Ask anyone who – however short or long their tenure in association management – why so many of their members seemingly and/or intentionally choose not to engage.
They’ll confidently tell you:
Many of my members don’t engage because
they are either “too busy” or “don’t see the value.”
What they don’t often say – maybe because they’ve just accepted these widely-popular reasons – is that they’re just not sure; largely because they’ve never considered that it might be something else. Most also don’t realize that these assumptions are not a consequence of recent events.
They have existed and been perpetuated for decades upon decades!
Despite this, they continue to be portrayed as contemporary-related evidence-based findings.
Why?
It’s often because these reasons have intentionally and perpetually been included in member surveys (i.e., as one of several “forced choices”). Inactive or less active members who respond tend to select them because they reflect their first impressions. And by responding thusly, they free themselves from having to consider other obstacles for which even they are often unaware.
Understand what these two reasons suggest. It implies that their fellow members…
…who are active or highly engaged are less busy.
…fortunately and somehow discovered benefits that they have not.
Do these excuses make any sense?
Throughout my career in association management, I found it difficult to accept these two basic assumptions; primarily because the active members and volunteer leaders that I met, interviewed, and worked with were always incredibly busy people.
It took me a while to find a way to challenge their efficacy. But eventually, the opportunity arose soon after I established the Melos Institute. Ultimately, the discovery did not come from surveys or focus groups, but from hundreds of volunteer leaders’ brief personal stories of how their membership had made a consequential difference in their lives.
Their stories were revelatory.
Their reasons didn’t relate to any of the widely-popular assumptions. Further, their accounts helped clarify why less active and inactive members failed to engage.
Hint: it wasn’t because of their busy schedules or perceived value.
While most reflected on the value of attending events, that was not what made their membership most worthwhile. As you might expect, what they valued most were the relationships that they were able to establish and nurture. That’s what prompted their continued engagement.
But that wasn’t the only extraordinary finding.
Many of these active members expressed frustration in their early years in not knowing how best to engage within their associations in ways that mattered most to them. That changed when they unexpectedly and often serendipitously connected with fellow members or professional staff. It was only through those unplanned connections that they got the guidance, support, and recommendations they needed to directly and immediately address their needs and interests as well as advance their goals and aspirations.
What became increasingly clear was that associations’ greatest obstacle to increasing and/or expanding member engagement was assuming that that their members understood how to navigate their organizations’ programs, products, and services in ways that mattered most to them. Or, knew how to find those members who might do the same
After analyzing hundreds of members’ stories, we have concluded that…even to this day:
Most members do not fully understand or appreciate
what it means to be a member or
how to make the most of their membership.
They lack the familiarity needed to engage
in ways that generate mutually beneficial outcomes
for themselves and their associations.
Why is that?
Most members tend to view their association memberships like other fee-based subscriptions. The dues payment gives them access to making purchases or registering for events that are dedicated to their vocation or avocation. This mindset is reinforced every time their associations communicate with them as if they are customers.
Members, like most Americans, have been trained their whole lives how to behave as customers. We do that really well.
But, members, over the same time frame,
have rarely, if ever, been trained
on how to be members of associations
that represent their practice settings
(i.e., professions, trades, or personal avocations)
They have no idea that their membership affords them the opportunity to build a comprehensive engagement plan that is focused specifically on those opportunities (i.e., participation, volunteerism, and key connections) which will be most consequential to them. More importantly to know that every choice they make has been intentionally designed by their associations to directly support their ongoing and continuous development.
Thus, most don’t fully understand or appreciate the profound impact and extraordinary outcomes that their engagement in their association can have in their lives. Having talked to literally thousands of members over a career spanning 40+ years, it’s become clear that only a small percentage have ever figured this out on their own.
It’s amazing, after decades and decades, that the solution to increasing and expanding member engagement has been going on unnoticed in every association…literally hidden in plain sight!
Yet, the disturbing thing about this is that it has not been going on for every member. It only happens when volunteer leaders, fellow members, and/or professional staff take the unprompted initiative. In essence, the guidance and support is not a planned, consistent, or continuous strategy within these organizations.
Having learned this, we now realize that
its informality has deprived everyone involved
from leveraging and maximizing the experience
in mutually beneficial ways.
