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“Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.”
Simon Sinek

Associations are facing a cascade of disruptions: accelerated technology, shifting demographics, political polarization, and evolving member expectations. In this new environment, the old rules of leadership no longer apply. Stable environments have favored predictable planning, incremental improvement, and control-oriented management. But stability is no longer the norm.

What’s needed now is adaptive leadership—a framework built for ambiguity, grounded in learning, and oriented toward the future.

In this 6-part series, we will explore leadership and capacity building in the era of

Disruption

Why Adaptive Leadership Matters Now

Traditional leadership assumes the leader has the answers. Adaptive leadership begins with a different premise: that no one has all the answers, and solutions must be discovered collaboratively through experimentation, reflection, and adjustment.

Developed by Ronald Heifetz and colleagues at Harvard, adaptive leadership distinguishes between technical challenges (those with known solutions) and adaptive challenges (those requiring new learning). Membership decline, cultural misalignment, and digital transformation are not technical problems;they are adaptive ones.

Characteristics of Adaptive Leadership

Associations that lead adaptively share several traits:

• They diagnose the system. Instead of fixing symptoms, they identify root causes embedded in structures, behaviors, or norms.
• They distribute leadership. Adaptive work is collective. It requires broad engagement, especially from people with lived experience of the problem.
• They create safe containers for conflict. Adaptive leaders don’t avoid discomfort; they manage it productively to stimulate learning and change.
• They experiment. In uncertain environments, small, safe-to-fail experiments yield insights faster than rigid plans.
• They commit to continuous learning. Adaptive leadership isn’t about projecting certainty. It’s about modeling curiosity, resilience, and humility.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Consider an association facing declining conference attendance. A technical fix might be to offer early-bird discounts. An adaptive approach would ask: Why is attendance down? Have member expectations shifted? Are we delivering the correct value?

Adaptive leaders don’t just execute better—they reframe the problem. They invite dissent, engage new voices, and test bold alternatives. They see the association not as a machine to be fine-tuned, but as a living system that must evolve.

Challenges to Embracing the Adaptive Mindset

Adaptive leadership often feels slow, uncomfortable, or risky, especially for boards or executives accustomed to a command-and-control approach. Frequently, Boards and CSOs do not realize that they are operating in command-and-control mode. The pressure to deliver immediate results can overshadow longer-term, adaptive work. Yet without adaptation, relevance erodes.

Boards and Executives must also resist the temptation to solve everything themselves. In adaptive environments, authority must be shared. That can threaten traditional power structures—but it’s the only path to sustained success.

Building a Culture That Supports Adaptive Leadership

For adaptive leadership to take root, the culture must reward learning, not just achievement.

• Valuing questions as much as answers
• Encouraging calculated risk-taking
• Supporting reflection and pause
• Creating time and space for team-level experimentation

Without cultural reinforcement, adaptive efforts become episodic rather than embedded.

Key Takeaways

• Adaptive leadership is crucial for navigating the rapid changes of the 21st-century landscape.
• It focuses on shared learning, distributed authority, and responsive experimentation.
• Associations must evolve their culture—not just their strategies—to make adaptive work possible.
• Leading from the edge means being willing to stay open, vulnerable, and future-facing.

Coming Next Week: Part 2 of 6

Redefining the Role: From Curation to Creation in the Executive Director Seat
If leadership itself must evolve, so too must the role of the Chief Staff Officer (CSO) Executive Director. In Part 2 of our series, we examine how association CEOs and chief staff officers must evolve from guardians of the past to stewards and architects of the future.AAV – BLOG – Leading in the Age of Disruption – Part 1 of 6 – Leading from the Edge – Adaptive Leadership for the Next Era of Associations

“Strategic thinking is not about being right; it’s about being effective in an unknowable future.”
— Julia Sloan, Author of Learning to Think Strategically

Strategic planning has long been a mainstay of association management. Every few years, boards and staff gather to define goals, outline priorities, and chart a course for the future. Yet, despite the effort, many associations find themselves no more capable, adaptive, or aligned after the plan is written than they were before. Why? Because strategic planning, as it’s often practiced, fails to build strategic capacity—the actual engine of long-term relevance and resilience.

