Innovation Leads to Creating Value

AENC was asked by the American Society of Association Executives (AENC) to host a talk about Innovation – how we identify innovation and how we make innovation happen.

Thanks to Jerry Piercy, the Growth Coach, and several AENC members, we had a great conversation around what is innovation and how to be innovative.

The first thing we discussed was the actual definition of innovation. When we initially discussed the definition, the consensus was it meant positive change, however, when you read the definition, it was summed up as something new or different or having a different perspective.

With the recent passing of Steve Jobs and the recent anniversary of the death of Thomas Edison, we posed the question of is inventing the same as innovation. Inventors are innovative, but they are not synonymous. Invention is the idea of creating something from imagination. Innovation creates value around a process that already exits; it sustains and causes fundamental change.

Going back to Jobs and Apple, they were mainly about innovation. Apple didn’t invent the computer, the mp3 player, music downloading, or even the smart phone, however, they did invest in making them better. They have created this culture around innovation and people have come to expect it, they have built value around the name and have created a need for their products. People line-up for hours before an Apple product is released. Compare that with Microsoft – you don’t find people waiting in-line for the realize of Windows 7.

So, the challenge for associations is to be innovative, however, you can’t just innovate for the sake of innovation. The only reason to innovate is if your organization truly wants to create value and transform the experience of the customer.

The session explored ideas on how to innovate. For example: Must learn from the past, break the routine, ask better questions, observe the things around you, get good people and empower them, know/listen to your customer, and try, fail, try again (fail quickly).

So, how did these thoughts translate into the association? How are current associations innovating?

1 – Empower people – whether it’s the CEO, who should also be the Chief Innovative Officer (CIO), or the staff who have a passion and energy for their jobs, everyone (CEO, staff, board, members, etc.) should be empowered to be innovative. Encourage folks try, knowing the sometimes failure will be an option

2 – Know the customer – organizations must understand their stakeholders, gather data (from surveys, research, focus groups, town halls, etc.) and make decisions based on data.

3 – Embrace technology – in the recent book with Harrison Coerver, Race For Relevance,Harrison points associations spending more money on F&B than technology. So whether its bringing in an intern to help train the staff on technology or investing more of the budget or reserves to technology, associations must be willing to commit to investing in technology.

4 – This may seem obvious because this process has been around for a while, but it’s so important to have a strategic plan or a road map on where you want the organization to be heading.

5 – Must be willing to invest/work to achieve innovation. For example, check out this video called 212 degrees. That is the temperature that water boils. At 211 degrees it just hot water, but the extra effort to move from 211 to 212 causes water to boil, create steam and with that, run train.

6 – Inspiration from the book Race for Relevance led to the sixth how to shrink the board and clean-up our governance model. It’s broken, ineffective and in MANY cases, stymies innovation.

7 – Speaking of governance, consider allowing outsiders to serve on your board. Or perhaps create a board swap where associations can share board members to gain a different perspective.

8 – And lastly, be willing to devote the time to innovation. We are here because either the association has been around for over 100 years and its easy to get complacent. You have to be prepared to invest the time and make the change. Check out this video about 212 degrees.

The session was great and there were many other items that came out of this session and I will post more once I get a few of the handouts from our facilitator.

Lighting a Fire

This year’s ASAE Annual Meeting is nearly in the books and I have had a chance to hear some great sessions. I’ll be writing about more later, but I wanted to briefly talk about the session from author and speaker David Nour.

Nour is author of the book, Relationship Economics, and he is currently working on the book, Return on Impact. This book will be available through ASAE and is discuss the impact of social media.

There were some great nuggets that came out of his session – how to lead differently – and one had to do with how we motivate those staff or volunteers or others we want to influence.

David said something that really made me think and that was, “Are you lighting a fire within people? Or are you lighting fires under them? The one that burns within burns longer.

So, what are you doing to light the fire within your stakeholders? What are doing to turn the typical member into an evangelist. Are you a reactive association or are you visionary? What are you doing to encourage your staff, volunteers or others to speak from their hearts and are you encouraging them to be passionate about what you believe?

A staggering statistic was thrown out by David in this session and it really made me wonder sometimes about the way we market and how skeptical people are. Nour said that 75% of people don’t believe what you are advertising/marketing. So, how are else are you getting the word out there. If you are relying completely on advertising and marketing to get your message out or to get folks to come to the annual meeting, you might want to rethink that philosophy. Evangelist speaking for you are much more impacting and lasting.

So, where are you lighting your fires?