1.  What is it going to take for associations to thrive over the next decade?–The next ten years will be decisive for many associations, if only because our entire society will begin to feel the full force and effect of an exponential rate of change before this decade is out.  The challenge of building resilient organizations capable of flourishing in an environment both unforgiving and filled with opportunity is unprecedented and complex.  Far too many associations continue to struggle with the transition from 20th century command-and-control hierarchies to 21st century distributed and distributive networks, from insular, progress-resistant cultures to a full embrace of the serendipitous possibilities of an open and collaborative social future.  Over the next 12 months, the “thrivability imperative” for associations will grow ever more insistent and our organizations, as well as the association community as a whole, and we need to develop a clearer sense of how we’re going to respond.

2.  What is our mental model for associating over the next decade?–This question is closely related to the first since building our capacity to thrive will depend substantially on how we design and construct the radical new value we propose to offer to our future stakeholders.  We need new mental models of associating in order to conceptualize the new business models that will make our associations thrivable in the years ahead.  I have repeatedly proposed that the future of associating is mobile.  At the very least, the growing global importance of online networks and other social technology platforms confirms that associating is already evolving into a richer, more complete and more resonant digital experience.

Unfortunately, many associations continue to be limited not only by the legacy constraints and costs of a still-mostly analog platform for value creation, but also by the narrow tactical application of new digital tools to slow the inexorable decline of old, failing mental and business models.  So as associations begin to make more significant investments in a variety of new capabilities, their key organizational stakeholders will need to arrive at a shared understanding around the preferred futures those capabilities can help create, and how those futures will be different from the past.

3.  What can associations do to sustain human attention and energy for engagement?–This is a non-trivial issue for organizations that depend on the free flow of these discretionary resources for their success.  In a world of continuous partial attention, growing obesity and sleeplessness, human attention and energy are becoming more scarce and, thus, more expensive.  Associations can no longer afford to waste these irreplaceable commodities on administrivia and meaningless make-work.  Instead, our organizations need to fundamentally rethink how to channel the available attention and energy of both staff and voluntary contributors toward generative work with the potential to create radical new value in the short term and nurture thrivability over the long term.  As part of tackling this emerging challenge, associations will need to design new relationships with future stakeholders that maximize the ease and impact of simpler and more “energy efficient” forms of engagement.

Of course, I’ll be sharing more thoughts on all of these (as well as other) questions in future posts, and I want to hear from you as well.  What questions do you hope we will be discussing by the time we gather for #asae11?  Please post your additions to the list in the comments below.

You can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pinnovation.

+I am pleased to be part of two great sessions during ASAE10.  On Monday, August 23, I am presenting on “Engaging Your Members with Mobile Devices” with Joe Rominiecki of ASAE’s Associations Now magazine and Renato Sogueco of the Society of American Florists (SAF).  Mobile is really hot right now, so I’m definitely looking forward to this session.  If you’re interested in a preview of what we’ll be discussing in L.A., you can listen to the podcast Joe, Renato and I recently recorded.  (The specific Twitter hashtag for this session is #asae10 ld7)

On Tuesday, August 24, John Crosby of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and I are leading the session, “FREE: The Future of A Radical Price…and The Impact on Your Association.”  We’re especially honored that our session is one of only 12 learning labs that will be streamed live as part of the inaugural ASAE Virtual Annual Meeting.  (By the way, if you can’t make it to L.A., there is still time to register for the Virtual Annual Meeting!)  In this session, John and I will be talking about the impact of “free” on the traditional association business model, and the opportunities it creates for real business model innovation.  (The specific Twitter hashtag for this session is #asae10 lds)

+Speaking of business models, my latest article, “The Leadership Challenges of Association Business Model Innovation,” appears in this month’s issue of Associations Now.  I am enormously grateful to Lisa Junker, editor-in-chief of Associations Now, for providing me with a PDF of the article that P.I. Blog readers can download.

BONUS:  If you’re planning to attend ASAE10, you are invited to join me for an informal business model innovation “salon” on Tuesday, August 24 from 2:30 pm-3:30 pm in Room 504 of the Los Angeles Convention Center.  This session will take place immediately following the meeting’s closing general session, and we will discuss my new article, as well as other topics related to business model innovation.  It promises to be a provocative conversation!

