Hello, everybody, it’s an episode of Ask JP. Had the question, hey, what would you tell an association CEO right now based on what you’re hearing and seeing from the market?
First, I would start the process of output-based evaluation of your team. Office flexibility and time flexibility is going to continue, and you really must be focused on outcomes at the risk of being somewhat uncomfortable about that. This isn’t necessarily a great area for nonprofit associations over the years. We’re less attuned to be about outcome-based evaluation, in my opinion. We’re more about supporting the industry, moving forward and being mission centric. Now that we’ve allowed our teams some flexibility, we’ve got to be focused on outcomes and outputs.
Second, the other thing I’ve seen, be very participation focused over and over again, with our members. Now that we’re continuing multi-channel engagement with virtual meetings, in person meetings and all this kind of new stuff, our members may have lost their bearings on how they can get to us, how they can participate or how they could be engaged. I would think about monthly onboarding programs with members and existing members about what’s getting ready to happen, so they don’t get lost.
Number three, break down the walls between your members and staff. I’m surprised by the firewalls we have between the industry and getting to members of our team. We know that once they talk to our association specialists about issues or compliance items, or whatever it might be that you offer in your value proposition, they’ll love you. They love the association, but sometimes we just put up way too many walls to get to them. The closer you get to your customers, members, and nonmembers alike, the more successful you’re going to be.
That’s the Ask JP episode for today. Thanks for watching.
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