identify four key qualities that can help our organizations be more human (or, more accurately, stop trying to force organizations made up of people into an assembly line mentality): being open, trustworthy, generative, and courageous. In the meat of the book, they examine how these four qualities, expressed through the mediums of organizational culture, internal process/structure, and individual behavior, have the power to create organizations that, to quote p. 247, "inspire us and bring out the best in us."

If business people read, accept and implement the ideas contained in Humanize around these qualities and how they can be fostered at the personal, process, and organizational level (hardly a given of course), I believe this book has the power to RADICALLY transform our organizations and, just possibly, save the world of associations in the process.

What I'm Reading

2011-12-28T10:45:00.000-05:00

Lots of 2011 roundups/advice for 2012 this week:

Top social media lessons from 2011: part 1 and part 2.
Acronym's take on the best association blogging of 2011.
Speaking of blogging, some fascinating stats on the state of the blogosphere.
Jay Daughtry's 5 words for 2012.
Is your association trying to do too much?
Some good advice for focus in 2012.
Have you checked out Talent Anarchy yet? You really should - here's a great post to start with.
Why do private communities fail (and what can you do to fix it)? (warning: you may have to login to the ASAE website to get this)
I finished A Visit from the Goon Squad and really loved it. It was an interesting way to construct a novel. It was kind of a collection of short stories. The cast of characters was the same throughout, but each person got a chapter/story in which s/he was the main character, after which s/he served as a peripheral character in the others' stories. Some were set in the past, some were set in the present, and some were set in a somewhat dystopian near future. Punk rock was an overarching theme, as were the themes of disillusionment, isolation, the breakdown of society and relationships, and anarchy contained in the music itself. In a complete change of pace, I'm now re-reading Julia Child's My Life in France.

Is This Really the Best We Can Do?

2011-12-27T09:52:00.000-05:00

I just got the latest issue of CEO Update (v. XXI, #537, December 16 and 30, 2011) in the mail. Either as a result of the slowdown in hiring or the changing needs of the market or both, CEO Update is a lot more than just job openings these days. They've expanded their coverage to do some actual reporting on the state of the association industry.

So I open it up to the centerfold, which is the Top 25 CEO Quotes of 2011.

25 people

2 women

23 men

0 people of color

...

For those who don't want to do the math at home, that's 8% women, 92% men, 0% non-white (that last one was pretty easy to calculate).

When I was actively supporting the CAE study program (2004 - 2010), we used to tell candidates to plan to answer questions on the exam from the perspective of a 65 year old white man. In 2009 (? possibly 2008), someone got offended, so we removed that from our advice. In retrospect, I think we did the candidates a disservice, because even though it may not be PC to point it out, it *remains* true.

Do I sound pissed? Good, because I am.

And I'm not just talking about throwing in some faux-United Colors of Benetton "diverse" stock photo here. This goes deeper. The CEO Update editors sat down and thought: "What were the best CEO insights of the year?" And they came up with insights from 25 white people.

Some worry that associations as a concept may be at risk due to social and technological changes. I think that if, after all these years, this is the best we can do, maybe we deserve to be extinct.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-22T10:59:00.000-05:00

I wish you and your loved ones a joyful season of light!

(Back Tuesday)

What I'm Reading

2011-12-21T11:39:00.001-05:00

In a bit of circular blogging, I pointed out a study that Eric Lanke read and then wrote a post about and now I'm linking back to "What Battle Are You Fighting?".
Are your best staff members eying the door? These are probably the reasons why.
Bold marketing resolutions for 2012 (I particularly like the one about mobile websites).
5 common strategy mistakes AND the fixes.
Looking to hire a community manager? Look here (the part about looking to nonprofits because we’re used to managing volunteers with no resources is both funny and a little sad).
I'm still working my way through Humanize and, spoiler alert, I think it's transformative. More when I finish it.

TED Talks: Filter Bubbles

2011-12-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

Automated filtering is great, right? It saves us all a huge amount of time.

Maybe not. Maybe what it does is put us in an echo chamber.

Always the Last to Know: Embedding Tweets

2011-12-19T13:28:00.000-05:00

This is information that would have been useful to me Friday, when I went back through my #Tech11 tweet stream to find my top takeaways, but did you know that you can embed tweets just like you do YouTube videos or Slideshare presentations?

Webmonkey shows you how.

Friday Top 5

2011-12-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

Today's Friday Top 5 is about #Tech11, too - my top takeaways.

In the fishbowl session on social CRM led by Lindy Dreyer in which Lindy pointed out that association websites are transitioning from being places where we push information out to members into community hubs, Polly Karopwicz observed that our members ARE the hub.
In order to get a full picture of member interactions, we have to track ALL data back to one place (AMS/CRM makes the most sense). Intellectually, we all know this, but how many of us are actually doing it? Bill Walker tweeted about an association with 32 separate databases and I'd be willing to bet a substantial sum of money that that's not unusual.
In Maddie Grant's blogging session, Jamie Notter pointed out that bloggers can't predict what's going to get comments, so the best way to deal with that is to quit worrying about it and write with passion. Amen!
In his mobile debate session with Lindy Dreyer, Jeff de Cagna advised us to "Consider the weird." He pointed out that we shouldn't necessarily DO the weird, but considering it opens up our minds to the possibility of great ideas.
And I loved Luke Wroblewski's 3 key points from his opening keynote on mobile:

Growth in mobile presents opportunity
Constraints of mobile force focus
Capabilities of mobile lead to innovation

(What? That's totally one point!)

Jeff de Cagna also observed that associations are "pre-digital" in our approach to the world. Joe Rominiecki followed on that same point with a great post-event piece at Acronym: Associations are "in denial" about technology.

Finally an observation: there was a lot of talk about mobile and how it represents a change of mindset. I wonder if, a la Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, it actually represents a change of worldview?

From the Humanize chat

2011-12-15T10:13:00.000-05:00

Wow, the #ASAETech chat on Maddie Grant and Jamie Notter's new book, Humanize, was almost two weeks ago, and I'm just getting around to sharing my thoughts. Hey, #Tech11 had us ALL booked solid last week, right?

For those who aren't yet familiar, the book is about transforming our organizations from a mechanized paradigm to a human paradigm by being open, generative, trustworthy, and courageous. I'm reading the book now and will likely have more to write about it as I progress, but for now, a few things struck me during the December 2 chat.

Lindy Dreyer made a great observation during the chat: being open is something most of us aren't allowed to practice at lower levels, so when we move up in organizations, we've never worked that way before. I think she's right, and it applies to the other key elements of being human in the workplace as well. Why do the bad systems perpetuate themselves? Because more experienced workers train newer workers and pass down "we have always done it (or not done it) that way." This may present an opportunity, as un-mentored Gen-Xers move into leadership positions as the Boomers start retiring (some day). (That's assuming any of us resist the lure of starting our own gigs long enough to be available for those leadership positions, of course.) We haven't been as fully inculcated to being closed and opaque, so there might be a chance to break out of this pattern.

Maddie Grant observed that perhaps the reason there's so much discomfort with social media in workplace is because it lights our passions, and we're not comfortable with passion and emotion in the workplace. Of course, this immediately made me think of Joe Gerstandt's work, and his fantastic "Fly Your Freak Flag"session at the ASAE Annual Meeting in August. The upside of forcing people to keep their passions out of the workplace is, obviously, things run more smoothly if everyone's dispassionate. But there's a downside, too: you will NEVER get people's best efforts if all your incentives point to smooth efficiency. Passion is messy, but it's also where the juice for good ideas lives.

Jamie Notter provided my new favorite saying: "Proceed until apprehended." It expresses the old "ask forgiveness, not permission" idea, but far more succinctly and elegantly. LOVE!

Finally, the closing keynoter at #Tech11 was one of the authors of the seminal 1999 work The Cluetrain Manifesto. As a result, I popped over to their website and re-read the 95 Theses (scroll down to get to them). Working my way through Humanize now, I realized: we've been saying the same damn thing for 10+ years.

Is anyone listening?

What I'm Reading

2011-12-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

KiKi's list of apps for busy association execs.
Punk Views on Social Media is now public, which means you can lurk without getting kicked out! (not that I would know anything about that)
12 things you didn't know Facebook could do. (OK, I'm guessing THIS crowd pretty much knew about many of these, but maybe not all.)
It's not about sales, it's about what you're selling.
Want to wreck your professional reputation? Tech Republic can help.
Why is collaboration so damn hard?
Great ways to show your staff some love.
Shelly Alcorn dares you to have a big vision.
Sometimes, more business and less fun can be the right approach.
A mobile app is not a mobile strategy.
Conversely, not EVERYTHING needs a big fancy strategy.
To fix work, add more conflict.
There IS no ROI to social media marketing. But that's OK, because there's no ROI of marketing period.
No one makes sense anymore (a funny take on some of my own use of language pet peeves).
NO MORE NEW SOCNETS! Amen.
Social media trends for 2012.
Is Facebook stealing something important from us?
Still reading A Visit from the Goon Squad (with HUG and Tech last week and the performance over the weekend, my leisure reading time has been a bit limited), and I've started Humanize, so watch this space for my thoughts on it as well.

