This week I wrote a blog post for the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE), on the idea of a strategically skilled association.
Strategy is more important than ever. Associations – and, more importantly, their members – face a changing environment, including significant threats to traditional association business models.
Yet, associations are often disenchanted and disappointed with formal strategic planning processes, in which they undergo a process and end up with a product – the document.
What if we thought of strategy not as a document, but as a skill or a habit?
Let’s break apart the notion of strategy as something confined to a process that happens every three to five years. Let’s look instead at the capabilities that strategically skilled associations need to be living and breathing, day in and day out.
I’m looking forward my session on the Strategically Skilled Association at the CSAE National Conference in Toronto on October. There we will explore these skills and how you can cultivate them in your own association.