The Core Problems with Traditional Strategic Planning:

1. Plans Assume Stability. Reality Doesn’t.
   Most plans are created in linear formats—assuming predictability, clarity, and control. But we live in a BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible) world. A static document quickly loses relevance in a dynamic environment.
2. Focus on Goals, Not Capabilities.
   Planning emphasizes what we want to achieve rather than how we are prepared to navigate the future. This leads to wishful thinking rather than organizational readiness.
3. Board Buy-In ≠ Organizational Integration.
   Even a beautifully facilitated planning retreat won’t matter if staff, volunteers, and members don’t internalize the resulting plan—or if it doesn’t lead to changes in behaviors, systems, or decision-making.
4. Capacity is Built Daily, Not Every 3 Years.
   Planning is episodic. Capacity is continuous. Strategic capacity is developed through reflection, experimentation, and aligned action over time—not during a weekend retreat.
5. Planning is About Control. Capacity is About Adaptation.
   Associations that focus too much on planning often overlook the deeper, more challenging work of developing the ability to adapt, listen, learn, and respond to changing conditions.

What Associations Should Do Instead: Build Strategic Capacity

• Invest in Foresight: Regularly scan your environment, anticipate emerging trends, and scenario-plan beyond the planning cycle.
• Strengthen Adaptive Leadership: Equip your board and staff with the mindset and tools to act decisively in uncertainty.
• Practice Strategic Thinking, Not Just Planning: Encourage curiosity, cross-functional dialogue, and time to reflect—not just execute.
• Integrate Strategy Into Operations: Embed strategic intent into meetings, evaluations, budgeting, and culture—not just the plan document.
• Develop the Seven Strategic Capacities: Focus on governance foresight, operational integrity, curiosity, resource development, program delivery, reputational impact, and technology proficiency.

CODA:
A strategic plan can provide direction. But strategic capacity gives you motion. If your association’s planning efforts aren’t building the capacity to think, adapt, and lead—then it’s time to move beyond planning and start transforming.

Want to learn how to turn your strategic plan into strategic capacity? Let’s talk.

The nature of power is changing. In New Power, authors Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms argue that old power is like a currency—held by few and spent carefully—while new power behaves more like a current, open, and participatory, gaining strength as more people contribute. For associations, this shift offers both a challenge and an opportunity. Successful organizations will adopt new power behaviors, enabling deeper engagement, shared leadership, and more agile responsiveness to change.

Old Power vs. New Power: A Behavioral Shift
According to Heimans and Timms (2018), old power values are institutional, hierarchical, and expert-driven. New power values, by contrast, are networked, participatory, and peer led. In practical terms, this shift translates into changes in how people expect to engage:

Old Power Behaviors	New Power Behaviors
Command and control	Share and shape
Decision behind closed doors	Transparent collaboration
Formal expertise	Crowd wisdom and co-creation
Consuming content	Creating and remixing content

Associations often struggle with the shift to these behaviors because governance models and membership structures were built on old power assumptions—members pay dues, leadership makes decisions, and staff executes. But today’s stakeholders want more than benefits; they want a voice.

Four New Power Behaviors for Associations

1. Co-Creation Over Consultation
   Associations must move beyond surveys and listening sessions toward true co-creation, inviting members and partners to shape programs, content, and governance. Open-source platforms and member-led task forces are good starting points.

“New power gains momentum when people feel they have a stake—and a say.” (Heimans & Timms, 2018)

2. Radical Transparency
   Members increasingly expect transparency in finances, decision-making, policy stances, and internal dynamics. This doesn’t mean chaos but accessible information, open dialogue, and trust-building through visibility.

“Transparency is a precondition to participation.” (Heimans & Timms, p. 174)

3. Building a Peer-Led Culture
   Rather than relying on top-down leadership, associations can foster a distributed leadership model—empowering chapters, SIGs, and volunteer communities to take the initiative and act autonomously. This unlocks collective energy and new ideas.