It’s difficult for many to believe and accept that associations can overcome members’ resistance to engage simply by teaching them how to:
- make the most of their membership based on their immediate needs, interests, goals, and aspirations.
- create an engagement plan that ensures they are making the right organizational choices and social connections.
- adjust that plan when unexpected changes or new expectations arise.
But it’s true.
All that is required to improve and expand engagement in your association is to make a few key relation-centered adjustments to existing strategies.
Those that have done so have been stunned to see their inactive and less active members’ respond and engage with such enthusiasm. They are even more struck when, through their interactions with them, they become aware of the depth and breadth of their members backgrounds, training, achievements, and connections.
This revelation couldn’t be coming at a more crucial time for your members, their practice settings, and the larger society
Why Is This So Important…And Why Now?
As much as members lack the familiarity of how to make the most of their membership, many association management professionals also face the same conundrum.
Most of us, when we accepted our first position in associations, did not fully understand or appreciate what an association was or its role in a functioning democracy. Far too many still do not.
Having no previous academic training as association management professionals, we had no alternative but to learn the job…on the job.
We depended on our superiors and peers for guidance and support. Some of us were fortunate to be able attend conferences; where we expanded our learning experiences with peers from other parts of the country. Others, who were unable to do so, had to pursue their own self-directed learning opportunities.
Most of us had no reason to challenge the popular assumptions of the time. Fewer sought to test their efficacy. Thus, these beliefs dominated our thinking as we approached our work. And, not only have we been operating this way for decades, but these two viewpoints keep getting reinforced by being incorporated into every survey and study conducted to this day…with one exception.
In the early 2010s, a sociological scholar developed an unusual interest in associations’ emergence, formation, development, and operations. James R. Hudson. Ph.D. began analyzing the published histories of associations representing professions, trades, and personal avocations (excluding unions).
After reviewing over 400, he discovered some rather interesting and similar patterns and trends across practice settings, organization sizes, and geographic representations.
The most consequential was that these institutions
represented a unique population of organizations
that differed from for-profit and other nonprofits
in their purpose, scope, focus, and goals.
He proved that these organizations were uniquely and intentionally designed, by their founders, to support their members’ personal and professional development. Thus, their focus was not on product development but instead on human development…seeking to achieve empowerment first over profit.
Their distinction from for-profit and other nonprofit organizations
was such that he believed they should be categorized and characterized
with their own identity…be recognized
as membership-based organizations (MBOs).
All this is important, especially now, because members’ are facing threats and challenges – from of all
places, their own federal government – that are undermining their ability to function effectively in their
practice settings.
That would be tragic enough. But, the consequence of these actions extends far beyond the members themselves. It impacts those involved within their practice settings and, more importantly, it impacts those in the larger society; particularly the people who these members have chosen to serve and support.
At the moment, these threats and challenges show no sign of disappearing on their own…or anytime soon.
Once entrenched, efforts by associations to repair or replace that which has been damaged or broken will become increasingly difficult…if not impossible; making associations less relevant and more obsolete in their members’ minds.
Why?
Consider a few additional findings from Dr. Hudson’s ground-breaking research:
- MBOs can only operate effectively in functioning democracies.
In light of the current effort by the federal government to intentionally undermine our democratic framework, the rule of law, as well as all the institutions necessary to ensure the sustainability of a civil society, MBOs have the capacity to serve as a conduit that can be trusted to provide accurate, truthful, and reliable information, knowledge, and insights…as well as play a consequential role as a catalyst capable of disseminating whatever is needed into the larger society. MBOs that fail to assume this role and/or fail to respond to unwarranted and unwelcome threats and challenges will find themselves incapable of advance their organizations’ mission and key priorities. - Seasoned association management professionals understand the importance of recognizing and preparing their MBOs for the inevitable ripple impact that their members will experience during troubled times.
