Idea Center - February 2012 Archives
Subscribe to the Idea Center RSS feed!
Finding Balance
I have so many blogs rattling in my head and a dozen started in my blogging file. There are so many things to share. But right at this moment, the right one to share is Beth Kanter's latest post from the Wisdom 2.0 Conference where she said she spent a day off-line to give full attention to program and people. She desribed the conference as "a one-of-a-kind event in Silicon Valley that brings together an unusual mix of technology leaders, Zen teachers, neuroscientists, and academics, to explore how we can live with deeper meaning and wisdom in our technology-rich age."
Among the questions posed in her report that really resonated are: “What is important for creating a wisdom-based culture?” What ideas, books, or concepts are helping you balance in a hyper-connected world? How do you practice wisdom to keep your online/offline work and life balanced?
I recently started a yoga class and in the class this morning, the teacher asked us in the beginning to be "present" and that became my mantra throughout the 70 minutes. I think this class - and the study of yoga concepts - is my response to Beth's second two questions. The first, I am still pondering. What are your responses?
Throwing out the bath water, not the baby
I
n 2008, the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) was ready to create a new model for their chapters. Fast forward to February 2012, when on a volunteer leadership call, three local leaders shared how the new model is working in their states. We heard proof that volunteer leaders will embrace change and in fact make it their own. AADE had successfully thrown out the dirty bath water (old structure) without losing their members and volunteers.
Nadine Merker, director, volunteer services, had shared the AADE story during an ASAE Annual Meeting session last August (here’s recap and links). At that point, they were four months away from the deadline for chapters to embrace the new model. Now two months into the new year, the news is heartening.
A little background: AADE replaced its traditional chapter program with a state-based program that features a state Coordinating Body (CB) with Local Networking Groups (LNG). The financial, database and web management is handled by AADE offices in Chicago. This streamlines the responsibilities and the workload of volunteers. The volunteer structure is based on an adhocracy model. An online community portal, called MY AADE NETWORK, is the hub.
During the February call, three volunteer leaders, representing two CBs and an LNG, shared how they were activating aspects of the new model. The common themes expressed focused on how the new systems, especially online registration, web-based communications, and financial management, created greater efficiency and more member involvement. They also shared with their peers, that yes it took a leap a faith in a new system, new portal and in AADE HQ staff, but it was worth it.
"Using the registration took away a lot of burden and stress from us. It was nice feeling like a guest at your own party!"
"We had kind of felt isolated and [this new model and portal] reminded us that we have similar experiences … we are stronger together."
"We were supported every step of the way."
Too often association staffs feel that volunteers are a burden and that we need to “wait until the current leaders retire.” But AADE’s experience tells a different story. Part of what made it work of course was the staff’s ability to believe in the change and to know the difference between when they had to stand firm on an issue and when they could bend. This let members have a voice in the process.
I have to say I was so bowled over by the three volunteers. They took the leap of faith and became partners in positive change. I salute you Patricia “Mickey” Stuart, BS CDE MPH MS, Patricia Adams, RN CDE, and Gary Rothenberg, DPM CDE.
Down with Committees
A great conversation happened over on the ASAE Components Section Collaborate group. It began with a simple request for a sample committee charter or work plan. It morphed though into a dialog on the value of committees.
Donna Dunn, CAE, Executive Director and CEO, Association of YMCA Professionals, opened with a great statement: “I'm going to get on my soapbox this morning. I don't believe in committees except for the legally required ones (nominating and audit and finance). Especially with components, I believe we engage more people with task forces and work groups with specific work to do than with committees who may or may not have a portfolio of work.
She added that in their recent member study they found that people who volunteer for AYP are more satisfied with their membership and feel more engaged. She’s translates that nugget to a simple mantra “the more people we can get involved, the better off we are” and is using it to continue their march for governance innovation. They recently revised by-laws, eliminating committees except nominating and audit/finance and encouraging chapters to do the same.
