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February 2, 2017 By Amanda Kaiser

Why is it so Hard for Associations to Move from Ideas to Action?

Why do we have a hard time moving from ideas to action? Or as someone recently said, from knowledge absorption to knowledge execution? What is holding us back?

This phenomenon, our inability to move even when we know the right answer, pops up in every industry and profession (and in our personal lives too). It is not uncommon for me to hear a member say something like, “we are reasonably good at talking about issues in our industry, but we are not very good at actually doing anything about it.”

Here are just a handful of places we tend to get stuck:

  • We know we need to innovate, but we don’t
  • We know we need to use the new process, but we don’t
  • We are aware we need a strategy, but we don’t develop one
  • We know we need to fix something that is not working, but we send it out as-is again
  • We go to a conference and learn, but never implement that learning back at the office
  • At home we know we need to be more active, but we can’t find the time
  • We know we need to eat better, but the cake is calling to us (it might be pie, or cookies, or ice cream for you, for me it is cake; chocolate cake)

Converting knowledge into action is such an interesting issue. If associations could solve this problem, we could deliver far more value to members while engaging members more in the association. Is this a change management problem? Is it about forming new habits? I don’t know the answer so I’d like to ask you. Are there books, articles, tips, tricks, research about how to move from ideas to action? Are there systems, techniques or processes that work with groups and can work for us individually?

This issue comes up so frequently in the association community; I would love to be able to point to some valuable resources. If you would like to share what you have found helpful, please tweet me, send me a quick email through the contact form or for subscribers hit reply, you will get me right on the other side.

I hope to hear from you because I think we can make headway on this issue together.

Related:

  • Giving ourselves permission to think strategically
  • The problems attendees experience at conferences
  • Our biggest job as association leaders

Filed Under: Association Strategy Tagged With: actionable, ideas, learning process, resources

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