Reaching a State of Prime Association Performance

For associations, success is measured by impact. 

You want to ensure that your work stays relevant for members and makes real changes for your industry or community — and to do that you need to ensure you’re operating in a stable, viable way. But achieving that stability is challenging when the critical components that can drive your success, from the technology you adopt to the leadership that guides you, exist in silos. 

If you want every aspect of your association to operate in a prime state of performance so that you can maximize your output, take a holistic approach. 

Reaching a prime state means that your association can benefit from improvements in growth, overall efficiencies, organizational health and financial strength. To get there, start by understanding how your organization performs across key components.

Each of these components works together, meaning that if any of them is out of balance, your ability to optimize is hindered. But when you excel in each of them, your association can achieve the momentum you need to drive success. 

The challenge is that most associations are operating in silos. 

When your organization maintains an isolated view of these seven components, it’s hard to overcome limited resources, competing interests and your day-to-day demands to identify and apply valuable change. Looking at them holistically allows you to better understand how they interact and what you need to prioritize to achieve the transformational outcomes you want. 

To help your association reach and maintain a prime state of performance, ensure you have these seven components.

1. A Compelling Vision and Plan  

Establishing and communicating a clear vision of your association’s future is at the heart of these components. 

Your association likely already has a strong understanding of your mission. But adding a vision, and an actionable plan to execute it, makes it easier to keep your work in the other components aligned and focused. 

Having a compelling vision also helps you plan for how you’ll maintain relevancy and keeps your people engaged by giving them a clear sense of meaning and purpose in their work. 

To help you strengthen your association's vision, consider whether your organization has: 

• A plan for your future direction that’s innovative and relevant to your membership. 
• A road map that outlines the milestones, initiatives and accountability that will support your vision. 

2. Transformational Leadership

Your leadership is a key driver in creating a positive culture and retaining high-performing talent. 

Effective leaders can help align staff with your organization’s vision. But they also know that success depends on how they develop their people, including potential future leadership. 

You’ll also need to evaluate how your leadership team and the board of directors work together to propel your organization further and keep it in its prime. 

Consider whether your leadership: 

• Inspires and motivates people to reach their full potential. 
• Models the behavior and values they expect in others. 
• Understands their role. 

3. Engaged People 

Internally, prime performance means that you’re keeping your people engaged by ensuring they have everything they need to be productive. Your people will inherently be happier and more motivated in what they’re doing when they can focus on making an impact and delivering positive outcomes and not on time-consuming administrative work. 

Externally, delivering on your brand promise and ensuring that your organization is easy to communicate and collaborate with will help keep your membership engaged. 

Consider whether your organization: 

• Effectively communicates with staff and members to help keep them informed. 
• Provides your people with a clear understanding of how their work contributes to your association’s vision. 

4. Brand Messaging That Resonates 

It’s critical for your association to be able to tell a story about the benefits of your work. Without that, it’s challenging to not only attract talent and membership but also keep them engaged. 

When evaluating your brand messaging, ensure that your association: 

• Has a compelling story that resonates with existing and potential members. 
• Is effectively using marketing and communications strategies to convey that story.
• Is seeing growth results from your messaging.   

5. Operational Excellence 

Creating a more sustainable organization starts with aligning your people, processes and technology to help ensure you deliver impactful service to your members. When you’re operating with modern, efficient processes, your people are better able to focus on higher-priority work, and your organization is more capable of achieving sustainable growth. 

To enhance your operations, your organization should have: 

• Plans and strategies in place to help you navigate potential disruptions. 
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) that help you assess your operational performance.
• Regular reviews and updates to your operating procedures so that you’re continuously working to improve efficiency. 

6. A Strong Financial Foundation 

Financial confidence is built on understanding your cash flow. Whether you’re grant, privately or membership funded, you need to understand where your cash is coming from and the KPIs and metrics you need to use to evaluate your financial health. 

You also need to consider your sustainability. Regularly evaluating your income sources and planning for what could be threatened, accelerated or decelerated can help you create stability and prepare for disruption. 

Your association can strengthen your financial foundation by: 

• Regularly revisiting and adjusting your financial plan to adapt to changes. 
• Having well-defined contingency plans to help you address any potential financial challenges. 

7. Technology Optimization and Alignment 

Technology is increasingly a part of everything we do, meaning the expectations around digital experiences are high. Your members want frictionless interaction, while your staff expects technology to help them move your vision forward — not create barriers to their productivity. 

Creating that digital experience starts with strategy. Whether you’re switching, adopting or optimizing systems, focus on strategy first and purchasing second. Any technology decisions should be based on your digital road map and careful return-on-investment analysis. 

Your association can make technology alignment easier by: 

• Having a strategy that outlines what technology investments are needed for achieving your vision. 
• Centering your technology adoption on improving performance, communication and decision-making. 

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.