Unlike Las Vegas, everything that happens in the larger environment (e.g., social, political, technological, etc.) does not stay there. The consequences eventually “seep into” members’ practice settings…which then inevitably prompts members to demand that their MBOs respond. In this present case, the impact from the coercion that has been underway for some time is finally rippling into conversations within their MBOs. In the past, efforts to impose change were often levied on selective practice settings. Unfortunately, this time, the threats and challenges are being felt in 5 nearly every sector and segment of our society. Because of the degree of deconstruction, destruction, and damage that is being experienced in nearly every profession, trade, and personal avocation, MBOs that fail to respond will eventually be judged accordingly by their members. When all this has passed, members will assess the degree to which their volunteer and staff leaders rose to the occasion…or made a conscious choice to relent to the government’s demands and expectations.
- MBOs are more than businesses and their members are more than customers.
These organizations are the only social systems in our society that are dependent on an organizational entity and a specially-defined membership community (i.e., one uniquely defined by eligibility requirements) to achieve its goals and advance its mission. Their members are so much more than a target audience. Collectively, those in these distinctive communities possess a vast array of information, knowledge, experiences, expertise, and connections; all of which MBOs need to operate effectively. MBOs that fail to recognize this are deprived of these largely untapped assets.
- MBOs are intentionally designed to help members personalize and customize their experiences in more purposeful, meaningful, and transformative ways.
No other institution in America has the capacity to help members address their needs and interests as well to help them advance their goals and aspirations throughout the duration of their chosen vocation or avocation. They do so by instructing, inspiring, and then mobilizing their tenured members to provide specific guidance and support to their fellow members…and vice versa! In essence, MBOs are more like libraries than businesses. They possess an enormous amount of information and knowledge. Their members possess that and more. They also possess experiences, expertise, and connections that are equally consequential to the MBOs’ ability to deliver purposeful, meaningful, and transformative experiences to their members. This valuable asset – which has been
hidden in plain sight – gives MBOs a much broader capacity to support members…even on the most obscure topics! MBOs that have intentionally opted to support their members – by addressing only very specific aspects of their members’ bodies of knowledge and then use traditional transaction based management strategies to build awareness – are unintentionally depriving a lot of members from getting what they need from fellow members. Because sometimes that’s how it works. Thus, MBOs that fail to recognize this are – little by little – permanently transforming their organizations to become businesses and not community-driven agents of change.
What has become clear is that these recent efforts by the federal government to impose unwarranted and unwelcome changes upon MBOs, their members’ practice settings, and their members is now destabilizing and corrupting many long-standing norms in ways that leave those affected uncertain about the future.
Some MBOs have made attempts to confront these threats and challenges head-on. Unfortunately, far too many are finding that the traditional public policy strategies (i.e., lobbying, political action, and litigation) that may have worked in the past are becoming increasingly ineffective. Why? When the outcomes do not reflect the government’s expectations, their next response is to reject, ignore, or further challenge the decision…all in an effort to exhaust those they seek to control.
The good news is that it’s not too late for volunteer and staff leaders to make the relation-centered adjustments needed for their MBOs to assume the consequential role that their founders intended them to play in their members’ lives, their members’ respective practice settings, and the larger society.
What Does It Take to Become Relation-centered?
Positioning your MBO to be more responsive to members – to be more relation-centered – is easier than you might expect. It does require the willingness to be open – even if just temporarily – to thinking differently about your MBO, your members, and their engagement.
For decades, MBOs have developed their programs, products, and services to operate as independent and separate offerings. Few MBOs consider or build ongoing linkages between or among them…possibly with the exception of their certification programs. In many ways, the approach reflects the way in which for-profit companies develop their “product lines;” focusing only on the topics that will attract the greatest attention and generate the most revenue. And then, replacing them routinely rather than creating a knowledge-based collection.
But members’ needs, interests, goals, and aspirations don’t always or easily reflect what’s new, hot, or trending. The difficulty in identifying that which will resonate most with members – and inspire their engagement – has convinced many volunteer and staff leaders (and their staff professionals) that their organizations cannot be all things to all members.
This assumption might be true, if their MBOs didn’t have the benefit of an incredibly accomplished specially-defined membership community.
Funny thing is that MBOs do
have this incredibly accomplished member cohort…
which has largely remained untapped.
While many of us recognized this, we’ve never fully figured out how to leverage the kind of information, knowledge, experiences, expertise, and connections they possess. Thankfully, technology has removed that barrier; who knows how AI (artificial intelligence) might be used to facilitate MBOs’ ability to help every member engage routinely in ways that matter most to them…and ultimately their organizations as well.
