How Much is Enough?

What If?

Do you ever wonder what the world would be like, if:

1. To our children, we more often said "yes" , then "no"?

2. In our schools, when grading papers, teachers wrote scores on tests and quizzes in-terms of how many the students got right, rather then wrong? For example, write in big bold letter +93, instead of -7?

3. During parent-teacher meetings and later during performance appraisals at work, much more focus was given on what the individual is doing well, what makes them truly special, where and how they add value, and much less focus on weaknesses and where they need to improve?

4. If each person gave just a tad more then they took?

5. If each person left each place they visited just a tad cleaner then when they found it?

6. If we thought more in-terms of what's possible, rather then what if it doesn't work out?

7. If we recognized and rewarded failure, someone taking a risk, trying something new?

What if?

Get Out of a Career Rut & How Introverts are Finding Their Way

I just had 2 articles published in ASSOCIATIONS NOW, a monthly magazine published by The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). Check them out at:

1. Get Out of a Career Rut: If you’re feeling stuck in your current job, these seven steps will help you move forward and find success. ASSOCIATIONS NOW, March 2010 http://lnkd.in/Tx5PQE.

2. How Introverts are Finding Their Way in Associations: A professed introvert tells how the rise of online social networking tools is giving him and his fellow introverts a comfortable way to express themselves and connect with their communities. ASSOCIATIONS NOW, July 2010 http://lnkd.in/PXGuRX.

What is Freedom?

This question has been going around in my head, with no clear answer emerging. It then occurred to me, why not ask you all. So here I am. Hoping you can help me.

I mean, this morning I was "requested" by my dear wife to help her with the gardening, and she knows I hate gardening. Sure, I could have said no but then surely I would have been in the dog house for what would feel like eternity.

Am I really "free"?

Then as I did my Home Depot run this morning, a car passed by which had the following bumper sticker: "I Owe I Owe, So Off to Work I Go?".

Is this driver really "free"?

As I reflect on these and many other examples from my own life, I am beginning to wonder: What is freedom? What does it feel like?

What are your thoughts?

Vinay

PS Happy July 4th.

Relationship Between S & P Index and Associations?

Yesterday, I was at Carnegie Mellon University attending The Innovation Experience with Frans Johansson, author of best selling book, The Medici Effect. You can learn more about this at www.themedicieffect.com.

In his talk given at the start of the day Frans made a statement that really grabbed my attention. He shared that in the not too distant past, when a company made it S & P, it stayed on it for typically 30-35 years. Today, that has dropped to 10-15 years, implying the life cycle of businesses has compressed drastically. Given the increasing rate of change that is occurring globally, which I can only assume is going to further accelerate and life cycles of businesses and career are going to further compress, this raised some serious questions in my mind, some of which are as follows:

1. Given this climate, what impact will this have on associations?
2. Just to survive, let alone thrive, what new thinking will be required?
3. What thinking will be have to let go of?
4. What are the beliefs and assumptions by which we are/have been leading our associations?
5. Of these beliefs and assumptions, which ones will need to be reexamined, let go, and what new ones will we to take on?

What are your thoughts on this?

Are You Asking the Right Questions?

When I speak with business executives, conversations frequently turn to discussion of topics such as how to increase sales, drive revenue growth, increase client retention, and other measures of performance.

From my observation, my view is that these metrics and related conversations tend to be more inwardly focused. My sense is that to truly succeed and build lasting success, one needs to shift the focus 180 degrees and it is through this opposing route that we will achieve desired business performance.

When I think of customers I think of them as individuals, who are in the end striving to be happy. Reason for this way of thinking is when I think of a group, it feels somewhat generic, distant. But when I think of a single customer, let's call her Suzie, then I begin to see her differently, not just as a customer but more as a real person, a real living breathing human being, and this makes all the difference for me how I view then our collective customers, for they are ultimately a collection of individuals.

Therefore, I believe what we need to be instead asking questions such as how can we be more effective in getting answers to following types of questions:

1. What makes our customers happy?
2. What are their dreams? What do they want to be, do, have, achieve, create?
3. What truly matters to them?
4. How do they fill in: I will be happy, if/when______________?
5. What energizes them? Drains them?
6. What are they attracted to? What do they repel?

Then as we become more effective in gaining such crucial insights, then the questions become, such as:

1. How can be (re)structure our organizations to more effectively help our customers ultimately lead happier lives (through our offerings)?
2. What new programs and offerings do we need to create?
3. Of the current offerings, which ones do we need to dissolve, refine, further strengthen?
4. What will be our delivery mechanism?