What the Tech?

2011-12-13T10:21:00.000-05:00

I usually do this earlier, but we were working on the slides up until the last minute. Below you'll find the slides from my presentation with Andrew Hanelly, Polly Karpowicz, and Maggie McGary at the ASAE Technology Conference last week:

What the Tech Is Going on with Your Online Communications

View more presentations from Elizabeth Engel.

We also had some great resources listed in our handout:

The Altimeter social media measurement compass, aka "what REALLY matters - and it's not raw number of fans."
The Marketing Sherpa 2011 Social Marketing Benchmark Report. It's only the executive summary, but it's still good stuff. You can buy the full report for big money.
Google Analytics.
Google Webmaster Central. Excellent pile o' free resources.
Google Double Click. Online ad server.
Google SEO Starter Guide. They don't tell you ALL the secrets, but they can definitely help you do better.
Crazy Egg. Visual analytics!
Feng-GUI. Heat mapping!
Tweet Reach. Find the impact of your tweets.
Facebook Insights. Everything you ever wanted to know about your FB page.

Always the Last to Know: 2011 Top 10

2011-12-12T12:58:00.000-05:00

The end of year wrap ups are beginning, and ReadWriteWeb recently profiled the top 10 consumer web products of 2011. Most of these have already made it into Always the Last to Know, but it was interesting to see which RWW thought were the best 10, and why.

Friday Top 5

2011-12-02T11:50:00.000-05:00

Next week is #Tech11, aka the ASAE Technology Conference, aka the annual association geekfest. Even though I'm 4+ years removed from day-to-day IT support, OF COURSE I'm going. Top 5 Things I'm Looking Forward to:

The Higher Logic Users' Group Super Forum. I can't wait to swap stories and hear all the cool things you all are doing with your member communities, so I can steal them for MINE!
Presenting with Maggie McGary, Polly Karpowicz, and Andrew Hanelly on Wednesday, December 7 at 1:30 pm. Come check us out at "What the Tech?" and chat with us about what key metrics you should be tracking and why.
The YAP party. You DO NOT want to miss this. For realz. Wednesday night, December 7, 9 pm, RFD. Wear your best game day gear, and come ready to dance!
Hosting a bunch of cool association peeps for some NFL gridiron action on Sunday afternoon, December 4. Didn't get the invite? Want to join us? Just email me for the details.
Catching up with even more cool association peeps, local and not-so-local, I don't see often enough.

(Also, I won't be posting next week, as I'll be at the HUG Super Forum and the Tech Conference. But I'll definitely do a recap post the week of December 12 to share what I learned. In the meantime, follow the hashtag to see what's going on.)

"Done is the engine of more."

2011-12-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

I love a good infographic, and Shelly Alcorn tweeted a link to a great one on the creative process yesterday.

All of the points are relevant for associations, I think, but the above one, which is listed last, seems to me to be the most important.

A few months ago, I was having a discussion with some smart association peeps, and we got talking about the fact that, in membership organizations, it's not so much that we fear failure for its own sake. What we really fear is criticism - from our colleagues and bosses, sure, but even more so from our members and boards.

Because of that, we're change-averse, decision-averse, and completion-averse. If I keep working on a project forever, and never roll it out, no one can ever find anything wrong with it, right?

The thing is, all those partially completed projects that should've been done in 6 weeks but drag on for 6 months weigh us down. If it's never finished, you never get to check that one off and move on to the next project or idea. You never even get to move on to the 1.2 version of the current project.

We get so caught up in the "everything has to be PERFECT" mindset that we shut out our members and their ideas and opinions, and make them passive consumers rather than active partners.

What if, rather than waiting until we had everything just so to roll out our new member service, we went to our members with: "This is a new service we're considering. We don't have all the kinks worked out yet, so we know some of you will want to wait to check it out until it's in a more completed form. And that's fine. But for those of you who are willing to try something that may not be 100% functioning yet, we'd love it if you could test it and give us your feedback so we can make sure that, once it is fully ready, it truly meets your needs and is easy for you to use."?

What would that world look like? How much more engaged would your members be? How would that change their perception of ownership in your association? How would that impact relationships between staff, members and board? How much faster could you move? How much more could you provide for your members?

What I'm Reading

2011-11-30T09:30:00.000-05:00

Banish typos forever! Well, OK, probably not, but if you follow Grammar Girl's advice, you should at least cut down on typos.
Top reasons your social media policies are backfiring.
KiKi L'Italien on Google+ and association pareidolia. Bonus? New vocab word!
Are you using the cognitive diversity you already have?
Want to lead? Get curious.
Just started A Visit from the Goon Squad. I'm not far enough into it to offer any kind of commentary other than that I love the writing style and use of language, and it seems like it's going to be an interesting plot.

She Tells Two Friends...And They Tell Two Friends...

2011-11-29T10:50:00.001-05:00

Remember that old Faberge shampoo commercial, where the hook was that the shampoo was SO amazing that a woman told two friends about it, and then they each told two friends, etc., until the screen was covered with little boxes containing pictures of female heads with awesomely feathered hair?

Witness word of mouth at work.

The exact number offered differs, but we've all heard the old trope that someone who has a good experience tells a small number of other people, while someone who has a bad experience tells a MUCH LARGER number of other people.

For associations, the customer service we offer our members is a huge source of word of mouth, positive and negative.

So how can you make sure your customer service is in tip-top shape?

First of all, even if you're "senior," don't take yourself out of the loop. It's easy to say: "Let the call center/junior staff handle it. I'm too busy/important/expensive." Wrong. The day-to-day treatment your members receive IS your organization to them. No matter what super-important, high-level project you're working on, if your members have a lousy experience every time they call, email, or otherwise ask for help, they aren't going to care.

Second, empower your staff. Tell all your front-line staff that they have the authority to do whatever seems fair to them to resolve a member's problem without fear of punishment. And back that up. Yeah, they're going to make mistakes. And you'll want to make sure that post-game analysis is part of your process, so you can talk through what your staff chose and whether there might be an even better way to respond the next time. But seriously, your word on "no punishment" has to be IRON CLAD. If it is, I guarantee that beautiful things will happen between your staff and members.

Third, secret shop, or better yet, ask trusted members to do so for you and report back.

Fourth, ask your members. We all survey, actually probably over-survey, our members about EVERYTHING. And we love those Likert scales, because we can make all sorts of pretty charts and graphs from them. But ranking your conference location or the quality of a webinar speaker or the ease of your renewal process on a 1-5 scale is way less important than this one question, that should be on every survey you ever send:

"If there was ONE THING we could do to make your experience with better, what would it be?"

Yep, that's an open-ended comment box type question, which means you won't be able to make a nice graph out of it that you can show to your boss or your board and compare across time. And 90+% of the time, it will be empty when your survey is submitted. But 10% of the time, you are going to get fantastic intel about what your association could be doing that would make a real difference for your members and other audiences. And isn't that why you exist in the first place?

Always the Last to Know: #CyberMonday

2011-11-28T11:55:00.001-05:00

No, I don't actually mean I didn't know about Cyber Monday until today. But this is a community participation Always the Last to Know.

Aside from Amazon.com's one click ordering, my favorite online shopping tip is to Google " coupon code" before ordering anything. Who doesn't love getting a discount?

Now you! What are YOUR favorite online shopping tools and tips?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T09:51:00.000-05:00

I was trying to find a good video or audio recording of this, but no luck. So you'll just get the words:

Our hands will work for peace and justice

Our hands will work to heal the land

Gather 'round the harvest table

Let us feast, and bless the land

"Harvest Chant" by Libana

What did you harvest this year? Have you given thanks?

(back Monday)

What I'm Reading

2011-11-23T13:51:00.000-05:00

Two great posts on committees, the first from Eric Lanke and then a response from Jamie Notter.
Think your staff loves working at your association and would NEVER leave? Think again.
Turns out, Google+ doesn’t necessarily solve all the privacy issues in social networks.
Heinz shows us how to turn those lemons into lemonade, so quit being so afraid of something going wrong!
Using QR Codes - ur doin it RITE!
22 people and organizations you should be paying attention to.
Boomers: please don't start any more nonprofits. Please.
How to offer feedback that the receiver can truly hear and use.
Set up your Google+ brand page yet? Now what? John Haydon can help.
I'm also reading Witches of East End. I can't remember how it ended up on my reading wish list, but I gather it's the launch of a new series from the same author who writes the Blue Bloods series (which I haven't read). It seems like it's the author's first attempt to start writing for adults. She should've stuck to young adult novels. It's poorly written but decently plotted, so I'm sticking with it, but I doubt I'll bother with anything else by Melissa de la Cruz.