Another consequence of viewing every learning opportunity as separate from one another was that we developed a habit of making decisions from the organizations’ perspective. The effort was well-intentioned. But in doing so, we made assumptions of what members wanted or needed most; giving them limited options for their engagement.
We rarely considered how members might have been interpreting those efforts.
We believed our surveys adequately provided members the opportunity to convey their needs and satisfaction. What we didn’t realize was that even those instruments were designed from our perspective; often giving members few options to express their observations from their perspective. And, even if that opportunity was provided, most members may not have been sufficiently conscious about their feelings to adequately articulate them.
Absent this awareness, we simply accepted the widely-popular reasons and moved on.
It took a sociological scholar to prompt some of us to think differently about MBOs, members, and their engagement. It took those who wrote their MBOs’ published histories to remind us why they did what they did…and what it meant to them. Finally, it took asking volunteer leaders to tell us how their membership had been worthwhile for us to suspend a lot of assumptions in order to discover new ones which were more accurate.
In addition to those already shared, we learned that MBOs were intentionally:
- founded to be the architects and arbiters of their members’ practice settings…an awesome responsibility.
- expected to create opportunities for members to gain access to the core content (i.e., specific to their bodies of knowledge) either from the organization itself and/or from fellow members.
- positioned to assist members in creating the kind of personalized engagement plans (i.e., via learning opportunities) that would help them develop their inherent potential (i.e., their personal and professional development).
- dependent upon their members to willingly contribute their information, knowledge, experiences, expertise, and connections toward building, shaping, and advancing their bodies of knowledge.
What for-profit enterprise operates in this way?
The answer is none. If you know of one – please advise!
And, it’s why the continued use of traditional transaction-based management strategies has only proven to generate limited but not lasting success…especially in the area of member engagement.
So, what to do?
Consider the following…along with the kind of practical relation-centered adjustments that allow your
MBO to become more responsive to your members…and inspire them to engage more fully:
- Suspend critical widely-popular assumptions:
particularly those related to engagement.
Yes, members are busy. Yes, they live very demanding lives. Yes, they expect value. But, as the Institute’s research has proven, these facts are not new. They have historically existed in MBOs. What’s more important now is that, based on economic forecasts, their lives in the months and years ahead are likely to be getting a whole lot more complicated.
MBOs depending on traditional transaction-based marketing strategies, including but not
limited to: discounts, special gifts, extended membership, pressure tactics, and guilt will most likely find these efforts to be less effective. As the economy tightens, marketing gimmicks don’ttend to be convincing incentives.
Why?
The truth is that members – even decades ago – never joined only out of a sense of loyalty…another faulty assumption. Members have always expected something worthwhile in return for their investment. Dr. Hudson’s research proved this. Over the years, I’ve heard many members express frustration that their MBOs focused a great deal of attention on them until they joined. Then, they felt they were on their own trying to figure out how to engage in ways that mattered most to them. This was true even among those who attended “onboarding” or
“orientation” sessions.
Holding onto widely-popular, long-standing assumptions unintentionally inhibits the ability of those involved to tap into the creativity needed to create the kinds of strategies (i.e., relationcentered) that inspire members not only to engage routinely and often, but also engage fully.
Fortunately, the solution has been hidden in plain sight!
Thanks to members’ stories, we know that members learn how and where to engage; mostly from fellow members. For decades, members have been developing informal and largely short term member engagement plans.
By formalizing this instruction – incorporating the relation-centered concepts into existing member orientation/onboarding sessions – MBOs have the opportunity for every member to benefit…to learn how to engage in ways that matter most to them.
But that alone is not enough. - Recognize what a member’s dues payment represents:
admittance into an extraordinary specially-defined membership community.
For those who view MBOs as businesses, it’s no surprise why they decry of the need to have members or require a dues payment. They feel doing so inhibits MBOs’ ability to market to a wider audience; thus maximizing potential income. For some MBOs, their sustainability can only operate by doing so.
Some for-profit companies have established membership fees as a requirement for access to their goods and services. While they use the term member, these individuals are but customers. Companies offering online services have also opted to charge fees for access. They also loosely call their subscribers members, but, in essence, they are but customers as well.