Incidentally, I had the honor of facilitating their recent chapter leader retreat after which one chapter president wrote: “Just wanted you to know that after returning I had a great discussion with my CEO and we are adjusting the way we are doing Board work…WE ARE KILLING THE COMMITTEES! I will also be working with the board of AYP Chapter to do this very thing as well.”
Sharon Kneebone IOM, CAE, Director of Membership, Institute of Food Technologists, chimed into agree with Donna, adding that she has “seen too many components spend all of their volunteer efforts of filling mandatory committee positions with little work happening on providing true value at the component level.”
The nugget she shared is to use zero-based committee approach for components (essentially an approach which has the board review its volunteer work group structure to create work groups to fulfill the component's strategic priorities and objectives for the year. They are moving their sections to a similar model. I loved her rationale: “It is much better to create the volunteer groups to the work at hand than to try and fit the work to a stagnant committee model.” And I loved even more her report that IFT has more than quadrupled its volunteer engagement after switching to an ad hoc model.
Incidentally, the Oncology Nursing Society reported similar astonishing results when they switched from the traditional, hierarchical structure to an adhocracy: moving from about 1 in 26 to 1 in 5.
Lowell Aplebaum, Director, Membership & Councils, International Facility Management Association, reported similar approaches. An idea to steal from them is their Talent Scout (Volunteer Coordinator) position in chapters which fuels the adhocracy at the local level. You can check out more about their model and get a fuller explanation on their website.
Let’s all be honest – most committees don’t move the needle for our associations. Some do. If you look hard enough, you’ll see that these operate as task forces or work groups. If committees and terms send people screaming in the opposite direction, then why hold on to the tradition. Create a new tradition.
Data Duplication – Dumb and Dumber
So I call the bank/ phone company/… to ask a question about my latest statement, for example, and I get a voice mail prompt to enter my account number. After several more auto-queries (and often quite a few expletives), I get a human on the other end of the line. The first question they ask is…”What is your account number?”
I go to the office of my doctor/bank/repair shop to request service of some kind. I’m invariably asked to fill in a form on which I enter my name, address, phone number, etc. … all information I have already given to the doctor/bank/repair shop innumerable times.
So what’s wrong with this picture? Why are we perpetually regurgitating, re-writing, re-keying the same data over and over again? After all, this is the 21st century and most businesses have a customer database of some kind or other. And as every data manager knows all too well, each time a data set is re-entered, the likelihood it will be mis-keyed, or equally exasperating, duplicated in the system increases exponentially.
So how do our members feel when they register for an event, purchase a book or volunteer for a committee and we ask them to enter their name, address, phone number, … AGAIN? While many associations have developed member log-ins to pre-load this information for online transactions, there are a surprising number who have not, and very few have addressed this issue for onsite transactions. I suspect that most of us have struggled with this issue, but because the true cost of the problem (unproductive hours spent by members and staff re-entering data that already exists in the system as well as unproductive hours spent by staff de-duplicating re-entered data…not to mention the member frustration/ill-will generated by the duplicative effort) is difficult to calculate, we haven’t done the cost-benefit analysis that might justify the development of a viable solution.
This problem is especially vexing for association chapters, few of which have the data systems to effectively capture and report this information. Even more distressing, very few associations have developed a unified data system that provides their chapters an operative portal through which they can access, update and extract member data in anything approaching a useful manner. Consequently, members have an even more exasperating data experience when interacting with their chapters.
Are there solutions out there? Absolutely! I have, in fact, been to a doctor’s office where they handed me a form with my contact information pre-printed. (Of course they then handed me a HIPPA form with all the contact information fields blank!!!). I’ve also been to a bank where I received a set of documents that had most of the contact information, account numbers, etc. pre-printed. It can indeed be done. We just need to get a better handle on the cost of not addressing the issue. I suspect when we do, data systems vendors will find their phones ringing off the hook!
Always in search of ideas.