Do Your Incentives Make Sense?

2011-11-22T11:23:00.000-05:00

I had the chance to have breakfast yesterday some membership professionals who are new to ASAE. Their organization has both individual and group membership, and they were looking for ideas on ways to increase both recruitment and retention.

We had a great conversation and shared lots of potential ideas they could pursue. But one thing jumped out to me immediately. Their group memberships (80% of their members) are paid by companies. Their individual memberships are almost universally paid by the individuals. And they cost more and offer fewer benefits.

Spot the problem?

Now the association has good reasons to want people to join as groups. Having the entire team as members is better for the member organizations, and the administration is easier for the association. So just flipping that equation - dropping the price for individuals and offering them more in the way of benefits - would be counter-productive.

But they will want to increase individual membership.

So what we discussed as a solution was to find what's common among the individual members that's not among the members that join as a group. Are their companies smaller? Are they from different industry segments? Are they earlier in the profession or their careers? Once the association can figure out what makes those individual members different (why are they joining as individuals rather than a group in the first place?), they can develop offerings that address those different needs. If they're able to do this carefully and well, charging more, less, or the same as the group memberships won't matter - the members will segment themselves appropriately based on their needs.

Do the incentives you offer your audiences make sense from the perspective of their needs and your own as their membership association? If not, what are you going to do about it?

Always the Last to Know: CrazyEgg, Revisited

2011-11-21T11:50:00.001-05:00

I've been looking up resources for a presentation at the upcoming ASAE Technology Conference(you will be there, right?), and I had the opportunity to take a second look at CrazyEgg. When it was in beta - and free - it just provided heat mapping for any website (or really, any graphic you provided it), to help you understand where your audience's eyes would go first.

In the interim, they've expanded it into a full visual web analytics tool to help organizations increase conversion rates specifically (like, say, membership and conference registration perhaps?). It's not going to take the place of Google Analytics, but it provides an immediate, simple, visual way to understand what's happening - or more precisely, not happening - on your call to action pages. Sweet!

Friday Top 5

2011-11-18T12:37:00.000-05:00

Lots of people have been doing the "30 days of gratitude" meme on Facebook. I'm taking a pass on that, but it is definitely the time of year to express thanks. Of course there's the standard "family, friends, job, health" etc., but I do like to think specifically about what I've harvested THIS year. So in no particular order:

I'm thankful for Patuxent Baths & Kitchens and that we finally finished our basement, a project we've wanted to do for 10+ years. Best parts? No cold drafts coming up the open stairs into the kitchen, being able to go down to do the laundry in my bare feet without worrying about getting filthy or stepping on something dangerous, and having private space for overnight guests.
I'm thankful for all the wonderful women I've met and the experiences we've shared at my bellydancing studio. It's brought so many positive things into my life in the past three years I don't even know where to begin.
I'm thankful for the Food Lab crew. You can't beat good friends getting together to experiment with food, eat, drink, laugh, and learn.
I'm thankful that my cat darling Bast was in my life for 16 years, and that when it was time for her to go, she went quickly.
I'm thankful for my enduring love affair with New Orleans. If you've never known what it is to fall truly, madly, deeply and irredeemably in love with a place, get out there and find the place where your heart lives. You won't be sorry.

What are you thankful for THIS year?

PR Issues for Associations

2011-11-17T09:42:00.001-05:00

I had the opportunity to attend a workshop of that same title yesterday morning put on by the local chapter of PRSA downtown.

Our speakers included:

Peter Panepento of the Chronicle of Philanthropy on creating a social media footprint
Tracy Cooley of BIO on the future of association meetings
Mark Neidig of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation on winning the Pepsi challenge
Shashi Bellamkonda of Network Solutions (and general awesomeness) on Google+

The session consisted of round robin roundtables.

I have to admit, I skipped the session on the Pepsi challenge (not relevant to my organization, although it is relevant to our members) in order to spend more time with Shashi. Big geekin'!

Top takeaways included:

LinkedIn is likely the future of business social networking (seriously - check out the Chronicle's LI group, although you will have to wait to be approved for membership).
Google+ is still a niche network (40 million users, mostly social media early adopters, as opposed to FB's 800+ million), but there are good reasons to be on it as a brand: so you don't get brand-jacked (like happened to Bank of America), because it will positively influence your SEO in Google (try Googling Dell), and because it's a great platform to launch campaigns because it's easy to aggregate multimedia.
The association meetings market is changing quickly and radically. We have to be willing to experiment equally radically and be prepared to dump what's not working equally quickly, regardless of internal political support.
Association meetings professionals MUST work with marketing to generate buzz and get bodies in the door.
When it comes to the broadening definitions of what constitutes "news media," trust but verify. Err on the side of being generous with your free press registrations for first timers, but request clips.
Engage media who can't attend your conference through social media. Are you following your organization, profession, or industry's media influencers on Twitter yet?
For smaller events that aren't inherently newsworthy, look for the buzz and try to get it to play in the local media wherever your event takes place.

What have you learned this week?

What I'm Reading

2011-11-16T17:34:00.000-05:00

Little late, but I was out and about all day.

Rebranding? Mashable has some great advice.
Want better open rates? Associations Now has some simple tips.
The social graph is neither. This piece is long, but it's also smart and totally worth it.
Three types of people to fire immediately - can I get an "amen"?
Giving a presentation? Don’t let social media scare you – let it make you better.
Social at work – turns out, it’s actually GenX driving it.
Kill your Klout profile? Maybe.
The most powerful social media measurement tool. You may even already have one.
20 association thought leaders everyone should follow on Twitter. I found some new goodies, and I'll bet you will, too.
Want diversity? Sometimes, you have to make it happen.
Speaking of diversity, have you checked out ASAE's great new report yet?
How to rescue a failing online community.
Smart Blog on social media can’t make its mind up: Google+ is AWESOME! Google+ SUCKS! I’m going to wait until the frenzy dies down to decide.
I'm also reading Gabrielle Hamilton's memoir Blood, Bones & Butter. The first two sections were great - memories of her odd childhood and wild adolescence, how she came to love food and open Prune. The final section has been awful. For her kids' sake, I hope she's not the mad, passive-aggressive harridan she makes herself out to be. I'd just stop reading, but I'm not far from the end and feel committed.

Clay Shirky - Long Time, No See

2011-11-15T10:38:00.001-05:00

I've been doing an intermittent series where I select something I highlighted while reading Here Comes Everybody and then comment on why I highlighted it. Of course, the last time I posted in this series was in July, so I'll forgive you if you had NO idea it was going on. Hey, there's been a lot of thought-provoking stuff happening in association management the last several months!

Anyway, I'm picking this series back up.

Small Worlds networks mean that people don't simply connect at random. They connect in clusters, ensuring that they interact with the same people frequently, even in large networks. This in turn reduces the Prisoners' Dilemma and helps create social capital.

Shirky, chapter 9, page 222

So what is the Prisonsers' Dilemma? Aside from being the bane of the existence of anyone who ever did graduate school in the social sciences (like yours truly)? It's the basis of game theory, and it elucidates why people tend not to cooperate, even though it would be in both their best interests to do so.

In a nutshell, there are three possible outcomes: both people cooperate, both betray trust, or one cooperates while the other betrays trust. Even though the game is set up so that the optimal total outcome eventuates if both people cooperate, the incentive to betray trust and screw the other person while benefiting yourself is so strong that both people are inclined to betray trust, which leads to both being punished.

So what does this all mean? Basically, humans are not inclined to trust strangers. And with good reason - you don't know them, and they could be bad people who are out to hurt you ("I don't know Mary. Mary could be an axe murderer. No way am I trusting Mary."). However, having a mutual tie, even if it's a relatively weak tie, helps us take the first step to trusting each other, which leads to building trust, which can produce great outcomes as we cooperate and work together ("I don't know Mary. But my colleague Sue knows Mary. I know Sue wouldn't be friends with an axe murderer. Therefore, I feel confident that I can meet Mary for coffee without risking life and limb.")

Weak ties are often derided, but they are in fact the foundation of social networks. Where can your weak ties take you? Who have you taken a risk on trusting because of a network connection? What good as come about as a result of that cooperation?

Always the Last to Know: Nextdoor

2011-11-14T10:21:00.000-05:00

Nextdoor is a hyperlocal social network. What does that mean? It allows you to connect with your actual neighbors and share information about your own neighborhood. It's secure and private. Address verification is required, so it really is just your actual neighbors. And it allows people to connect around recommendations, help, advice, local organizing, etc. - only without all the shouting and name-calling of the average ANC meeting.

Friday Top 5

2011-11-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

It's Veteran's Day. Although it's a federal holiday, most of us don't have it off work anymore (myself included). But I still recommend taking a few minutes to think about and thank any veterans you know. So thanks to...