MBOs’ members do join for access. They are different in that they also join to contribute. Thus they must be recognized for this distinction. They must be viewed and treated differently.
Most members, based on the promise made during recruitment, are eager to engage in ways that will give them access to a set of rights and privileges. But they are rarely informed of the duties and obligations that are also expected. Many interpret the latter to reflect activities that require some degree of sacrifice. What they don’t realize is that even these actions – when matched appropriately – are inherently designed to help them fulfill, achieve, and/or advance something within their own needs, interests, goals, and aspirations.
While the dues payment was established to provide some financial support, the founders also wanted it to signify their formal admittance into the organization (i.e., always based on their eligibility). For members, this action officially validated their identity; confirming their status in their chosen practice setting.
Members, over the decades, have often enthusiastically remarked about the relief of having a place to go where others not only understand what they do, but also understand the often peculiar language associated with it.
Members, over the decades, have often enthusiastically remarked about the relief of having a place to go where others not only understand what they do, but also understand the often peculiar language associated with it.
The significance of this experience
is incredibly consequential
for members and their MBOs.
- Members, like most people, look to others more than to themselves for validation. Other than their work setting, their MBOs offer them the opportunity to find others who share their goals, interests, vocabulary, and more. When that becomes difficult or impossible, they turn their attention elsewhere.
MBOs’ founders also realized that their members possessed aspects of the core content specific to their practice settings. Thus, they were and would always be dependent on them to shape and advance their respective bodies of knowledge. As such, they needed to establish a high degree of social cohesion and social solidarity between and among their members to get them to willingly share and exchange their information, knowledge, experiences, expertise, and connections not just with their fellow members, but also toward the development of their MBOs’ programs, products, and services.
This intention and subsequent outcome, of what it means to be a critical part of an actual community (albeit portable), has been unintentionally lost as MBOs have adopted the notion that their members are customers. In doing so, volunteer and staff leaders have failed to establish the kind of relation-centered strategies that generate the degree of social bonding and social cohesion necessary for mutual trust and mutual support to flourish.
The Melos Institute has an icebreaker that is uniquely designed to begin identifying members’ hidden backgrounds, achievements, skills, talents, and more. It can be used in volunteer training sessions and/or member-related special events.
A complimentary sample can be made available, upon request (info@melosinstitute.org).
Yet, even securing this kind of formal admittance and recognition is not enough.
- Be responsive to what members value most about their membership:
it’s being accepted and empowered to make connections and build relationships.
MBOs’ professional staff are committed to developing and delivering experiences that WOW
their members. Having been there myself, it was always frustrating when more informal
programs at events – like roundtables – always got higher ratings than others that required an
enormous amount of staff planning and preparation.
MBOs continuously use the term “community” or “sense of community” to describe the feeling that they promise their members will experience. Most don’t even clarify this pledge with the stipulation that to do so, members must engage! Even if they did, chances are it still would fall short.
Why?
Most socially-focused strategies – like “networking” – incorporated into existing events require members to be fairly confident and self-directed in their social outreach. For some, that’s easy. For others who have not established any social connections, the fear of embarrassment, rejection, and humiliation is enough to maintain a certain degree of superficiality. Doing so in MBOs does little to establish the social cohesion and social solidarity needed to foster relationship-building.
From the start, the founders understood they had to pay equal attention to key strategies that
would facilitate relationship-building between and among their members.
At their initial conferences, they made sure their social events were as equally as long as their learning sessions. They understood that members had to find other degrees of commonality with one another for their social connections to become something more meaningful and worthwhile.
While members have routinely reported that they expect and appreciate the information they get from their MBOs, they literally crave the opportunity not just to make connections, but to also build relationships that are purposeful, meaningful, and transformative.
In essence, they crave acceptance.
It’s why today, for as much as MBOs focus their attention on providing relevant and quality content and speakers at their key events, their members focus their hopes on finding those members who can provide the direct and immediate guidance and support they are looking for. And in doing so, they also hope that those social connections might develop further (i.e., relationships that are more purposeful, meaningful, and consequential).
When connections like these are made, members need little convincing to attend routinely.
So, let’s look at why traditional “networking” has its limitations.