+I’m very pleased about the return of the ASAE Annual Meeting Silent Auction, and I have two prizes available for bid:  the Business Model Innovation Mini-Workshop and a keynote talk, “What If We…Designing 21st Century Association Leadership,” that I can deliver at your association’s next event.  Both of these prizes are high impact opportunities your association can obtain for very affordable investments.  And since the Silent Auction is virtual, you can participate from anywhere in the world!  Your contribution supports the work of the newly-minted ASAE Foundation, which is a very worthy cause, so I hope you’ll seriously consider making a bid.

Of course, I also will be attending sessions, posting on Twitter and right here on the P.I. Blog.  I may even try to do a podcast or two.  You can follow along here, on Twitter and on the Annual Meeting Hub.  Obviously, it’s going to be a very busy few days.  If you have any questions or comments about my ASAE10 activities, please e-mail me!  I’m looking forward to seeing P.I. Blog readers in L.A., so please be sure to come up and say hello!

Please follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pinnovation.

In short, social is a way of being for the 21st century association, one that will not be achieved simply by creating a Twitter account, Facebook page or LinkedIn group.  Using these public social platforms consistently well can help build effective new social practices, but creating a deep and enduring social capacity requires a willingness to radically reinvent the meaning of relationships associations have with their current and future stakeholders.  Below are three questions leaders can ask to facilitate this learning (and unlearning) process:

+How can we make everything we do more social?–Being social transforms every static offer into a dynamic invitation.

+How can we support value creation from the outside in?–Being social unleashes collaboration and co-creation at intersections with the future.

+How can we engage our stakeholders in the work of stewardship?–Being social values trust and reciprocity as paramount resources in creating organizations that can thrive.

In a time of great turbulence for all industries, professions and fields, social is a way of being makes clear what it really means to be a 21st century association.  The key question for both staff and voluntary leaders in associations is whether they are ready to fully embrace a new way of thinking about their work that will help their organizations–and our community–realize their full potential over the next decade and beyond. Are you?

The first-ever P.I. Business Model Innovation Workshop is coming this September 28 & 29, 2010!  To learn more or to register, please visit the event site!

As a P.I. Blog reader, you will receive a $100 discount off the published individual or team tuition by using the PIBLOG discount code when you register.  I’ve prepared a PDF with more information on the workshop, including a tentative agenda for the two days, that you can download.  If you have any questions about the workshop, please e-mail me.

Once again, I want to thank TMA Resources, my supporting partner in presenting this workshop.

You can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pinnovation or “like” the P.I. page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/principledinnovation.

On April 22 at the True Reformer Building in Washington, DC, we’re going to hack associations.  What do I mean?  It’s actually very simple:

1.  You bring your great idea for how associations can do things differently–smarter, simpler, better.

2.  You collaborate with colleagues from across the community to develop your idea further and design ways it can used in associations everywhere.

3.  You present your idea to all unconference attendees and the very best ideas, as chosen by the group, will receive one of six $1,000 seed grants to create a prototype or design an experiment to test your idea in the real world.

Like I said, simple.

You’ve got ideas, right?  Somewhere bouncing around your brain is a big notion, or even a small one waiting to be made big, that you know could make the critical difference to your organization’s success.  But you can’t get anyone in your organization to support it, much less a little money to try it out.  Does any of that sound familiar?  If so…

NO MORE TALK: Hacking Associations DC Unconference is for you!

I hope you will register right now.  Don’t wait.  Do it right now.  Right. Now.

No more delays. No more excuses.  NO MORE TALK.  It’s time to take action.

One day. One idea. $1,000.  Change your association.  Change the association community.  Be the change you wish to see in the world. 

(Gotta love Gandhi, huh?)

My good buddy, KiKi L’Italien of DelCor, and I will be your hosts for the day.  We’ll see you there!

You can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pinnovation or join the P.I. Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/principledinnovation.

Just a few years ago, there was precious little discussion of either business models or business model innovation in the association community.  Today, as a result of the game-changing impact of the Web and in the aftermath of near economic collapse, the present and future viability of association business models is a core concern for boards, CEOs and senior executives.  I believe this is such a critical issue for associations, that I have announced plans to present a two-day business model innovation workshop this September, the first session of its kind in our community.

