Is your association innovative? Are you increasing staff productivity through AI and predictive analytics or are you sticking to your values by highlighting your member benefits? “Innovator” might currently be a buzzword, but your organization should still be striving to blaze technological trails and deliver superior member value.
To drive innovation within your association, leaders will need to become problem solvers, prioritizing new opportunities and adopting flexible practices across the organization. Yet it’s not enough for just your leadership team to embrace these innovative principles. To affect lasting change in your organization, you’ll need to empower all your stakeholders to become trailblazers.
How to elevate your stakeholders to think like innovators
Everyone in your organization can contribute to innovation and move your association into the future. Here’s how to get started:
1. Staff. When you think of stakeholders, at first you might not consider your employees. But you don’t want to overlook this crucial group in your organization. Empower your staff as innovators through technology training. Routine training is key to better skilled and more productive employees. Additionally, training your staff helps them invest in your organization. In Tableau’s Building Data Literacy Guide, 80% of employees report they’d stay in their job if they were trained in technology.
As your employees become more skilled, it creates time and space for them to be innovative and adventurous in their current roles. Skill up your employees with Salesforce Trailhead, further enhancing staff careers and fostering talent at your association. Technology training also leads to a data-driven work culture, where all employees are responsible for maintaining the quality of your association’s records. Prioritizing data literacy will empower your staff as innovators, helping staff to enact lasting change at your association.
2. Board members. Keep your board members in the know with data insights delivered directly into their inbox. First, have staff create reports and dashboards with simple point-and-click actions. Next, automate emails on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis so your board has access to all necessary information without getting lost in the minutiae of your AMS.
When you empower board members with knowledge, they’ll prioritize new opportunities and see the reason behind adopting flexible organizational practices. Granting your board direct access to data reports will inform members of what is happening at your organization, helping them understand what initiatives they need to emphasize to improve the staff and member experience.
“With Nimble AMS you can easily automate emails, so staff and board members don’t need to navigate to dashboards or reports. They’ll automatically get the information they need via email to drive their work for the rest of their week,” says Ryan Stark, Nimble AMS Business Analyst.
3. Members. Drive engagement and loyalty when you personalize the member experience with modern technology at your association. Leverage technology like association management software (AMS) to elevate the member experience through a connected member platform, modern e-commerce, and AI and predictive analytics. Ensure you provide crucial member benefits like a career center, learning program, networking, and professional events to drive value for your members.
When you invest in your members, they in turn will invest in your association, becoming innovators for your organization and driving change. Give your members space to provide feedback in town halls and send out routine surveys so you can learn from your members. With any feedback, follow up with your members, respond to specific details, and share how you will make changes. With bigger transition, consider making member committees to tackle the change.
4. Non-members. Part of becoming an innovative association requires attracting more trailblazing thinkers to your organization. You can recruit more members by becoming the go-to association for events, experiences, and member benefits in your industry. Non-members also have high expectations for technology in their member-based organization, and though not yet officially in your network, your association will lose credibility with non-members if you don’t utilize a modern AMS.
One of the determinants in whether a non-member should join an organization is how you leverage technology. Note that younger members will have especially high technological expectations. If a Gen Z or Millennial member can’t access your member portal from their phone, that is a major strike against your association. To win innovative non-members try providing events, learning program courses, and career services at a non-member fee and highlight how you can further personalize the member experience by offering a trial membership.
5. Volunteers. By nature, your member volunteers go the extra mile, making them natural innovators. Empower your volunteers by giving them a place to connect, like an online community platform. Dedicate an entire subgroup or channel to your member volunteers and start a conversation about your volunteering process. Are there ways it can improve? How can your organization better support volunteers?
Be sure to follow up on all feedback and go out of your way to thank your volunteers both in your online community and publicly. Acknowledging your member volunteers in member town halls or specific member thank you events encourages them to further invest in your association. When your members feel appreciated, they’ll continue to drive change at your organization and attract additional innovative minds to volunteer.