Unlike in most geographically-based communities where residents may see one another routinely at various events, members have but a limited amount of time to find those members that might be of specific support to them. That’s because their specially-defined membership communities are portable; routinely emerging in different locations for a limited amount of time.
Unfortunately, most members, based on an analysis of their stories, didn’t realize that asking a few simple questions would facilitate such a match (i.e., a skill they learn in a relation-centered member orientation). Even in those MBOs that served a local geographic area, most of their members had no idea how best to find fellow members who could be of greatest support to them.
“Networking” is fine if the intended goal
is for members to establish a familiarity
with one another.
But, the very way in which these activities
are designed makes it difficult
to accomplish much more.
- Even if activities (i.e., icebreakers, energizers, and summarizers) are included during networking events, their objectives are generally designed to be more entertaining than enlightening. While social bonds might be established, members are still left on their own to find those members who share a similar need, interest, or are willing to provide some degree of momentary mentoring. For social bonds to evolve into something more (i.e., social cohesion and social solidarity), members need activities that are specially designed (i.e., relation-centered) to give them this kind of novel guidance and support.
The problem is that too few have been designed specifically for use in MBOs.
The Melos Institute has developed a number of novel icebreaker, energizers, and summarizers to accomplish a number of different outcomes…including helping members to meet those members with whom they can develop those desired relationships.
Complimentary samples (including facilitation tips on how to conduct them successfully) can be made available, upon request (info@melosinstitute.org).
MBOs interested in increasing and expanding member engagement can do so by adjusting their more generic “networking” activities with those which are more relation-centered.
There’s yet one more that helps members experience their membership fully.
- Understand What Member Engagement is Uniquely and Intentionally Designed to Achieve:
to empower members to navigate on their own within their MBOs – choosing opportunities
and connections that will help them achieve their continually-changing desired outcomes.
MBOs have been encouraged to view, measure, and track member engagement more as a statistic than an experience. While numbers do provide a way to evaluate progress, this notion loses sight of what their founders intended for it to be.
These initial members understood that the only way for their practice setting to secure the legitimacy and respect from others in it as well as the larger society was for their members (and those operating in their practice settings) to build, strengthen, and improve their capacities and competencies.
To accomplish that, they also understood that members had to do more than simply attend events. At these proceedings, they had to be open to new processes, concepts, techniques, and ideas. They also understood that simply providing members with the information would most likely not achieve that outcome.
But, having the opportunity to interact with fellow members – many of whom had adopted and been successful in adopting such things – would increase the likelihood that others would do the same. If more members did so, their practice settings had a better chance of achieving the desired outcomes. And, their MBOs would be credited as being the catalyst for those improvements…thus securing the respect and legitimacy they sought dearly.
But during the 1980s, MBOs were encouraged to shift this notion and instead adopt the belief that they needed to operate more like businesses. Decisions on what to offer, when and for how much – while driven by member input – were made from the organizations’ perspective rather than the members. To this day, few recognize the two do not always align.
Thus, they began to view members as customers. Engagement was thus treated as a statistical benchmark to demonstrate individual purchasing patterns and preferences. More attention was directed at evaluating the nature and frequency of members’ transactions over the degree to which their engagement was supporting and advancing their personal and professional development.
Over time, MBOs became dependent on traditional transaction-based business marketing techniques to capture members’ attention and cultivate their interest to engage as participants, volunteers, and volunteer leaders. Lost in all of this was the realization that MBOs were uniquely positioned to help members address their specific needs and interests as well advance their goals and aspirations…either through their direct participation or through their connection with fellow members.
The ultimate consequence, as noted earlier, has been that MBOs’ vast array of programs, products, and services are viewed and treated as a series of singular, isolated, and independent learning opportunities. Fortunately, with a few relation-centered adjustments, MBOs can again assume the inherent reason they were founded and the role they were meant to play in their members’ lives.
Doing so allows these extraordinary organizations to reassert their role as the primary arbiters and architects of the bodies of knowledge specific to their members’ practice settings. And, it also affords them the opportunity – over time – to identify the vast resources that exist within their organizations and within their specially-defined membership communities.
What most MBOs discover, in doing so, is the depth and breadth of information, knowledge, experiences, expertise, and connections that their members’ possess; something that exponentially expands what these organizations have available to support their members. By including what their members have to contribute, MBOs truly have the capacity to literally be “all things to all members.”
