Great Ideas to Transform Individuals and Their Organizations
Ron Worth, FSMPS, CPSM, FAIC, CPC
A common question I get is how does the National Office stay on top of what is happening not just within the chapters but also at the national and international levels?

Well, Director of Membership and Chapter Development Tina Myers, Vice President of Education Bill Scott, CAE, and I just came back from an "ideas conference" held twice a year by the American Society for Association Executives, the association for association staffs. It was an exceptional event. We networked with several hundred of our peers in the association world to learn the best practices and leading trends reshaping professional development and delivery of exciting member services. Tina devoted her time to exploring how associations are providing more value for their membership dollars, how to expand our community and connect our members more regularly for informal mentoring, sharing, and friendship building. Bill jumped into a plethora of fascinating new methods to bring educational content to you, discussing what others are doing in education delivery and continuous learning to help you be more successful, productive, and content with your work-life balance.

My time with fellow executive directors focused on many of these same items especially value creation and providing you a transformational leadership opportunity through your involvement in SMPS. One of my goals was to identify real-life experiences that would lead to life-changing (aha!!) moments for you—opening new ways for you to grow professionally, lead, improve your performance, or experience personal innovation…and developing each of these experiences to exceed your expectations for SMPS involvement.

I’d like to share with you a couple of the many new ideas we were exposed to that have a correlation to your lives.

During the conference, we had the pleasure of hearing Daniel Pink, author of Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself and a contributing editor at Wired. (His articles on business and technology also have appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and other publications.) Mr. Pink argues that a radical shift is occurring within the world’s society as a whole. In the coming years it will be critical for each of us to fine tune the "right side" of our brain to enhance individual creativity, innovation, artistry, and empathy. Many of the examples Pink used in his message illustrate the expanding value of design in everything that we do or produce. (Case in point: The popular line of Michael Graves-designed products at Target.)

The developing countries are truly developing, as they have watched and learned from America. With increasing competition, we must find new, exciting ways to deliver our professional services to the public and our clients. Currently 1 out of every 10 IT jobs is going over seas and by 2010 that number will be 1 of every 4. Mr. Pink sees this trend literally reshaping all industries—from how our firms design, to contracting, legal services, accounting. Automation is continuing to reshape how we communicate, work, and live.

Pink left us with three key questions to ask ourselves before producing any new product or service:

1. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
2. Can a computer do it faster?
3. Is what I am selling in demand in this age of abundance?

Dan Pink produces a free electronic newsletter if you’d like to tap more of these trends: dp@danpink.com.

Note: Pink’s discussion complements the ideas of author Richard Florida, our keynote speaker for Build Business: Beyond Boundaries in New Orleans in August. Author of The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, Florida also explores the emerging rise of the creative class and the impact on our society.

We feel confident the ideas we were exposed to during this conference can be adapted to meet the needs of the SMPS members. Together we can create an environment that encourages visionary thinking, a long-range perspective for the future, and a nurturing culture for like-minded professionals with shared values. These are truly exciting times, and together there is very little we cannot do. [ return to top ]