| Plexus Consulting Group | Articles by Plexus Authors | ||
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Associations Can Be Both Student and Teacher |
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There is a quiet revolution
taking place in the non-profit world of professional and trade associations
across the United States. Government, society and corporations are expecting
more out of associations than ever before. This represents numerous and
great opportunities for association executives to grow their associations,
but it also means that by being placed in the spotlight, there is more at
stake and the possibility of failure is also that much greater. Association
managers are being expected to do what their corporate members have had to
do for some years now -- deliver more and better products and services for
less. In many respects associations are becoming more like the lean,
competitive corporate world. But in the race to become ever more productive
and competitive, associations might have a few lessons of their own to teach
corporate managers on the value of consensus building and being attuned to
the needs and perceptions of shareholders. On the surface the association community seems to be thriving. For example, according to figures compiled by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) more associations have been created in the United States in the past fifteen years than any similar period. In fact more than a third of all the associations ever created in this country were created during this time. Employing 500,000 people, associations’ budgets now exceed $21 billion. More people work for nonprofit organizations than for the Federal Government and all 50 state governments combined, or roughly the same number of people as the steel, computer, or airline industries. Apart from their economic impact, associations have a growing social and political impact as well. Domestically, through association programs, Americans devote millions of volunteer hours annually to charitable and community service projects. And internationally, the Clinton Administration has made it a policy to engage associations in training and educational roles so that once US-funded overseas aid programs are completed there will be self-sustainable institutions left behind that can continue to nurture and grow this investment in development and democracy. (This "New Partnership Initiative" first went into effect last year and is expected eventually to account for 40 percent of all USAID-funded projects.) In the promotion of volunteerism in the United States and democracy abroad, policymakers see associations as offering the best tools with which to build. Given these facts, an outsider might think that the economic, social and political impact of associations in this country has never been greater. But association managers hearing this might well say, "if things are so good, why do I feel so bad?" Indeed, in many respects, life for associations and their managers has never been so difficult. According to ASAE figures, virtually every association in the country has seen a decline in dues based revenues over the past five years. During this time association member retention rates also declined across the board. Given such figures it is hardly surprising that 21 percent of all US associations have had to undergo one or more staff downsizings. Eighty-seven percent of all associations have sought to modify their bylaws, of which 45 percent have done so in order to revise their organizational structures. These figures hold true regardless of an association’s size, age or the profession or industry sector it represents. Not too long ago, Harvard University’s Robert D. Putnam wrote an article ("Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital") wherein he addressed Americans’ declining involvement in political and social activities and organizations of all kinds. The association community eagerly picked up on this well-written, thought-provoking study as a possible explanation for their own organizational woes. Clearly something is happening in the association community. My own organization, Smith, Bucklin & Associates, has been providing services to associations of all kinds for 50 years. Over the past ten years, in any given year, we would be called upon to provide strategic planning assistance to perhaps two to three nonprofit organizations on an average. This past year we have had over five times this number-including associations that are either being created or phased out of existence, associations undergoing or contemplating mergers or acquisitions, and associations that are otherwise restructuring themselves in order to adapt to changed market circumstances. Although this evidence is only anecdotal, this heightened level of searching for answers to fundamental and often disturbing questions is new for an industry that by its very nature is tradition-bound and slow to change. The answer has less to do with society than the economy. Washington’s Public Affairs Council organized a recent conference for corporate executives who were interested in exploring ways in which they could be sure they were getting their money’s worth out of their association memberships. Each participant introduced themselves and explained their interest in the conference. All had the same story. Virtually all were department heads who had to deal with corporate downsizings. Some had had staffs of 20 to 30 and, following these downsizings, they found themselves virtually alone with perhaps only an administrative assistant to help-yet they were still accountable to senior management for the same areas of responsibility they used to cover with a much larger staff. Consequently they had come to rely on their association membership to a much greater extent than they ever had. In other words, as association members they have become much more demanding clients. Virtually all of them also had less money to spend on association membership-so they were in the position of asking more of their associations while being able to give less. As expectations grow of what the government, society and corporations want and need from associations there is increasing pressure being put on their executive directors to deliver ever higher quality services with more sophistication and at less cost. In such a scenario associations that prove unable to adapt will be left by the wayside or disappear, while those that are prepared and ready to provide value added benefit to their members will grow as fast as any organization possibly can. For the sake of expediency associations might be tempted to imitate the management practices and techniques of their corporate counterparts. In the corporate world decisions have to be clear cut and fast. Certain associations have tried these techniques. Decisions have been fast, clear cut and nearly always disastrous. Because associations are so immediately and directly dependent on their members, most association managers learn very quickly that consensus building must remain part of all association decision-making processes. But even in the corporate world, are the classic hard driving decision makers, those who can make a decision before breakfast to spin off a division or lay off 10,000 people, really all that effective? The evidence is growing that these corporate dragon slayers are a vanishing species. Decisiveness and follow through and the ability to motivate are all fundamental characteristics of effective leadership. But making decisions unilaterally and without the buy-in of the many and varied groups that have a vested interest in every organization--whether they be corporations or associations--is suicidal. As corporations become more customer driven and sensitive to the need of the many audiences that need to be part of their decision making processes, corporate managers inevitably will have to turn to the membership assessment and consensus building techniques that long have been used by association managers. (However, as the case study below illustrates, even associations occasionally run the risk of losing touch with their membership.) We are entering an era where associations and association-like organizations become the principal driving forces of our economy and society. In this transformation, business managers of all kinds will need to be both students of the productivity enhancement techniques and disciplines of for-profit corporations and ever more adept practitioners of the traditional membership assessment and consensus-building practices of the not-for-profit world of associations. For associations few things are as important as staying in touch with the needs of their members. Yet a surprising number of associations fail to verify what their membership’s perceptions and needs are before undertaking fundamental policy decisions that affect their interests. |
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