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July 11, 2016 By Amanda Kaiser

The Illusion of the Right Answer in Association Management

the right answer

For any strategic question we might ask, there are a thousand potential answers. Let’s say we ask, how can we host a better conference? Well, we could start with more speaker engagement, collaboration and synergy. We could focus on topic selection. We could think about how to make networking work better. We could think about the space, the food, the environment. We could help attendees get more out of their spare time. We might think about how to translate all their conference learning into action at the end. Which do we choose?

Rarely is there just one right answer. Most times there are a bunch of right answers.

Instead of aiming to find the right answer right off the bat, a few new steps are becoming more important in today’s complex, ambiguous environment. Context is important. We need to know more than what is happening, we also need to know why it is happening. Testing is important. We need to learn how to try out a new initiative cheaply before investing significant time and money. Flexibility is important. We need to move nimbly through our quick changing environment responding to needs and even anticipating needs.

Too many times we get frozen looking for the right answer. There is no right answer. But there are new steps for solving problems that helps us find the answers we need.

Onward!

Related:

  • One thing we can do to prepare for change
  • Overwhelming, ambiguous options plague associations
  • Smoothing the path to try something new at your association

Filed Under: Association Innovation, Association Strategy Tagged With: answer, anticipating changes, association change, association innovation, association leadership, association strategy, beta testing, change management, context, problem solving, problem solving process, trends

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