President’s Message – Spring 2007 Contact Newsletter

THE JOURNEY TOWARDS AN “INTELLIGENT ASSOCIATION”

People have asked me outright what my agenda is and where I would like to lead the organization.

What is an association? It’s a group of people who voluntarily come together to solve common problems, meet common needs and accomplish common goals.

I believe the four obligations of leadership of this organization are:

1. To ensure that the leadership team has access to a common stream of information from members and stakeholders that allows it to understand their views of the world.

2. To provide a coherent stream of information back to members and stakeholders that allows them to understand not just what decisions have been made, but why.

3. To bridge the gap between members’/stakeholders’ views of the world and the views held by those who seek to earn the right to lead them.

4. To understand that in the voluntary nature of associations, people choose to engage because they perceive that it is in their own self-interest to do so.

I believe that the keys to sustaining success are to have a reputation for value by providing a portfolio of good stuff; creating an enjoyable culture – based on trust and communication; and a nimble infrastructure – that allows us to quickly seize opportunities to create value.

I want to continue to support the association’s journey to be, and maintain it as, an “intelligent association”. An intelligent association is about sustaining knowledge and using it well – to ensure that value is being received.

What does that look like? Let me try to explain.

An intelligent association defines what will constitute value. The CSSE leadership team works hard to reach consensus on what will constitute success for our organization. This clear direction continuously directs the leadership team’s judgment as it makes decisions on the allocation of resources. I believe there has to be an emphasis on having a written plan that reflects the definition of measurable success and is truly strategic. The success measures and strategic direction needs to drive the activities of all staff and volunteer work groups, as well as the organization’s annual operational strategies.

An intelligent association uses the strategic intent to develop strategy. The board wants to ensure that the strategic direction and its intent is a living reality and is regularly updated and implemented by the CSSE. We have been reviewing the direction at each of the board meetings. The strategic direction acts as a clarifying guide as the organization constantly reviews and updates its current portfolio of programs, products and services, including what new programs, products and services need to be developed and implemented in order for the organization to remain relevant, as well as what current programs, products, and services need to be updated or eliminated in order for the portfolio to be the highest quality.

We are working to ensure effective and efficient processes to connect the strategic direction with the organization’s annual operational plan. The strategic direction drives and directs the annual budget. Within an intelligent organization, the infrastructure needs to be reviewed at least annually to ensure that it is well linked to and effectively supports the ongoing implementation of the strategic direction.

This type of organization uses effective procedures and processes to formatively evaluate the strategic direction, implementation and achievement of outcomes.

Implementing, Monitoring and Adjusting strategy is another component of an intelligent association. The leadership team engages in continuous strategic dialogue to ensure that what is promised and defined in the strategic direction is successfully delivered. It is important that we have a process in place to evaluate the plan’s progress and success and to hold the leadership team accountable. Continued successful implementation of the strategic direction and demonstration of the value that it brings to members and other key stakeholders are significant forces in creating and retaining a positive organizational image and reputation in the marketplace.

An intelligent association earns a reputation for relevance. The leadership team must clearly understand what the membership both wants and needs. These needs and wants are effectively identified through continuous external and internal scanning and marketing research. The knowledge developed from the research and scanning assist the leadership team in developing and sustaining a powerful value proposition that is viewed as high quality, relevant and indispensable. The value proposition is delivered through a successfully implemented value discipline and organizational behavior at all levels. Enterprise, group and individual behavior supports the strategic direction. The organization must be positioned to earn a brand reputation for excellence, strong character and relevance. The success of this creates opportunities to sustain relevancy because members and other key stakeholders are then motivated to participate in variety of forums for knowledge exchange.

An intelligent association sustains knowledge and uses it well. The leadership team must work to maintain its will to continually utilize a knowledge-based governance strategy including focusing on the organization’s key strategic challenges and opportunities, monitoring performance and achieving desired outcomes, adjusting strategy and policy as changes in the environment, new opportunities or challenges and maintaining the necessary planning and policy tools of intelligent governance.

The leadership team’s governance processes for work and decision-making earn the trust of members so that they view the functioning of governance as credible and legitimate. Governance needs to be seen as credible so the process by which decisions are made is one based on rationality rather than political power and the reasonable use of information gathered from a variety of sources. The governance process is viewed as legitimate because volunteers believe that the views of all important voices were part of the conversation that led to the judgment.

We need to work to sustain a reputation for credibility and legitimacy because we utilize knowledge-based decision making. We have dialogue before deliberation and the integration of strategic thinking in all elements of its governance. Our leadership team needs to continue to sustain this strategic thinking and focus by periodically re-examining and reaching consensus on what will constitute value and success and reaffirming strategic direction.

My agenda is to see to what extent our organization possesses the components of an intelligent association and that we think with some foresight.