Let’s embrace this opportunity to pivot and prosper

Everyone’s talking about the “new normal,” trying to fathom their post-pandemic priorities, and understand how their organization can pivot to not just survive but thrive in a new business environment. Well, right now the only certainty is our continued uncertainty. Post-COVID-19 (C-19), Maccy D’s will still serve a Big Mac (and cold, soggy fries!) although how it serves them may be different: people will still board domestic and international flights but their experience of the airport process may be altered, and professionals will still very much need their membership bodies to provide them with support, professional development, networking and representation, but how those members engage with their professional body, and with each other, may change.

 

Let’s not have a knee jerk reaction

In reality, for well over a decade, the membership sector has been grappling with members’ changing demographics, dwindling training budgets and increased service expectations. We all understand the challenging economics of leading an association and whilst we don’t yet have all the answers, we also don’t need to have a knee jerk reaction to our current predicament. 

 

Unless your organization and/or its members are directly involved in tackling the pandemic as key workers, most of us are through the crisis management phase: our staff are equipped with the technology necessary to work remotely; we’re providing outlets for enhancing team connectivity and unity, we’re on-message with our memberships; and we’re all relatively au fait with online meeting etiquette, as defined by Zoom, Skype, GoTo, MS Teams, Hangouts, WebEx or any one of the plethora of online conferencing systems which scatter our desktops. 

 

But whilst some of our operational teams may still be dealing with residual urgencies, as we (the UK) enter the fourth week of lockdown, senior executives and boards of directors should be very much immersed in business-as-usual, i.e. strategic review and business planning.

 

What could the new “norm” look like?

Truth? Nobody knows. But do they ever really know? As many of you have heard me say time and time again, whilst we’re not for profit, we’re also not for loss. All membership bodies operate as businesses, and the nature of business is that it is uncertain, or at the very least it’s never certain. And this is particularly true for those membership bodies which support professions that don’t require membership as a prerequisite for career status. 

 

So, what do we know?

 

1.  Membership will falter: the economic fallout resulting from C-19 will last for years and, whilst governments have stepped in to provide support for some business sectors, recovery will take time. Nearly 30% of UK businesses have laid off staff and as businesses and employees focus on revival, affording professional membership will not be an immediate priority.
2. Membership will bounce back: professionals will still need their membership bodies to provide them with support, professional development, networking and representation, but how those members engage with their professional body and with each other may change, and so…
3.  This is an opportunity to innovate: crises often present the conditions necessary for people to think and move more freely in creating rapid, impactful change. As part of your strategic planning this is your opportunity to define the new normal by refreshing your value proposition. Not just in terms of how you deliver membership support but also what you deliver to support your members.
4.  It’s time to start systems thinking: as organizations grow, they strengthen their structures to create predictability, efficiency and stability, but this rigidity stifles creativity and smothers our ability to be flexible or responsive to change. Association leaders will need to be agile, taking necessary risks in how they approach and solve problems. They’ll need to know that they can fail productively, and that failure is a learning that can later lead to further creativity. To do so successfully, leadership teams need to start systems thinking, i.e. analyzing their business holistically and focusing on the way the association’s constituent parts interrelate and work together over time as part of the larger system to deliver value and realise impacts.
5. Technology is not disruptive: pandemics are disruptive, climate change is disruptive, natural disasters are disruptive. Technology is a tool and C-19 has forced us collectively to confront our fears, concerns and anxieties about using these tools. We’re demonstrating that we can use the technology effectively and are doing so under extreme circumstances. Therefore, we have no excuse to not embrace technology as the enabler for enhancing our value propositions.
6.  The world is your oyster: many associations have long harboured ambitions to collaborate with international partners or to expand their activities overseas and establish an international presence but have been prohibited by perceived risks and actual costs. In response to C-19, our innovation, our use of technology and our enhanced value propositions make international membership a far more palatable objective than I think many boards and senior leadership teams have previously realized. Global membership communities are a very realistic prospect, the diversity of which inevitably will add value to your membership.
7.  We need to refocus our governance models: merely fulfilling fiduciary responsibilities is no longer an option for our boards of directors/trustees. They need to embrace their role in strategic and generative leadership, supporting the executive team by reviewing and, if necessary, redefining the vision and strategic direction of the association. An efficient board manages risk. An effective board discusses and agrees at a strategic level not just how to manage risk but how to capitalize on opportunities that enhance both financial strength and business resilience, whilst also addressing environmental responsibilities and adding value to the organization’s community and/or wider society. 

These are tough times and I’m certainly not denying that many challenges lie ahead for every sector and industry, but we nonetheless have a significant opportunity to reflect on what we do to support members, stakeholders, clients and partners, and how we conduct our businesses. 

 

Yes, business-as-usual will look different post-COVID-19 so let’s not throw away this opportunity to pivot and prosper by merely shoehorning our existing practices into new online packages and calling it innovation. Leadership teams need to take time to define their “new normal” by consulting members, observing innovations in other sectors, facilitating strategic planning, reviewing vision and values, and applying themselves in transformative ideation. Doing so will take time and resources but will undoubtedly ensure your organization not only survives but thrives post-pandemic and is able to respond more adeptly when the next crises arise.