My (deceased) paternal grandfather, who served in the South Pacific in WWII.
My mom's middle brother, who served as an Army nurse in Viet Nam.
My best friend from grad school, who was one of the first wave of Green Berets to go into Afghanistan.
My swing dancing buddy, Cameron, who's been all over, including several stints in Iraq.
My mom's youngest brother, who, although he served during peace time, served voluntarily.

If you have the chance, hug a veteran today!

"PR by Ostrich"

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

Two major scandals have been ALL OVER the news media recently: the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations and the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia accusations.

What do the two have to do with each other?

Cover up.

This is not a screed against Herman Cain, even though I do happen to think he's an idiot - why do people persist in thinking that President of the United States is a good entry-level job in politics? - or against JoePa, even though I think he's morally culpable for knowing what was going on and not doing more to stop it.

What it IS a screed against is the idea that paying people hush money and/or doing the minimum that is "legally required" is EVER a good idea.

The other thing that both of these scandals have in common is that they occurred when the Internet was still relatively in its infancy and social media wasn't even a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg's eye.

So maybe the parties in question - the leadership at the National Restaurant Association and at Penn State - could at least be understood for thinking, "Well, these are, in fact, CRIMES we're talking about here, but we should be able to sweep it far enough under the rug that it will NEVER come to light."

OK, probably not, but you get my point.

How about, instead of lying and denying and spinning and trying to shut people up, both organizations chose to be open, honest, and transparent, and let the chips fall where they may?

Sure, Jerry Sandusky would likely be in jail, and the Nittany Lions would've lost a great linebackers coach. Which is probably a good thing, because the way it's falling out now, it looks like the leadership of the school decided that winning football games was more important than children's safety. Think on that for a minute. Result? The entire leadership of Penn State has completely lost everyone's respect and their own credibility and integrity. And, shortly, their jobs. And JoePa's previously sterling reputation has been irredeemably tarnished.

The National Restaurant Association might have gone through an ugly court case - although realistically, it would've been settled out of court, since that's what almost always happens in sexual harassment cases - and they would've fired Cain and moved on to their next CEO. AFTER THE FIRST GO-ROUND. And then, when all this came out as part of his presidential bid, as it inevitably would, they wouldn't be giving a black eye to the entire association community. They could've pointed back and said: "One woman made allegations. We went before a judge. The case was settled. We fired Cain. End of story." And Cain could've gone on to harass women someplace else, most likely, but the NRA would've been O-U-T.

Look, if burying your head in the sand was EVER a good idea, it's not anymore. Now this kind of behavior, besides being wrong, is just dumb.

Thanks to Shelly Alcorn for the title of this post, derived from an exchange we had on Twitter.

For another take on this, check out Deirdre Reid's post.

What I'm Reading

2011-11-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

Don’t *just* retweet, add something of value.
Smoker? Expect to pay morefor your health insurance soon (no time like the present to quit).
Want happy employees? Forget the raise, just unblock FB (I would argue you should ALSO give them the raise).
The hidden ROI of social media: not sales but savings.
Use improv techniques to create a fantastic customer experience for your members.
Want people to share your stuff? Content alone is not enough.
The 5 employees who are wrecking your business (and they’re probably not great for your association, either).
The 4 myths that are killing you at the office.
I've just started Gabrielle Hamilton's memoir, Blood, Bones and Butter. Hamilton is the well-regarded chef of Prune in NYC. She's also one of the few female "celebrity" chefs. It's starting slow, but I expect good things.

And two reminders:

Don't forget that it's Give 2 the Max day here in DC, so go donate to some worthy organizations.
The Progress U blogger summit goes down tomorrow. I'll miss it, but you should go and there's still time to sign up.

Are you ready to Give to the Max?

2011-11-08T09:35:00.000-05:00

Give to the Max day is TOMORROW. The idea is that it's a one day give-a-thon. Charities have registered to participate (you can see which ones here). People like us are supposed to give to our favorite charity/charities. And that's great by itself.

But wait! There's more!

There are a variety of prizes at stake for organizations that engage the most donors and/or raise the most dollars.

So go check out the list and plan the organization/s you'll be giving to.

Always the Last to Know: Poken

2011-11-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

I know a lot of you - KiKi L'Italien in particular - got here a LONG time before me, but I finally got my first Poken! That's him ---->

One of the exhibitors at this fall's SHSMD conference sponsored them - which was a genius move on their part, since EVERYONE wanted one and so they got EVERYONE's information - and then we all had a blast with them during the event.

Pokens, for those who aren't already in the know, are little devices that allow you to exchange business card information electronically, then download that information into your address book via USB port.

The only downside? They aren't that widely used yet. But they were fantastic as a conference giveaway, because it was a captive audience.

Friday Top 5

2011-11-04T10:44:00.002-04:00

It's Digital Capital Week (aka #DCWEEK), and, once again, I'm too booked to go to anything. But that doesn't mean YOU can't enjoy it. If I could participate, these would be my Top 5 Don't-Miss Events:

Progress U Blogger Summit (can't believe I'm missing this, but I have stuff going on at the office on Thursday I just can't move)
The opening party (TONIGHT and, at last check, there were still some tickets available)
"Miss Representation" screening on Sunday afternoon
Advanced Social Media for Nonprofits on Monday morning
The closing party next Friday

And look for a post on Give To The Max day next week...

For more, see http://digitalcapitalweek.org/

A Little Mid-Week Inspiration

2011-11-03T15:57:00.001-04:00

Get inspired by Steve Jobs' famous Stanford University commencement speech:

What I'm Reading

2011-11-02T08:43:00.000-04:00

I'm off to ASAE's In Honor of Women today to celebrate with "Rising Star" honoree Lauren Wolfe, but I wanted to get this out first.

13 punctuation marks you never knew existed. I actually did know a few of these, because I'm a huge nerd, and thanks to Maddie Grant for the link!
Talent is irrelevant.
Think everything is fine and dandy from an employment perspective in the non-profit world? Think again.
How everything you learned in school screwed up your ability to write for business.
More great stuff on diversity, from Acronym and Dylan Tweney.
It's OK to be ordinary - you can still change the world.
Seeing as I aspire to the top spot some day, dear God, I hope this guy is trying (and failing) to be funny.
I'm also re-reading the Hunger Games trilogy. So much fun! I think the movie version is going to be terrific.

Better Late Than Never

2011-11-01T11:04:00.000-04:00

Did you know Blog Action Day 2011 came and went?

Where was I?

Oh right - topping off my organization's annual meeting with a visit with my in-laws.

Anyway, I know I'm about two weeks late, but this year's topic, food, is very important to me, so I'm going to write a brief post anyway.

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE food. I love to read about food, I love to write about food, I love eating out, eating in, cooking for people I care about or enjoying them cooking for me. Food's great!

You know what I don't love?

1 in 8 households in Washington, DC, our nation's capital, struggles with hunger.
13% of all households in DC dealt with "food insecurity" in 2010.
In 2009-2010, 37.4% of households with children in DC reported that they were unable to afford enough food.
Wards 7 and 8, which have the District's highest poverty rates, also have the city's highest obesity rates and are home to large "food deserts."
Of the city's 43 full-service grocery stores, only two are located in Ward 4, four in Ward 7, and three in Ward 8. By contrast, Ward 3 - the highest-income Ward - has eleven full-service stores.
Only one of the city's 30 farmers' markets is located east of the Anacostia River.

All facts from DC Hunger Solutions.

That's a lot of our neighbors who aren't sure they can afford to feed themselves and their kids or who, even if they can afford the food, can't find good, healthy food to buy.

And that stinks.

So what can you do about it?

As always, educating yourself is a great place to start. Go to Google and type in "hunger in [your location]." You might be surprised what you find.

The next step? Feeding America can help you find the hunger relief charities in your area that can be supported with donations of food, your money, your time, or all of the above.

Are you in DC? Some great places to donate goods, time, or money include:

Capital Area Food Bank - maybe you could run a holiday food drive at your office?
DC Central Kitchen - FYI, founder Robert Egger is a complete bad-ass.
Miriam's Kitchen - hey - they have a walkathon coming up in 2 1/2 weeks where, if they can recruit 1500 walkers, they'll earn a $25,000 grant. And they don't even expect you to start until 9 am.
So Others Might Eat - they are always looking for volunteer servers, particularly around the holidays, which can be a really cool thing to do with your family or a group of friends.

What are you waiting for? Don't just sit there - go do something!

Always the Last to Know: Tout

2011-10-31T11:00:00.000-04:00

Fact 1: Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.
Fact 2: We're rapidly approaching majority penetration of smart phones.
Fact 3: Smart phones all include video cameras.

Enter Tout, which is basically Twitter for video. Tout lets you create short video status updates. Shaq is apparently a big fan.