As I have done my own deep dive into the specific challenges and opportunities of association business model innovation, I have been inspired by the work of Dr. Alexander Osterwalder, the lead author of the spectacular book, Business Model Generation.  I have followed Alex’s blog, Business Model Alchemist, for some time now, and I was among the early adopters who joined the online community Alex and the core team formed to support the creation of a book that is both visually appealing and content rich.  (Listen to the podcast to learn more about the book’s creative business model, a departure from traditional publishing to be sure.)  It was a great pleasure to be a contributor to the project, and I think Alex’s design-oriented approach to business model innovation is very powerful.

When I met Alex last fall at BIF-5 in Providence, I invited him to be a guest on the P.I. Podcast.  We’re both quite busy with travel, so it took a bit of time to schedule our interview.  It was worth the wait, though, because we had a really terrific chat.  I was especially interested to learn more about the Swedish company, Peepoople, and I think you will be too.  This is a long podcast (close to an hour), but I hope you’ll carve out some time to listen.  You will be glad you did.

If you would like to be notified about the lowest available tuition for my September 2010 business model innovation workshop, please complete this form.

This podcast (53 MB download) is just about 60 minutes in length.  Please e-mail me if you have any comments, questions and suggestions for future guests.  Please don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, and be sure to join the Principled Innovation Facebook fan page.

Download audio file (osterwalder.mp3)

Earlier today, I announced to Principled Innovation’s Facebook fans that on September 28-29, 2010, I will be offering a two-day public workshop on business model innovation for association leaders. This event, the first of its kind for the association community, will take place in Northern Virginia, and is open to association CEOs, senior executives and volunteer leaders.

Over the two days of this workshop, I will lead participants through a powerful process of learning and discovery around their associations’ existing business models, as well as the development of new business model concepts. Participants in this intensive and immersive experience will emerge with both fresh strategic insights and new actionable approaches to drive the success of their organizations in the next decade and beyond.

It’s incredibly exciting to have my friends at TMA Resources joining me as a supporting partner in presenting this event. I know firsthand that TMA Resources shares my commitment to building a more vibrant future for associations, and I could not be happier about their involvement in this workshop.

The official registration for the workshop will open on April 28, which is exactly three weeks from today.  If you would like to be contacted about special pre-registration access to the lowest available tuition options for the workshop, please complete this form.

Please mark your calendars for September 28-29, 2010.  It’s going to be an extraordinary two days that may well change your association–and your work as an association leader–forever!

You can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pinnovation or join the P.I. Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/principledinnovation.

Earlier this week at the South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) conference in Austin, Here Comes Everybody author Clay Shirky told attendees, “institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.”  The relevance discussion feels like a reflexive institutional response to the loss of control associations have experienced over the last 20 years as their stakeholders have become less dependent on them for access to information, education and connections.  We may say we’re searching for fresh answers, but it is not clear to me that we are willing to ask different questions.

In a world of ubiquitous and rapidly-growing networks that distribute and accelerate knowledge flows and make interaction simple and inexpensive, our community must reinvent its approach to associating from the edge.  We are no longer selling a product, service or even an experience.  Rather, we are negotiating updated agreements with our stakeholders, designing a new social contract for the next generation of digital co-creators who expect customized and highly favorable terms in exchange for their commitment and engagement.  Going forward, the thick value associations want to create must come not in the form of pre-packaged widgets, but as unique expressions of meaning, situated in context, and crafted (as well as remixed) using a variety of media.

To reframe this conversation around reinvention, let me elaborate on the three key themes (decentralization, transparency and fearlessness) my friend and colleague Jamie Notter identified at the end of the last webcast:

Decentralization requires trust–Jamie and I agree that associations must radically decentralize the value creation process.  But as I pointed out in the first webcast, a more distributed approach will require much greater trust in their stakeholders than most associations demonstrate today.  The rules and structures associations have put in place over many decades create a kind of synthetic trust (to borrow a term from Robert Putnam) that is no substitute for the genuine article when the imperative is to nurture and support sustained self-organized collaboration.  Under these conditions, there is no alternative but for associations to place new trust in their stakeholders.  At the same time, those same stakeholders, through their decisions and actions, must display clearly that they are worthy of that trust.

