Association Decision Making: MacGyver or MacGruber?

Speed, ingenuity, and decisiveness are integral components to the success of any association, advocacy group, or other member-based organization. There are a hundred clichés that tell this story—ever heard of “paralysis by analysis”?—but the bottom line is this: when it comes to association decision making, action is better than inaction almost every single time. Do you remember the classic 80’s TV show MacGyver? Creative and resourceful secret agent Angus MacGyver always had some new trick up his sleeve to escape from danger, always beat the ticking time bomb just in time, always knew what action to take and took it. And he always saved the day. At the other end of the spectrum was the Saturday Night Live parody MacGruber. Remember him? Unlike MacGyver, buffoonish secret agent MacGruber never quite knew what to do, never could make up his mind, and never—ever—beat the ticking bomb. Every sketch ended with a massive explosion and the death of MacGruber. So, how about your association? When it comes to association decision making, are you more MacGyver or MacGruber? Too many times in the nearly 20 years of working with associations, advocacy groups, and other member-based associations, I have seen MacGruber-ish tendencies derail an organization’s agenda, near-term goals, and best-laid plans. Hand-writing over budget. Squabbling over message. Letting the proverbial perfect get in the way of the simply good enough. While the clock was ticking, they were frozen by indecisiveness and indecision…and the bomb exploded. It’s not as if this phenomenon is hard to understand, of course. And it doesn’t just apply to associations or not-for-profits. It also afflicts commercial businesses, political candidates,...

Where’s Waldo… At ASAE 2015?

My kids have no idea who Waldo is. But I sure remember him. I also remember the headache I’d get after five minutes of searching for his little red-and-white scarf and cap in a sea of tiny faces. Oftentimes, I’d give up, leaving poor Waldo lost on the page. Connecting with your members can sometimes feel like a game of Where’s Waldo. But what if I told you there were now online tools that were the equivalent of putting a big red circle around Waldo? Let’s explore that concept a bit with a question: Where are you right now and what are you doing? If you answered “In Detroit, attending a major associations conference,” you should probably look to see if there’s a gigantic red circle around you. Well, there probably isn’t (and if there is we didn’t put it there), but in the online world, that circle definitely exists. How were we able to pull this off? The ability to “draw” these circles around specific groups online comes from the melding of big data and online ad platforms. We can now do real-time, location-based online ads, and we’re already seeing very meaningful advances in how finely and how sharply we can target ads. This ability may be the exact reason you’re reading this blog entry right now. Want to have ads show up in just iOS 8 device apps within 5 miles of a specific location? How about only on Android-based Web browsers within a specific zip code? Increasingly, the answer to these and many more questions about time and location targeting is “Yes, we can do that.”...