Friday Top 5

2011-10-28T11:31:00.002-04:00

Snow this weekend? In DC? REALLY?

Ok, well, maybe.

But we all still need to panic, right? Top 5 Things I'm Doing to Prepare for Octsnowberfest:

Bringing in the houseplants before they all freeze to death.
Ensuring I have enough milk, eggs, and bourbon to make bourbon milk punch, our traditional snow storm cocktail.
Harvesting the rest of the mint before it freezes, too.
Closing the storm windows.
Bringing in wood for the first fire of the season (glad I got the chimney cleaned two weeks ago!).

Idea Swappin'

2011-10-27T10:31:00.001-04:00

This week's Super Idea Swap at ASAE was great, as usual! We had lots of new faces - and plenty of familiar ones - and sessions with different topics than we often see.

I chose to participate in the session on diversity in the morning, led by Constance Thompson from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Clinton Anderson, from the American Psychological Association. In the afternoon, I participated in the session on generations in the workplace, led by David Miles from the Miles LeHane Companies.

My top takeaways included:

When pairing up mentors and padawans, stop putting like with like (Asian man with Asian man, Latina with Latina, etc.), and look at people's professional goals and who can best help them meet those goals.
Diversity is about how we're the same and different. Inclusion is about using diversity to make us and our organizations better.
DJ Johnson shared two great tools: the diversity wheel and the concept of the diversity paradigm by Roosevelt Thomas.
If you don't measure it, you can't change it - getting data from our audiences is key to becoming more diverse as organizations, but we have to be transparent about why we want the information to allay people's fears about sharing it.
We have to let people express the "who cares?" thoughts, since stifling those uncomfortable conversations helps no one.
Conflict is a sign of diverse voices, which, to a group that has been historically homogenous, feels threatening.
The decisions of a heterogeneous group take longer, but tend to produce better outcomes.
"Do you know next?"

Edited 11/1/2011 to add: I forgot one great takeaway! ASAE is shifting focus from a laundry list of protected categories to talking about diversity and inclusion in terms of the way we think (culture, work style, learning style), the way we do things (process, teamwork, innovation), and the way we are (human factors, demographics, identity). LOVE!

What I'm Reading

2011-10-26T13:26:00.000-04:00

If innovation was easy, everyone would do it.
Having a hard time finding good staff? Maybe it's you.
Put those FB fans to work!
And then show them you care.
Offtopic post? So what?
Radical idea: just tell the truth.
Universal volunteering - an idea whose time has come?
I'm re-reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which I last read as a teenager. It's a creepy dystopian novel that prefigures turning "citizens" into "consumers" and regulating all strong moods and emotions with drugs. If you've never read it, you really should.

Always the Last to Know: PatientsLikeMe

2011-10-25T10:49:00.000-04:00

I found this site because its creator won the TR 35 Humanitarian of the Year award.

Every year, MIT's Technology Review identifies 35 innovators under 35 whose ideas are transforming our world.

PatientsLikeMe brings together people who suffer from serious and chronic diseases to share information that improves treatment and their lives.

Each day, community members answer a simple question: how do you feel now? The combined answers are changing the way medical research into their diseases is conducted.

Get Your Ideas Here!

2011-10-24T10:03:00.002-04:00

A little out of order this week, but there's still time to register for the ASAE Super Swap idea swap, which goes down tomorrow, Tuesday, October 25, at ASAE.

For those who haven't been before, a Super Swap combines SIX idea swaps in one day. That's a lot of ideas!

Tomorrow's topics will include:

Direct mail
Communities of Practice
Diversity
Marketing
Generational differences
Recruitment and retention

The program runs 9:30 am - 2 pm. Lunch is provided. And I'll be there as an ambassador for the Membership Development Committee, so if you have any questions or need any help with anything, look for the energetic redhead (I can say that because Cynthia D'Amour will NOT be there).

Friday Top 5

2011-10-21T09:36:00.000-04:00

Man, I have been running around like a maniac recently! Some travel has been for fun, some has been for work, but it feels like I've hardly been home since before #ASAE11!

Well, no more. I think - I think - I get to stay home for a while now. And much as I enjoy travel and spending time with members and my organization's corporate supporters and my friends and family, well... --> --> -->

Top 5 Things That Are Great About Staying Put For A While:

Getting reacquainted with my cat, who's been looking a little lonely recently
Not only getting caught up on my house To Do list, but having time to putter as a result
Baking bread and croissants and baguettes and muffins and cookies and pies...
Visiting the farmer's market (thank heavens I had a CSA this year!)
NOT having to pack. Again. I'm a lousy packer.

Image credit: erikazen

More IGNITE Goodness

2011-10-20T09:28:00.000-04:00

John Chen on How Twitter Saved His Life, for #ASAE11

Did you get the message that the IGNITE videos are all up? Go watch them!

What I'm Reading

2011-10-19T09:32:00.000-04:00

SocialFish summarizes a great series of posts from Socious on why private communities fail.
Mythbusting the gender gap.
Give your audiences what THEY want or they'll go be someone else's audience.
Sponsorship dollars - are you getting your share?
Cloud computing and the concept of ownership (fascinating think piece from MIT's Technology Review).
Is your association a failing student?
I have 10 minutes and a beer - how can I spend them productively?
Check yourself (or at least, your writing) before you wreck yourself.
You don't HAVE to work all the time. Really, you don't.
Steve Jobs: tech visionary, marketing traditionalist.
I'm also reading TC Boyle's The Women, a fictionalized accounting of the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, told from the perspective of his various wives and mistresses. Not Boyle's best, but certainly a good read.

What Do You Reward?

2011-10-18T10:44:00.000-04:00

Novelty or loyalty?

We've all heard the come ons: switch your cable/cell/Internet/long distance provider and we'll give you gifts, or better pricing, or premium services for free, or whatever.

Everybody's always looking for new customers, right?

Association professionals should know better. But we don't. We know that a retained member is more valuable than a new member. We know how much more expensive it is to get a new member. We know how important member satisfaction is.

But who get the goodies?

New members - join now and you get free months, a free book, a free webinar, a free conference attendance, etc.

What if we rewarded loyalty instead?

What if you said: "As a thank you for your committee service last year, please choose any book in our bookstore."?

What if you offered buy 5 get the sixth for free on your conference attendance?

What if you sent out a letter that read: "Congratulations on ten years of continuous membership! Next year's on us!"?

How can you show the love to your most loyal supporters?

Always the Last to Know: IDoneThis

2011-10-17T12:49:00.000-04:00

OK, I haven't actually used this myself yet, but I recently heard Dan Pink speak, and he recommended it as a productivity tool, which seems like a pretty good recommendation to me. IDoneThis: "Get stuff done." Love that concise tagline. And I'm always on the lookout for tools to help me stay organized. Anyone used this? What do you think?

Friday Top 5

2011-10-07T09:51:00.000-04:00

As probably everyone knows by now, the tech world sustained a major loss this week in the passing of Steve Jobs. So this Friday, it's Steve's Top 5:

The mouse
The graphical user interface
Pixar
The first truly functional touch screen interface
Never losing sight of the marriage of form and function

To quote Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Steve Jobs: visionary, innovator, magician.

That which is remembered is never truly gone.

(Back Monday, October 17 - I'm at my organization's fall conference next week. Also, today is the annual celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, which recognizes the contributions of women to IT.)

ALMA Opens Its Eyes

2011-10-06T13:23:00.000-04:00

This has nothing to do with association management, but it's really amazingly awesomely cool.

ALMA Opens Its Eyes from NRAO Outreach on Vimeo.

A friend of mine from grad school is a radio astronomer at NRAO, which is how I found out about this. Make sure you're paying close attention during minutes 3 and 4 for some amazing photos of far reaches of the universe.

What I'm Reading

2011-10-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

Innovation: enough talk - time for ACTION!
Save time and money by crowdsourcing your commute.
Need help figuring out how to use social media in your organization? The US Marines have your back.
Trying to create online community? Facebook might not be your best bet.
Hate the new Facebook newsfeed? You can get the old one back, but it’s not easy.
Write better.
Rules? We don't need no stinking rules!
Small staff exec? Great new resource!
Content curation is not as easy as it might seem.

Streetbook

2011-10-04T13:17:00.000-04:00

No, Malcolm Gladwell, Facebook and Twitter did not *cause* the Arab Spring. But they sure as hell helped, and there's a fascinating article in the latest issue of MIT's Technology Review that details exactly how, thanks to interviews with the leaders of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions (go read the whole piece - seriously - and see if it doesn't give you goosebumps).

In the US, at least for now, we have the luxury of sitting around debating how, or even whether, to use these tools. I think association professionals need to be reminded of the power of community and unfettered communication. It's bigger than us, and our organizations, and our parochial concerns.