Openness requires responsibility–Jamie spoke of transparency, a term I have come to view primarily as a legal construct, not a strategic mindset.  Being open is about much more than which information is shared and with whom.  It is about systems that are inviting and inclusive, and engage the available talents in ways that are meaningful to those people.  Openness does create the potential for increased risk exposure, however, which makes an intrinsic sense of shared responsibility a critical element of success.  There is good reason to believe that trustworthy leaders and stakeholders will eagerly embrace their responsibilities on behalf of organizations that genuinely value them as people, as well as the contributions they make.  Nevertheless, associations need to act decisively to build robust open system cultures in which everyone is expected to make an important contribution to stewardship.

Courage requires imagination–Jamie also spoke of the need for associations to be fearless in trying new things.  I absolutely agree with him, but it is important to remember that courage is not defined as the absence of fear, but the determination to proceed even when fear exists.  In my experience, the best way to build that kind of determination is to use the gift of imagination.  When we are able to imagine not only novel possibilities, but their positive implications and outcomes as well, the choice to innovate is far less daunting.  We are imbued with an unbridled spirit of discovery that is infectious, making it easier to inspire and engage others.  While we always remain keenly aware of potential downsides, we do not dwell on them, and we act with courage as authors of the greater good.  Once again, associations need to cultivate the raw imagination of their stakeholders, as well as the refined commitment to courageous action it fuels.

There is one final webcast in this series, and I urge the panelists to reflect on this blog post as they prepare.  We should abandon further conjecture on the ephemeral question of relevance, in favor of guiding leaders in the association community through a deep and substantive exploration of how they can meaningfully reinvent their organizations for the 21st century.  It’s time to change the conversation.  Will we?

Please follow me on a Twitter at twitter.com/pinnovation.

Earlier today, I had the great pleasure to speak with London-based author Jemima Gibbons about her terrific new book, Monkeys with Typewriters: Myths and Realities of Social Media at Work from Triarchy Press.  If you’re at all interested in the profound impact of social technologies on organizations and their leaders, then you will definitely want to add this book to your list.  Not only is Monkeys very readable and engaging, it is filled with invaluable insights from both Jemima and the more than 50 thought leaders she interviewed during her research.  Plus, it’s got a great title!

Since this book is coming from the U.K., you have probably not heard of it before now.  I am very pleased to have unearthed this gem for association leaders, who also will benefit from the book’s extensive glossary of social technology terms.  As Jemima told me, “you don’t need to beat yourself up about not being a digital native,” and this comprehensive lexicon certainly will help reduce the culture shock for our community’s digital immigrants.

So until your copy of Monkeys arrives, I hope you’ll listen to my podcast with Jemima.  We had a great conversation about her experience as a first-time author, as well as her perspectives on what association leaders need to think about when it comes to social tools.  I hope you enjoy listening to our interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it!

This podcast (32 MB download) is just about 35 minutes in length.  Please e-mail me if you have any comments, questions and suggestions for future guests.  And please don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!

Download audio file (gibbons.mp3)

This is the question I chose to open my business model innovation workshop last Monday at the Great Ideas Conference in Colorado Springs.  I selected this question because it recently came to my attention that at least some association leaders are concerned about the idea of business model innovation because they see it as “radical.”

Radical?  Really? (Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself.)

In truth, the most radical choice association leaders can make today is perpetuating the status quo as a strategy for long-term success.  The belief that the next trajectory of success will be discovered simply by doing more of what your organization has done for the last 25, 50 or 100 years reflects a profound misunderstanding not only of today’s operating environment for associations, but also the complex challenges our community faces going forward.  From my vantage point, meaningful business model innovation is anything but radical.  It is the only responsible choice for association leaders interested in building “thrivable” organizations for the 21st century.

What does it mean to be thrivable?  For me, thrivability is the capacity to flourish by capitalizing on the powerful forces of paradigm shift.  Thrivability is about letting go of what our organizations have always done, and designing the “next practices” that will enable new value creation.  In the 21st century, it is the innovators that will thrive and associations need to be among them.

The radical choice?  Now more than ever, you cannot be certain you know what it is.

Please follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pinnovation.