All this of course within the context of our organizational visions, missions and core values. I realize the responses to first set of questions while will vary from customer to customer, perhaps major themes & patterns will emerge. Then as we become better at gaining such deep insights, the more effective we will become at taking our organizations to the next level.

Furthermore, if we can develop solutions that even more so help our customers acquire ultimately what they want deep within, perhaps they'll be willing to pay even more for our offerings.

I am not implying these are the absolute right questions. Rather these are just to get the thoughts flowing and to help see our routes to success from a different perspective.

It is said that framing the situation correctly and asking the right questions is a very important step to getting the right answers. Assume for the moment that anything is possible, that you have a blank slate and can redesign your organization anyway you like, what do you believe are the right questions we need to be asking, to not only survive today but to also thrive into the future?

Thoughts?

Creating Customer-Centric Organizations: Where Servicing Customers is Everyone's Job!

The other day, I gave a presentation to an association's board of directors and one of the statements I made was "membership is everyone's job, including the board" (implying that it's not only the job of those who work in membership departments). Upon hearing this, the Board Chair perked up, leading to an energetic and meaningful conversation with and among the leadership. Afterward the chairman came up and said THANKS for bringing up this important topic. Since then I have experienced similar "perking up" in other meetings with leaderships of various organizations.

I have been serving associations for nearly 2 decades and I started to reflect on a more deeper level as too what's causing this gap and what are some potential solutions that will lead to membership being viewed as everyone's job. And to me this topic became even more important for I observe similar challenges within the for-profit sector also.

The more I reflected on this, the more it occurred to me that the answers lie in how we respond to the often asked question "What do you do".

Whenever this question comes up, I have noticed that nearly every individual responds from their own role's perspective, their position within the organization. Actually, this was a realization and learning for me also.

For example, the Executive Director will introduce themselves as the ED of...exhibit person will respond as the exhibit person...and so on. However, when, specially when, we are attending business functions, in most cases we are not being asked to respond in-terms of our own functional role but rather as a representative of the entire organization for whom we work and therefore the more appropriate response would be from the broader perspective of what the organization does, for at that time, to the other person, we are the organization.

Thus, in the question "what do you do", the you being referred to is not the singular you but rather you being the entire organization, group for whom you work and represent. When this realization occurs, the self-view as well as the resulting response naturally shifts.

So what causes this in the first place, and more importantly what are some potential solutions? To understand the cause, it'll help to view 3-concentric circles. In the center of the circle we note the reason the organization exists--it's reason for existence (Purpose-WHY we exist). The second circle represents the organization's functional departments, it's internal structure (HOW we do what we do). And the 3rd circle represents, which is often closely and directly related to the 2nd circle, our products and services (WHAT we produce). For example, conference departments produces conferences and publications outputs publications.

Moving forward, currently when we place individuals within our organizations, we place them into various functional roles and soon each person begins to look outwards through their own lens, through their own role, and in the day to day fire fighting that often takes place, looses sight of the fact that they are just a spoke in the wheel. They forget that all spokes are interconnected, all are important, and all connected to the same cog, and that everyone is moving together towards a common destination.

So what are some potential solutions?

1. I believe it's be helpful for each person to view and understand the organization from say a 10,000 foot view, understanding each of their own roles within the broader system, see how they are interconnected, and are part of the wheel--part of the system but not the system itself. In other words, world doesn't revolve around any one of us but rather that we are part of a larger system, that we're all interconnected and we all exist together to fulfill a central purpose.

2. Instead of looking outwards-away from the circle, we need to view inwards, towards the center of the circle, realizing that it is the customers who are at the center--at the heart of the organization--the cog that keeps the spokes together and around which the entire wheel revolves. For without the cog, the wheel falls apart.

3. On a more tactical level, I believe it will be helpful to start with developing and arming each and every person with an elevator speech, that is consistently used by everyone within the organization. So when they are asked, what do you do, they can more effectively respond from the place of representing the entire organization rather then from the individuals role perspective.

While establishing such an understanding may take some time and effort, it is this type of understanding once infused will contribute to starting the shift the mindset, the thoughts and natural outcomes are likely to be more the case where customer service begins to be viewed as everyone's job, and not just that of customer service departments alone.

What are your experiences and suggestions that can help to establish stronger customer-centric organizations?