Blog
Five Ways NOT to Brainstorm
Brainstorming has come under fire recently as being a crummy way of coming up with new ideas. Perhaps it’s because people are doing one or more of the following? Inviting as many people as possible…
Read More →Five Tips for Success with Ad Hoc Volunteers
Thanks to ASAE’s 2008 Decision to Volunteer study, we know that our members are eager to volunteer. But thanks to generational trends and research, we know that our volunteers are looking for different volunteer experiences,…
Read More →Membership Marketing on a Shoestring Budget, NAHB-Style
I had the opportunity to present Membership Marketing on a Shoestring Budget for the National Association of Home Builders’ Association Leadership Institute earlier this week. As usual, when I deliver this session, I solicit great…
Read More →Adopting the Mission Command Mindset
A few weeks ago, the Washington Post ran an article about some of the latest developments in military leadership, and, as part of it, they shared the idea of the Mission Command Mindset. At its…
Read More →Three Keys to Inspire New Ideas from Staff
What does it take for associations to succeed at innovation? I’ve been doing some research on innovation initiatives in associations for a client and had written a bit about it for the Spark blog a…
Read More →What Do YOU See?
About a year ago, the Harvard Business Review did an interview with Maya Angelou. I definitely recommend checking out the entire thing, but there was one thing in particular she said that stuck with me:…
Read More →It’s Not Magic!
I’m in St. Paul today presenting for the Midwest Society of Association Executives’ annual meeting today. Two of my sessions are on familiar topics: The Mission Driven Volunteer and my Carpe Annum IGNITE session. But…
Read More →Let Your Member Data Show You the Way
Associations Now recently did a story on my awesome client NICSA and the new membership model project we worked on together last summer. They’ve graciously given me permission to share it. How one association unbundled…
Read More →Data, Experience and the Scientific Method
From the new Spark whitepaper, Getting to the “Good Stuff”: Evidence-Based Decision Making for Associations, written with Peter Houstle: So once you’ve got the data, are you all set? Nope. Data is a necessary component…
Read More →Getting Ready to Use Data
From the new Spark whitepaper, Getting to the “Good Stuff”: Evidence-Based Decision Making for Associations, written with Peter Houstle: What are the things you need to do to get ready to use your data? Address…
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