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May 15, 2017 By Amanda Kaiser

Are Associations Prepared for Member Career Churn?

Moore’s Law is changing everything for associations, and the effect of this law will continue to change everything for us faster and faster!

I did not make it to this year’s DigitalNow conference, but I was intrigued by the tweet stream. I learned that because technology is changing our jobs will change, the skills we need to know will change, and how we do our work will change. Because technology is evolving ever faster, we will have to learn ever faster. In fact, experts predict we will all be truly continually learning. Unlike the college then career cycle of the past we will likely embark on a massive learning cycle every 10 years.

Samantha Whitehorne covers this new trend and its implications for association conferences in her latest article which is absolutely worth a read. I love the direction she is exploring for the association conferences of tomorrow. Helping attendees personalize the conference, extending the life of the conference, and creating inquiry and curiosity are inherently engaging and will engage members. But are these experts eluding to even bigger changes for associations?

We already see now that few professionals continue to stay in the same industry their whole career. Fewer and fewer of us will likely stay in our profession as well. Perhaps if 10 years is the learning cycle number, 10 years is also the career churn number. If this becomes the case, what does a 10-year average career churn mean for associations?

It means we have to get a lot better at attracting new members and engaging new members.  It means we have to get better and faster at understanding our members and their challenges. It means we have to provide value at every career milestone. It means the path to board leadership can not take 20 years.

It may mean members switch associations every 10 years. It may mean we get good at introducing them to their next association. It may mean we get good at updating each other’s member data. It may mean we learn to collaborate more.

What if the 10-year career churn started for your members tomorrow? What do you have to change?

Related:

  • How to exponentially improve member engagement at any association
  • You need to know your association’s value trigger point
  • The 4 skills associations should be teaching

 

Filed Under: Association Innovation, Association Strategy Tagged With: career cycles, career stage, conference, conference experience, continuous innovation, innovation, learning process, member experiences, new technology, professional development

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