Always the Last to Know: Canv.as

2011-10-03T11:59:00.000-04:00

Chris Poole, the guy who invented 4chan, has come up with Canv.as, an online community that allows anonymous collaboration. Think of it as 4chan without all the naughty bits.

By the way, just in case you aren't convinced, he also won a TR35 "Top 35 Innovators under 35" award for it.

Friday Top 5

2011-09-30T11:06:00.000-04:00

My dad just hit a milestone birthday yesterday, and we're headed to the Philly area this weekend to celebrate with him.

So this Friday Top 5 is for you, Dad.

Top 5 things that are AWESOME about my dad:

He was the first person in his family to go to college, Drexel specifically, in the late 1960's and thanks to their innovative co-op program.
He can fix anything. Not only *can* he fix anything, he sometimes has to be physically restrained from doing so when he's supposed to be visiting us just to have fun.
He and my mom have provided a great example of a happy marriage to me and my brother (43 years and going strong).
He taught me about money, so even when my spouse and I were poor starving grad students, we never worried about our ability to pay our bills, save for the future/a rainy day, and give a little something to people with even less.
He ends every phone conversation with: "I love you, hon."

I love you, too, Dad. Happy birthday.

Image credit: 3 Chics

They're Posted!

2011-09-29T10:59:00.000-04:00

Well, OK, SOME of them are posted.

What's "them"?

The #ASAE11 Ignite videos!

Looks like ASAE is finally getting them up on their YouTube channel.

To whet your appetite, Miriam Miller Wolk's excellent Ignite: Sales is Not a Dirty Word

Enjoy!

What I'm Reading

2011-09-28T08:43:00.000-04:00

Short list this week, since I was on vacation and mostly reading for fun!

Social media time sucks: don’t let them kill your momentum.
How to pay it forward without signing away your life.
Analytics are finally coming to Twitter itself.
How to write for good SEO without boring people to death.
Oops!, or on the importance of research.
Turns out family friendly policies make EVERYONE happier and more productive (thanks to Betsy Boyd-Flynn for the link).
While I was at the beach I read Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, which I didn't like (interesting setting, but the story itself was totally predictable and the use of language was annoyingly anachronistic), lots of sports blog coverage of the dreadful Eagles loss on Sunday, and I re-read The United States of Arugula by David Kamp, which I absolutely adore. If you're at all interested in food or cooking, you should definitely check it out.

Gone Beachin'

2011-09-22T09:56:00.000-04:00

I am at the beach (Stone Harbor, NJ, to be precise) with a bunch of cool peeps for the next few days. Back next week.

Image credit: Bryn Mawr College geology department

What I'm Reading

2011-09-21T14:55:00.000-04:00

Innovation Talks edition

This week, instead of a list of interesting blog posts, I have a question for you:

What book has inspired the most new ideas for you? It can be fiction or non, something you read today or 25 years ago. And you don't have to stick to just one. I'll go first:

Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities completely changed my political views.
Plato's Republic completely changed my career direction.
Nel Noddings' Caring provided the topic for my Master's thesis and ultimately led me out of grad school.

Now you - what book/s have sparked an intellectual revolution in your head? Share in the comments, and give us all some good reading material.

Innovation in 4...3...2...

2011-09-20T11:49:00.000-04:00

Did you know that today is ASAE Innovation Talks Day?

Six association thought leaders are at ASAE today leading discussions on a variety of topics:

Jeffrey Cufaude will be addressing the importance of innovative beginnings to achieving innovative results.
Dave Coriale will be talking about the role of technology.
Scott Steen will lead a look at design thinking.
Rhea Blanken will share on the source of innovation: people!
Karen Gonzales will look at member expectations
Dave Will will talk about online learning.

What if, like me, you couldn't go in person?

We have resources!

You should definitely watch the hashtag #asaeinnov today - lots of the people who are there are live tweeting.
Deirdre Reid has been blogging about this topic for Avectra.
Eric Lanke has been documenting his work around this with WSAE on the Hourglass Blog.
There are other innovation talk events coming in the next several months (and hey - lots of them AREN'T in DC!).
And today's #assnchat will focus on this topic in about...2 hours.

What am I missing? Add it in the comments.

Always the Last to Know: WayBack Machine

2011-09-19T09:33:00.000-04:00

OK, everyone who has anything to do with the web knows about the WayBack Machine. But did you know that they have a cool new version? And that the new version make makes it much easier and more interactive to use?

Awesomesauce? You bet!

Friday Top 5

2011-09-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

It's not quite officially fall (yet), but with the weather over the past few days, it's certainly starting to feel like fall. Fall and spring have always been my preferred seasons, with probably a slight edge to fall - hey, I was a big nerd and actually liked school. My Top 5 Favorite Things About Fall:

The weather - cool nights, crisp days, and bright sun that I can enjoy without freaking out about potential sunburn/sun damage.
Switching back to hot coffee and tea from iced coffee and tea (I enjoy the reverse switch in the spring equally well), and to bourbon drinks from gin drinks (which, again, I also enjoy reversing in the spring).
Baking - it's too damn hot in the summer to put the oven on.
Fires in the fireplace.
FOOTBALL!

Image credit: Port Wallpaper

The "Family Friendly" Trap

2011-09-15T17:02:00.000-04:00

In my opinion, one of the best arguments for single payer in health care is that innovation and new businesses and job creation are stifled when people feel tied to safe jobs in big organizations by their medical insurance (if by "best argument" you mean the one most likely to convince the person who disagrees).

Similarly, I've watched talented friends of both genders (but more often women) get stuck in their careers because a workplace is "family friendly." The current organization offers good benefits or a flexible work schedule, so even though these association professionals need to move on in order to advance in their careers, they can't manage to leave.

What if the new place won't cover their kids' health care? What if they lose the schedule flexibility that allows them to manage child care changes without huge hassles with management?

The fact that they're stuck for years in jobs with no possibility of further advancement becomes the price of having a life that works. And that sucks.

It's a form of mommy-tracking, but it's even more subtle and hard to address than old skool "we don't promote mothers or give them big responsibilities" because it's, at least on the surface, a voluntary choice. Those handcuffs may be made of gold, but they're still handcuffs.

The thing is, "family friendly" policies like flexible schedules and good health care and reasonable leave policies have been PROVEN to increase retention (and we all know how expensive and time-consuming staff turnover is), improve the ability to recruit the best candidates, increase productivity and decrease absenteeism. The #1 reason people leave jobs is bad management. Treating your staff as less than equally valuable to senior management is pretty much the definition of bad management.

So what's holding us back?

What I'm Reading

2011-09-14T10:43:00.000-04:00

Social media, trust and transparency. Again. Because we all know that not everybody gets it.
Social media myths- how many are messing with your plans?
Jamie Notter asks: is what you're measuring pointing you in the right direction? If not, what are you going to do about it?
What do you REALLY mean?
Deirdre Reid weighs in (for Avectra) on the great conversation going on around diversity in the association blogging community.
Dell is often held up as an exemplar in the social media policy realm, and here’s why.
Should social networks have their own rules?
It’s about the conversation, not the platform.
How to follow event hashtags like a pro.

Power With versus Power Over

2011-09-13T12:33:00.000-04:00

About a week ago, I was finally reading the June 2011 of Associations Now (it accidentally got buried in the pile of unread magazines), and I read the Favorites Game piece with Jeffrey Pfeffer. My first thought was that his suggestions reminded me at bit of Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince (you can take the girl out of grad school, but...). And I was hoping that, like The Prince, it was intended as satire. Hey, they both stress the importance of flattery, right?

But somehow, I don't think Pfeffer is being funny.

My second thought was that he was articulating the concept of "power over" very clearly. But there's also a concept called "power with." It features heavily in progressive movements like feminism, the green movement and many earth-based religions.

So what's the difference? I found a great monograph by Tom Terez that sums it all up.

If you flip straight to page 9, he provides a nice chart that summarizes the differences. To highlight a few:

Power OVER is about scarcity, rules, procedures, compliance, competition, rewards and threats, hoarding information, assigning blame, fear and skepticism, exclusion, silos, and control.

Power WITH is about abundance, principles, mission, commitment, creativity, focusing on what's going right, sharing, being open, trust and confidence, inclusion, working together, questioning, inspiring and clarity.

As I'm sure you recognize, traditional hierarchical organizations rely on power over. And I suspect that's where most of our associations fall. But they don't have to.

In fact, forward-looking organizations need 21st century leaders. A quick Google search on that term returns things like: communicators, good social skills, open, transparent, authentic, team players/team success, influence instead of authority, non-traditional, accepting of diversity, creativity, innovation, intuition, bias towards action, energy and enthusiasm.

Which of the above two power models seems like a better match for the realities of *today's* work place? Looking at the lists above, where would you rather work?

