When Generational Issues Shouldn't Be Used

It's been over a month and I'm finally ready to go over some of my thoughts from Annual.

The first that I've been thinking of for a while was the response to the Generation Y sessions, particularly to Nadira Hira's thought leader session. I was amazed at the reaction of non-Yers, mainly the comments I heard that sounded something like "I have such a better understanding of my young staff's expectations."

This got me thinking, but I just listened in the halls. I didn't want to seem to emotionally attached as a Gen Y myself, but my simple thought is this: Did you sit down with your staff and go over their expectations?

As an association, staff's tend to be smaller and direct reports are easily in the single digits. Instead of taking a sample of millions and millions and applying these commonalities to a few staff, why not just sit down with the 1-10 folks who fit this group and have an open dialog . Maybe they'll fit the "typical gen y," but why miss the opportunity to discuss individual expectations and goals? Don't wait for a Gen Y speech, just have the conversation and discuss those areas you can't quite grasp.

It's not that hard and you never know, the conversation you have with your Gen Y staff could shine a whole new light on Gen Y that hasn't been covered (because your staff's individuality was lost when they were lumped with the other millions of Yers).

Thanks for reading,
bob
P.S. Generational information is great, I'm not arguing against that, but it should be used with large numbers. The larger the population, the better it will match the Generational reports (in theory).

Where on the fork are you (or your staff?)

As association professionals, we have a unique fork in the road when it comes to career development. We can select to walk down one of three paths:

• Association Professional


• Industry Professional


• Position Professional (i.e. marketing, training, sales, etc)

Yet I'd be interested to hear how many managers sit down with their staff or (vice versa) and go over this fork to make sure the road you think your staffer is walking down is the same they want to be walking down. If you haven't had this conversation, you should.

For example, for me to truly begin to excel in training, I'd have to either become an industry professional or a training professional. My goal was to become an association professional. This meant I was being prepared to take over roles that I didn't see myself taking over.

So I sat down with my manager and CEO and clearly laid out my career goals. I told them I wanted to be an association leader and in order to do that I'd need to work in different areas of the association. I was lucky enough to have leadership that listened, thus my move into marketing.

See there are 3 reasons I can see as to why staff and managers need to be on the same fork:

• Morale - the more engaged staff are the higher the morale which can infect other staff


• Career Development - developing staff in the areas they are engaged in further increases morale and also increases productivity stimulates point three


• Innovation - I'm more likely to innovate and go beyond the call of duty in an area I find engaging than an area I cornered myself into (or was cornered in)

It's worth the time. And remember, the question itself isn't the answer. It's how you, as the leader, respond.

Thanks for reading,
bob

P.S. Fellow Yappers, don't wait until management approaches you to have the conversation, if you seem fine on the fork you're on, management may have no reason to think otherwise.

Forget the Technology

Lindy captured the conversation regarding SM burnout which included yours truly. I agree with Lindy (and commented on her post) that as association professionals, we should experiment non-stop internally. The problem comes when we jump on the bandwagon of the newest piece of tech and burnout our members who are not in the top 1-10% of innovators. The long tail of some of these technologies doesn't provide any significant additional value.

So totally forget the technology! Don't ever pitch a wiki with the word wiki in it. Don't pitch it by showing the website - pitch the value first and get rid of all the social media talk - members don't care about social media - they care about value.

They care about:

• Open collaboration
• Continued conversations
• Automatic updates

Not:

• Wiki
• Social Networks
• RSS Feed

In a recent article on ASAE, Maddie and Lindy put it best: Words like subscribe, trackback, and permalink are standard fare on most blog templates, but meaningless to a new user.

So if you plan a 30 second pitch of a new tool, forget the tool. Focus on what it does. Members don't care what its called - and if the pitch is in the generic name itself, then you're not providing the significant unique value that only your association can provide.

This can also be true if you're planning to change or add a new tool. Take the tools out and list only the value each adds (for your members experience - not yours). Then you need to evaluate whether or not there is enough new value to justify the change.

Thanks for reading,
bob

P.S. - in the next day or so I'm going to finally update my blog template - well that's the hope anyways

Too Much Social Technology?

Matt Baehr put an awesome post up asking where we draw the line on social media.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as well. I've been trying to stay up-to-date on everything social media yet I'm slowly sinking in it all and from Matt's post, he seems to be experiencing the same dip. And we're both really into the stuff - Matt blogs and I speak (and occasionally blog) on social media - we live and breathe this stuff and we're falling in the dip.

The question then becomes how does a casual user feel about the amounts of social media available (i.e. your members). They'd be overwhelmed with it all. Your members don't care about the tool(s), they care about how it engages them and the value it provides. Yet it seems we are moving incrementally on improving the technologies by adding a new bell and/or whistle which provide little to no real value. Instead we need to focus on revolutionizing the experiences that the original tools provide.

I think the problem is there are just too many hammers that claim to be different but do a lot of the same thing, but they look really neat.

Thanks for reading,
bob

The Irony of Attending Conferences

I attend events, like ASAE's Annual, in the hopes of getting new information so I can continue to innovate within our association and provide new and increased value to our membership. Yet, before I can impliment I must first catch up. I returned Tuesday to 2 weeks of back log - in my case over 500 emails and quickly closing deadlines. Hopefully my notes from Annual are good and the event had enough of a wow factor to last past the lag between catching up and implementing this new knowledge. (more on this once I'm past that lag)

It can be difficult to innovate when there are items that must be done - some of us must be incremental. But just because you move incrementally doesn't mean you can't make significant changes in your organizations. (remember this is coming from a YAP's perspective on innovation).

Thanks for reading,
bob

Social Media is my Dance Floor

Before social media I was the kid against the wall. Bet no one remembers me at Great Ideas two years ago (unless you were in my session). Why would you? I didn’t dance much at GI – I gave my speech, sat through some sessions and tried to network (which consisted of a smile and nod). I think it’s the curse of introversion.


After Social Media, though, I’m the YAP making strides. At this year’s Annual, I networked with top minds in the field, got great feedback at the unblogger con, made new contacts, participated in great conversations and overall had a better time and learning experience.


Why? This time I had the opportunity to dance in an arena I’m comfortable with. Personally, interacting with my peers online through blogging, social networks, etc, is much easier than your typical social interaction. Having established a network prior to the event, I was able to spend my time learning and building from that network as opposed to succumbing to the anxiety of typical social interactions.


I think ASAE’s own Megan Denhardt put it best when it comes down to social media – social media provides interactions that are valuable to those who need/want those types of interactions.


Social Media may be not be right for you, it may not be right for your active members, but there are great opportunities to level the social playing field with social outlets beyond your typical opening reception/networking events.


Social Media isn’t about the technology – it’s about leveling the playing field for all your members and meeting them where they dance best.


Thanks for reading,

bob



P.S. Special thanks to the blog uncon fogdirog for sharing your insights and adding what's quickly becoming one of the most versatile words in the English language to my vocab
P.S.S. – thanks to Lauren for trying to get me to dance on an actual dance floor – maybe next year…