Beyond the Myths

Building a Context for Association Innovation

In today’s profoundly challenging operating environment, many association leaders believe that innovation is something that is “nice to do,” but not an essential ingredient of organizational survival, especially in the face of other more urgent priorities. While this way of thinking may seem appropriately sensible and pragmatic, it also reflects a very short-term and rather limited perspective on the drivers of association success. Not only is innovation a critical organizational capability for today, but it also offers associations their best chance to create value and achieve mission going forward.

Unfortunately, a chief obstacle to innovation in the association community is a fundamental misunderstanding of what innovation actually is and what it requires. These “myths” frequently prevent association CEOs and senior executives from building a case for innovation with their volunteer leaders, and they make innovation seem inaccessible and something largely reserved for the corporate sector. 

But the news isn’t all bad. A growing number of senior leaders are beginning to recognize the need for innovation both within their own organizations, and throughout the broader association community. To help build this emerging context, let me dispel a few lingering innovation myths, as well as challenge association leaders to start engaging in the demanding work of building highly focused, disciplined and innovation-capable organizations in the years ahead.

Dispelling some myths of innovation

• Innovation and creativity are the same thing—There is an understandable tendency to confuse the use of these two words that extends far beyond the boundaries the association world. So let’s be absolutely clear: innovation and creativity do not mean the same thing. Creativity is the art of thinking differently that leads to the emergence of new ideas. Innovation is a systemic discipline for consistently acting on new ideas to create value. Innovation begins with a creative spark, but that spark is truly only the beginning. Ideas matter, but what also matters is how associations, their networks and communities, act on those ideas to create value. 
  

• Innovation is an individual effort—Invention gives us new ideas, but the ideas of the lone inventor are not sufficient. And, in truth, no “lone” inventor truly works alone. Even if a single individual receives credit and public recognition for inventing something, there is without question an unseen network of colleagues, employees, financial supporters and others who contributed to making a great idea into a reality. Associations cannot afford to rely on the creative talents of a handful of staff or members, because those talents are highly mobile and may not always be available. Instead, associations must leverage the knowledge, experience and capacity found in the distributed networks and communities of their organizations. 
  

• Innovation is primarily about products—Again, associations limit themselves unnecessarily by conceiving of innovation as mostly about developing new products. In today’s business environment, products can be duplicated with ease and quickly become commodities, thus diminishing an association’s return on investments in innovation. Instead of focusing on products, associations must pursue innovation in services, experiences, processes, whole business concepts and strategies. Whatever form it takes, the ultimate goal of innovation is to create value for their members, and associations should not constraint their thinking about the ways in which it can be delivered.
  

• Innovation is too costly—In too many associations, new initiatives or projects are launched on a whim. Perhaps the association CEO attends a conference and sees an interesting new idea. She may return to the organization and announce, “We’re going to start working on X!” Investments are made and when no immediate returns are achieved, those investments are abandoned. But at what cost? When innovation is an occasional event or a crash program, important resources are wasted. But if an association can put an innovation system in place, there can be greater fiscal certainty that leads to “economies of discovery.” Instead of investing in new ideas in a scattershot manner, the discipline of innovation creates a transparent structure for investing in the association’s best ideas in an intelligent and effective way. 
  

• Innovation is too risky—I disagree with the prevailing conventional wisdom that being risk averse is embedded in the DNA of associations and cannot be overcome. Every association with which I am familiar began with a conscious choice on the part of some pioneers who wanted to create and deliver value to a particular group of people or organizations. In each of these highly entrepreneurial acts, there were varying degrees of risk, sometimes more and sometimes less. Nevertheless, the risk was present and real. And in the operating environment that associations face today, risk is still very much a given, an element of the context in which our organizations operate. The challenge, then, is for association leaders to develop their own interactive orientation to risk, and build their understanding that success and failure are intimately related, not polar opposites. In today’s highly competitive markets, associations can either risk taking action to serve their customers in new ways or risk not taking action while someone else does. 

How do you make innovation a true organizational priority?

Whether associations will make innovation a genuine priority in this century will depend on 1) the presence of a shared perspective throughout these organizations on its importance, 2) a clear framework for understanding what innovation involves, 3) a system for putting innovation into practice that engages all of the organization’s resources and 4) the leadership will to make it all happen. To help catalyze this larger process of organizational advancement, association leaders can begin by taking the following important steps down a new pathway:

• Take a hard look at your strategic plan—In times such as these when complexity is high, associations need simple, clear and focused strategies. But those straightforward strategies must also create ample space for genuine innovation. So look at your association’s strategic plan, and if doesn’t surface clear opportunities for innovation, then it’s probably time for a new strategy. You should look carefully at the gaps between what you’re already doing and what your members need. And don’t limit your thinking to just your members’ stated needs. You must work to discern their unarticulated needs as well. You can then develop an “innovation agenda” for your association that identifies those priority areas and engages both staff and members in the work.
  

• Take a hard look at your culture—Do you believe that the entrepreneurial spirit that inspired the founding of your organization is alive, and simply covered over by years of tradition and layers of bureaucracy? If so and you’re willing to nurture that spirit, to cultivate it and give it a place in which it can flourish, then your association will be able to advance its innovation effort. You can begin by observing how your people interact with each other. Does collaboration come naturally to them? Do they have room to experiment? Are they worried about the consequences of failing? It is essential that you design structures and practices that fully embrace entrepreneurial action, while maintaining a careful focus on crisp and effective execution.
  

• Take a hard look at what you know—Your association needs a constant yet manageable flow of new knowledge and ideas to facilitate innovation, and that flow will include valuable resources from beyond the accepted boundaries of your organization. So as you tap into your association’s distributed network of intelligence in search of new knowledge, you and your team must remain open to ideas that are “not invented here” and be sure that they receive a fair hearing along with those from within the organization. More generally, association leaders should become voracious consumers of ideas. Ideas are everywhere, ready for the taking, and you never know the direction from which your association’s next big success will come.
  

• Take a hard look at your budget—As mentioned above, innovation is a discipline for consistently acting on new ideas to create value. One key element of this consistency is the ability to make regular strategic investments in a portfolio of innovation projects in various states of development. But these strategic investments will not be possible unless you can reduce your association’s 
  non-strategic spending. A less-than robust economy and the clear need to prepare for an uncertain future provide ample justification for “sunsetting” products and services that have outlived their usefulness so those resources can be re-directed. The careful management of an association’s limited resources should not be in conflict with the larger strategic opportunity of innovation as an instrument of long-term organizational sustainability.

There can be no doubt that the pursuit of innovation is an enormous challenge for organizations of all kinds, and for associations it will be harder than most. But with the future of associations in play, it is innovation that will help our organizations maintain their relevance, focus on mission and create value for members, customers, stakeholders and society. It is no longer sufficient to look upon innovation as something “nice to do.” The ability to innovate is quickly emerging as the primary core competence for associations and their leaders in the 21st Century. Will you challenge your organization—and yourself—to develop it?

Jeff De Cagna is chief strategist and founder for Principled Innovation LLC, located in Arlington, Virginia. He is currently working on a book, “The Quest for Value: Leading Innovation in the 21st Century Association,” which will be available in 2004. Principled Innovation LLC works exclusively with associations on the challenges of crafting strategy, organizing for innovation and leveraging knowledge in a turbulent and uncertain world. You can reach Jeff at jeff@principledinnovation.com, and visit Principled Innovation LLC on the Web at www.principledinnovation.com.

 

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