How do we get from here to there? It comes down to each and every one of us honestly assessing ourselves and, each day, choosing to walk the talk of power with rather than power over. You're not going to completely transform your organizational culture over night. But you can lead, even from the middle, by example. Not everyone will get it. Not everyone will come with you. But we have to start transforming the culture of work somewhere.

I'm going - will you come with me?

(Jamie Notter has a terrific take on this topic in his blog post Love and Power - go check it out! )

Always the Last to Know: Quixey

2011-09-12T09:57:00.000-04:00

Bewildered by the myriad apps out there? Quixey to the rescue. They've created something they call "functional search," which gathers information from all sorts of locations and sites to help with determining which are the BEST apps for any given need. Sounds kind of web 3.0 to me!

Friday Top 5

2011-09-09T11:23:00.000-04:00

Sometimes things get rough, and it's important to count your blessings. So that's what I'm going to do. (Some of my) Top 5 Blessings (work edition):

All the thinking I've been doing recently has produced some great fodder for this blog.
The fact that people come to me with their problems is stressful, but it's also a huge compliment. It means they think they're going to get a sympathetic ear and that I'll try to help them - both of which are true - and, more importantly, that they trust me.
My community - that's you! People who read and comment on this blog, and blog themselves, and interact with me on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and Google+ and YAP and ASAE's Member2Member...you all rock. And keep me sane (or a reasonable facsimile thereof).
I'm back in a mission driven organization, and that means a lot to me.
I get a lot of support for all the professional development stuff I do, whether that's attending events, volunteering, presenting at events, etc. And that hasn't always been the case in the last 14+ years.

What blessings can you count today?

Just for Fun

2011-09-08T09:31:00.000-04:00

OK, given what's going on in DC this week, I couldn't NOT post this:

I promise I'll get back to more serious posts next week.

What I'm Reading

2011-09-07T11:55:00.000-04:00

The Big List of awesome social media posts - some of these have already appeared here, but this is a great summary.
Why simplicity is best in setting social media policies.
Tweetable marketing facts to help everyone at your association be a marketing wizard.
What do your Millennial staff members think of your IT department? It's not good.
Sacred (zombie?) cow or loveable loser?
Still reading Ten Days in the Hills. Lots of the reviewers on Amazon.com didn't like it because nothing really happens - it's just conversations. I'm finding most of the conversations pretty interesting, though. I give it a thumbs up.

Fly Your Flag!

2011-09-06T11:26:00.000-04:00

OK, I have two more BIG THINKY posts in the queue, but I have no time to write them today, so instead, I am embedding Joe Gerstandt's Fly Your Freak Flag Ignite session from last spring's Great Ideas Conference, while I wait, impatiently, for the #ASAE11 Ignite sessions to go live on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Friday Top 5

2011-09-02T12:25:00.000-04:00

It's Labor Day weekend! Sure, it's the proverbial last weekend of summer, and a great time for cookouts, and I'm on the best kind of boat (a FRIEND's boat) this weekend. But Labor Day weekend is really about honoring labor and trade organizations (like associations?) and having a party for workers and their families. Not consumers, workers. And it's important for all of us to remember that we are more than consumers - we're citizens and workers. This day is for us!

Top 5 great moments in the history of labor:

Ending child labor
The 8 hour workday
Paid overtime
The weekend
The minimum wage

And did you know that WOMEN formed the first labor union in the US?

So enjoy your cookout and beer and relaxing with your family on the last day of summer, but take a few minutes to think about what we're actually celebrating this weekend.

Information from Wikipedia (Labor Day and Labor history), the AFL-CIO, Working Life, and Work at Home.

Truck Stuck! Now What?

2011-09-01T09:23:00.024-04:00

I think we're all familiar with the story of Truck Stuck by Sallie Wolfe. It's a charming children's book in which the kids are the heroes, figuring out a creative solution to get the truck unstuck.

Where do ideas come from in your organization?

Or, to be more precise, who's ALLOWED to have an idea?

In far too many associations, the answer is definitely not "anyone!"

Are ideas only the province of a certain department? The CEO? The VPs? The Board? Are people only allowed to express ideas that relate directly to their own areas of responsibility?

My point? Anyone can have a good idea, about anything, at any time, whether it's the mail clerk realizing a way to make your direct mail marketing campaign more effective or an IT tech coming up with a great team building idea or kids figuring out that you need to let the air out of the truck's tires for it to pass.

We need to make sure we give a fair audience to ideas, no matter where they come from.

Treat them all equally, implement them when you can, encourage your staff and colleagues either way, and always, always, always give credit.

What I'm Reading

2011-08-31T13:36:00.000-04:00

I've got link love for EVERYONE this week. Hey, it's the week before Labor Day - things are pretty quiet around here.

Mastered the Conversation Prism? Then you're ready for the Brandsphere (it's a little complicated but I like where Brian Solis is going with this).
Jamie Notter is starting to write some Humanize-related posts, and they're good stuff.
The Beloit Mindset list is out for the class of 2015, and Shelly Alcorn has some great advice for those of us who AREN'T 18.
Hugh MacLeod is reclaiming blogging - should you?
What might your use of pronouns say about you? (hat tip to Jeffrey Cufaude for the link)
You can't make the All-Star team if you never get to play.
The diversity conversation continues, and Jamie Notter weighs in, as does Shelly Alcorn.
Still figuring out Google+? Do you participate in any classes?
Think LinkedIn is just a Rolodex that updates itself? Think again.
I don't usually link to MarketingProfs because they have weird access rules, but this piece about impact of Facebook pages on customers' perceptions of your brand's openness to helping them seemed too important not to mention (hope you can actually get to it).
Interesting post about innovation and competitive advantage from MemberClicks.
Content not being shared? Social Media Examiner can help.
Just in case you weren't sure, the right leadership CAN transform your organization.
Your association should be a movement not an institution.
Finally, I'm reading Jane Smiley's Ten Days in the Hills. I doubt any of her other books will ever surpass my love for Moo, and this one seems a little...unfocused so far (although I think that may be at least part of the point).

Can I Trust You?

2011-08-30T13:04:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking about issues related to trust and risk ever since Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant's unsession on their forthcoming book, Humanize, at #ASAE11.

During the session, Jamie made a really interesting point: trust and risk are correlated. As trust goes up, risk goes up. In order to lower risk, we also end up lowering trust.

Ever wondered why staff members have such strong reactions to new policies at your association? Voila. That reads, on some level, like you don't trust them.

Here's the thing: we can't just throw out all our policies and skip merrily along trusting everyone completely and all the time. First of all, my many lawyer friends would be out of business if we did. They're all smart people, so I'm sure they'd find something else to do. But the unemployment rate is high enough right now.

But also, it's not realistic. There are people out there who, through ignorance, accident or ill intent, can harm our associations. Our members and the other communities we serve have the right to expect us to do what we can to protect our associations, by preventing what risks we can and being prepared to ameliorate those we can't.

On the other hand, our staff members deserve respect and professional courtesy. After all, if we can't trust them even a little bit, why did we hire them in the first place?

I don't have the perfect answer to this. In fact, there isn't one. Different organizations have different levels of tolerance for and exposure to risk. If you deal with credit card or HIPPA protected data, you know exactly what I mean.

I think this raises and important consideration for us as part of our own risk calculations. We often focus on the downsides of being more open, more trusting, etc in assessing risk. Do we think about the other side: what is the risk of reducing trust? Now that social media is, to quote Jamie, "kicking our asses" maybe we need to weigh that side of the calculation a little more carefully.

Always the Last to Know: Stumbling for Good

2011-08-29T10:30:00.000-04:00

No, this is not about a benefit happy hour. StumbleUpon has launched a new service called Stumbling for Good. Each month, they donate Paid Discovery credits to 3 nonprofits to help raise awareness of their causes. Know any good candidates? They're accepting nominations.

Friday Top 5

2011-08-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

OK, seriously, an earthquake AND a hurricane IN THE SAME WEEK? Top 5 most likely next disasters to strike DC:

Locusts (I hear they're due on Tuesday)
Chuck Brown gives up go-go for bluegrass
Ben's Chili Bowl shuts down
Embattled mayor Vince Gray resigns in favor of...Sarah Palin
The 2011 Redskins season

Stay safe this weekend, y'all!

Are Some More Equal Than Others?

2011-08-25T16:06:00.051-04:00

Yep, it's another post about Joe Gerstandt's awesome How to Fly Your Freak Flag session as #ASAE11.

One of the exercises consisted of Joe reading a variety of statements and asking us to stand up, purely voluntarily and only if we wanted to share that information about ourselves, when any statement that was true about us was read.

Some of them were fairly obvious, about gender and race/ethnicity. Some were less obvious, like being raised in a rural community or by a single parent.

One of the statements he read was: "I have a disability."

I thought about it for a few seconds, and stood up.

No, this is not going to turn into some heart-warming "coming out" story. I'm a GenXer - I don't do heart-warming.