The only way to fully maximize and leverage this massive and largely untapped information environment is for MBOs to adopt the kind of relation-centered concepts that teach members two things:
What it means to be a member.
(i.e., rights and privileges/duties and obligations)
How to make the most of their membership.
- Acknowledging and accepting the relation-centered role that MBOs were intended to play in their members’ lives is a key step toward creating an environment that encourages and inspires routine and ongoing member engagement.
Doing so will prove to be the best way forward as members find themselves having to make tough choices because of the threats and challenges they will be forced to face in the days, months, and years ahead.
The most profound thing about these four adjustments is that they merely require a shift in attitude,
understanding, and insight. They don’t require large sums of money to implement. In fact, MBOs need
not abandon existing strategies…merely adapt them to be more relation-centered.
Those who have done so – even just within isolated instances – have been shocked by their members’ immediate and enthusiastic response; especially those who have historically not been active.
Additionally, learning to listen to members share their experiences – from their perspective rather than from a series of predetermined, forced-choice options – creates a new and better understanding of how to communicate to them in ways that captures their attention and guarantees their response.
How Does One Begin Adopting a Relation-centered Approach?
It’s easier than most expect. It doesn’t require hours of planning, consolidation of funds, or restructuring existing operations.
It merely requires a willingness to identify a singular opportunity to adjust an existing transaction-based strategy to be more relation-centered.
- Most MBOs choose their member orientation (or “onboarding”) session as their first.
Then, to ensure that those expectations are adequately supported, they take steps to broaden their volunteer leaders’ awareness of how they can contribute in simple yet consequential ways.
Success in these two areas often leads to MBOs examining, exploring, and adjusting the language they use to communicate with their members.
In essence, the transformation from transaction-based to relation-centered is more of an evolutionary than revolutionary one.
The good news is that MBOs don’t have to design their own tools. Those that are interested in increasing and expanding member engagement have access to these key relation-centered tools…specially-designed by the Melos Institute and proven successful by MBOs.
And, they are available for immediate complimentary download.
- Relation-centered Fundamentals
Understanding why MBOs play a critical role in functioning democracies and why association management is such a consequential and complex profession provides the foundation of knowledge needed to ensure that members’ experiences are meaningful, purposeful, and transformative.
Member Engagement Paradox: Overcoming 7 Obstacles to Build and Maintain a Thriving Membership Communities
a practical guide identifying seven key barriers that have unintentionally undermined MBOs’ ability to generate a high degree of member engagement – along with practical alternatives designed to generate better and more lasting results
Relation-centered Resources: Training Modules for Key Events
These training modules provide everything needed (i.e., from background information and insights to talking points and handouts) to inform, instruct, and inspire greater member engagement.
- Transformative Impact of Membership
a relation-centered icebreaker that reveals what members’ value most about their membership (also popular for use at volunteer leaders’ events)
Making the Most of Your Membership
a relation-centered orientation that teaches members how to engage in ways that matter most to them
Using Power and Influence to Achieve Positive Social Change
a relation-centered volunteer leader orientation that reveals the extraordinary role that MBOs play in their members’ lives, their members’ practice settings, and the larger society
Change of any kind – especially organizational change – can be daunting. Introducing new terms and concepts to volunteer and staff leaders can be risky. And, as the Institute has found working with MBOs, some staff professionals and even volunteer leaders will indeed resist believing anything but their longstanding beliefs. They may even vocally express their disbelief that any adjustment could possibly generate better or even more enthusiastic outcomes.
I can only convey what’s happened in other MBOs when that first occurs…and then their reaction when they observe such a positive response after using even just one simple relation-centered adjustment. Once they get over the shock that their old assumptions no longer apply, they become your MBOs’ staunchest advocates. Nothing can beat experiencing something directly.
MBOs have nothing to lose and so much more to gain by pilot testing a relation-centered adjustment in an existing strategy.
We, at the Melos Institute, are dedicated to providing the kind of complimentary guidance and support needed to ensure your success.
Contact us for an obligation-free, no-cost appointment:
phone: 505.428.0268
email: info@melosinstitute.org