I don't have depth perception, which people who know me well tend to be aware of. Thing is, I never had it in the first place, due to some serious eye problems I had as a baby/toddler. So although people who lose their depth perception later in life, particularly if it was *after* they learned to drive, tend to see themselves as disabled, that's not an identity I generally claim. But in fact, I do have a non-apparent disability. And it felt a little scary to stand up in a crowded break out session room and claim that.

And it got me thinking: are some types of diversity easier to own in our world?

Example: in the association world, there are lots of fabulous - and fabulously out - gay men in prominent positions, both paid and volunteer. But how many out lesbians can you think of in power positions in associations? I can't think of many. Doesn't that seem odd, given that association work is largely female-dominated?

What about people with disabilities that aren't visible? Hell, what about people with disabilities that *are* visible? I've worked in plenty of ADA-compliant buildings in the past 14 years, but I've never, to the best of my knowledge, worked with a person who had a disability that required ADA-covered accommodations. Several years ago, I worked on the floor *above* a disability rights organization, so I shared plenty of elevator rides with people in wheelchairs, but none of them were coming up to my floor to work for my organization.

Or think about religious minorities for a minute. Many organizations are open to our Jewish colleagues taking vacation days to celebrate their holidays, but what about other religious minorities (or at least minorities in the US)? We're within the last few days of Ramadan this year, and summer is a tough time for Ramadan, because that sunrise to sunset fast lasts a LONG time. Are our associations open to making accommodations in work schedules or responsibilities for people whose energy levels might be low by late afternoon because of religious observance?

I quote my esteemed colleague Jeffrey Cufaude: "We have got to start walking the talk on diversity." Also: "You won't get different results for diversity & inclusion if you don't even ask the question as a part of your regular work."

Are you asking the question yet? If not now, when?

What I'm Reading

2011-08-24T16:29:00.021-04:00

This week's all about advice:

Be "like"able.
Just act.
Nurture the edge.
Showcase your skills.
Tweet like the pros.
Don't shout, converse.

Location:N Fairfax St,Alexandria,United States

Are You Ready to Fly?

2011-08-23T16:29:00.029-04:00

Without a doubt, the best session I attended at #ASAE11 was Joe Gerstandt's How to Fly Your Freak Flag.

Aside from the awesomeness of the topic, Joe's presentation style fit his message to a T.

His basic point is that the pressure on humans to conform to whatever group we're in is enormous, but conformity makes us “radically incomplete.” Sure, staff members who hide key aspects of themselves in order to fit in are easier to manage, but doing that is ultimately unhealthy. And when our people are holding back important elements of their real selves, they're almost definitely holding back characteristics, skills, and behaviors that would be good for our organizations.

Illustrating his point about how difficult but ultimately positive opening up is, Joe led us through a series of exercises where we gradually revealed more about ourselves to a gradually larger audience.

He walked us through:

Writing our own obituaries (surprisingly difficult)
"Who am I?"
"Why am I here?"
"What is my gift?"
"Is there any evidence?" (my favorite of the questions)

In the end, while we're never EXACTLY the same person at work and in our private lives, we have to be comfortable with where we draw the line. Are you comfortable with that place in your own life? If not, what are you going to do about it?

Always the Last to Know: Katango

2011-08-22T17:28:00.000-04:00

Tried of trying to manage all your social media connections and figure out who should have access to what? Let Katango automate it for you. I'm not sure that I'd be willing to completely automate this process, but if a tool could get me, say, 75% of the way there, that would be a big help.

Friday Top 5

2011-08-19T12:17:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's another post about belly dancing. This weekend is the Sahara Dance end of trimester show - Sahara Dance Caravan: Exploring the Evolution of Belly Dance. The summer show is a lot of fun. Top 5 Reasons you should join me (at the 8 pm show - or go to the 4 pm show if that's when you're free):

This is the "experimental" show, which means you might hear some music you actually recognize and you'll get to see belly dance combined with other forms of dance (aka "fusion" styles).
You'll get to hear me bust out my ululations, which I've been practicing, since learning the skill was this year's New Year's resolution.
You'll see lots of beautiful, smiling, wonderful, joyful women dancing. How awesome is that?
I'm not performing, so I can clue you in to what you're seeing.
You'll be supporting the arts and live performance. And it's late August, when not much else is going on around town. And the tickets are only $25.

Tickets are still available by following the link above, or you can get them at the door at the Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theater of American University, which is on Wisconsin Avenue a few blocks south of the Tenleytown Metro stop.

Dare to Think BIG

2011-08-18T11:52:00.001-04:00

During Jeffrey Cufaude's ASAE11 Ignite presentation on living a sustainable life, he quoted Mary Catherine Bateson: "we're living longer but thinking shorter." And I got thinking about the concept of thinking small.

Associations are under tremendous pressure right now. The economy is not getting any better. Social media, to quote Jamie Notter and paraphrase Clay Shirky, is kicking our asses. Generational shifts are battering our traditional membership and leadership models. Peak oil and global climate change are beginning to affect our society in countless ways, one of which may very likely be to cripple our traditional educational and networking models. What volunteers are looking for, and the hoops they're willing to jump through in order to get it, has changed in ways that render traditional board and committee service models obsolete. Information is no longer scarce, and even the most backwards and self-delusional associations can't pretend to hold a monopoly on it any more.

Everything in our environment is whispering: "Protect your ass. Guard your turf. Trust no one. Rock no boats. Prepare for the worst."

In other words: "Think small."

Sure - think small, and watch your organization die.

Now, as Jamie has pointed out, your association - my association - has no inherent right to exist. And if the best thing for your profession/industry/community/audiences is for your organization to die, then get on with it and decrease the surplus population.

But if you do believe that your organization brings something useful and good to some group of people, now is exactly the time to think big, take chances, rock the boat, make change, and see where it can take you.

It's easy to be afraid now - a lot of shit is going down. But if we can get past the fear and be courageous and willing to take risks, we have HUGE opportunities to do better by our members, our professions/industries, our audiences, and maybe even the world. As my good friend Catherine says: "What are they going to do - take away your birthday?"

At the end of his Ignite session, Joe Gerstandt asked us: "Do you approach life from fear or from love?"

It's time to choose.

What I'm Reading

2011-08-17T11:56:00.000-04:00

Want the TOTAL recap of #ASAE11? Check out ASAE's awesome Scoop.it page. LOVE!
Tips for the virtual work force from Deirdre Reid for Avectra.
What can Lady Gaga teach us about community building?
Giving up the illusion of control is the way to go, as if you needed any more convincing.
Are your co-workers killing you?
Marketing lessons from a hospital visit.
Top 10 things that need to die on Twitter.
Leslie White takes on fear and social media for the Social Fish.
Quit micro-managing! (these things in particular)
Community success is about more than numbers.
Still reading Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. It's really good stuff. The author's exegesis of the problem is excellent - I'm hoping/looking forward to some "so now what do we do?" later in the book. I'll let you all know.

Innovation: Small Staff v. Large Staff

2011-08-16T12:00:00.001-04:00

In the past 14 years, I've held a variety of positions in association management: senior staff in a mid-sized professional academic society, senior staff/acting CEO for a small ed-tech association, consulting, and now mid-level management at a large medical trade association.

Each place has had upsides and downsides. The academic society was in my "official" field (from undergrad and grad school), so I was really engaged in the meat of what we did and felt a deep personal connection with my members. I had the opportunity to manage a fantastic team, most of whom I'm still in touch with 14 years later. But tradition weighs particularly heavy on an august association of PhDs. Even though I had good internal support to try new things, there was only so far we could go. And the annual meetings were murder!

The small association was nimble and innovative, and I had pretty much totally free reign to try anything I wanted. We turned on a dime and had an AMAZING mission and community. Unfortunately, resources - staff, time, money, capacity, space - were a constant problem. Comes with the territory, but we constantly struggled to figure out ways to push all our great ideas forward on the cheap (or preferably, the free).

Consulting brought lots of fun, exciting variety, and I got to meet and work with terrific people from all sorts of associations, finding out about worlds I never would have encountered otherwise (and I got to work with a metallurgy organization staffed and led by a bunch of guys who reminded me a lot of my dad, which rocked - I love engineers!). But I was often in the position of turning over a bunch of (hopefully) useful recommendations that would have an immediate positive impact, with an "OK! Let me know how it goes!" It killed me to mostly not be able to help make change happen.

Large organizations allow you to be more specialized, so you develop deeper expertise in your areas of responsibility. Resources are rarely a serious impediment. And once again, great mission (there may be a theme here). But decision making can be glacial, and it's often not entirely clear who needs to be involved in a given decision until you're down the path and someone's upset they've been left out.

So here's my question for you, association peeps: how does one bring some of the good things small staff organizations enjoy with regards to new ideas and nimbleness to a large organization?

That's not rhetorical - I'd really like your thoughts.