“A crowd that feels ownership will outperform one that simply follows orders.” (Heimans & Timms, p. 206)

4. Acting Like a Platform, Not a Pipeline
   Traditional associations operate like pipelines, delivering value from the organization to the members. New power organizations act like platforms—connecting members, enabling them to build, share, and influence the association’s direction.

“The future belongs to those who can channel participation—not just content or authority.” (Heimans & Timms, p. 62)

Association Example: The Rise of Member-Led Innovation
The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) offers a strong example. By launching an open innovation lab that allows members to propose and lead experiments in engagement, AAM has embraced co-creation and participatory governance—a far cry from the traditional committee-led model.

Call to Action
To thrive in the age of new power, association leaders must stop asking, how do we get members to support our vision?And instead, ask, how do we support theirs? The organizations that embrace this shift will unlock energy, relevance, and long-term value far beyond what old power could offer.

CODA
As Heimans and Timms write, “The future will be a battle and a negotiation between old and new power.” Associations don’t have to choose one or the other. The most will build hybrids—combining the best to create legitimacy, trust, and vibrant community engagement.

Citation
Heimans, J., & Timms, H. (2018). New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make It Work for You. Doubleday.

Rethinking Our Addiction to Urgency and Crisis Culture

Have you ever noticed how many times a day you’re interrupted by a push notification that screams “Breaking News!”? Whether it’s from a cable news network, a news app, or a social media platform, these alerts come at us like sirens in the night—loud, frequent, and anxiety-inducing.

But here’s the real question:
When was the last time “breaking news” broke through with hope?

Instead, we get relentless headlines about political scandals, celebrity chaos, economic gloom, or tragic conflict. The dopamine-hit design of these platforms means negativity wins our attention every time. Positivity, nuance, or potential? Those rarely get the same airtime.

Is the Word “Breaking” Broken?

Once upon a time, “breaking news” was reserved for the extraordinary—a national emergency, a moon landing, a game-changing medical breakthrough. It was rare, meaningful, and mobilizing. Today, it’s overused and underwhelming. Like the boy who cried wolf, we’ve diluted the term into meaninglessness.

This isn’t just a media critique—it’s a cultural one. We are being conditioned to live in a state of perpetual urgency, always responding but rarely reflecting. And for associations and nonprofits—organizations whose missions depend on long-term vision, purpose, and sustained trust—this culture is more than a nuisance. It’s a threat.

What Happens When Urgency Becomes the Norm?

In a world saturated with alerts and crises, people grow numb. We begin to accept outrage fatigue, emotional burnout, and attention fragmentation as the cost of staying informed. But those costs are steep:

• Crisis mode becomes the default: We jump from one problem to the next without time to analyze, learn, or adapt.
• Long-term thinking suffers: Strategic thinking, planning, and visioning take a back seat to the news cycle.
• Trust erodes: Constant negativity fosters cynicism, polarization, and a belief that progress is impossible.

Associations and purpose-driven organizations must ask:
Are we feeding into this culture—or offering a counter-narrative?

Rethinking What Deserves Attention

What if associations began sending their own “breaking news” alerts—but ones centered on hope, innovation, and human potential?

• Breaking: A local chapter just helped 500 students access scholarships.
• Breaking: A scientific breakthrough funded by member dues or the foundation has just passed peer review.
• Breaking: Our volunteers just delivered 10,000 meals to families in crisis.

When we define “news” only by its disruption, we ignore the quiet, powerful ways people are shaping the future for the better. Associations have stories worth telling that restore belief in progress and community.

From Crisis Response to Constructive Attention

This isn’t a call to ignore the world’s problems. It’s a call to reframe how we engage with them.

Let’s stop equating urgency with importance. Not everything loud is significant. Not everything that is “breaking” needs to break us down.

What if your association made it part of its communication strategy to elevate potential over panic and progress over provocation?

A Call to Leaders: Change the Tone, Change the Narrative

Association executives and nonprofit communicators: you can shift this tide. Don’t wait for mainstream media to spotlight your sector’s wins—be the source. Break the cycle of constant crisis by cultivating spaces for calm, clarity, and constructive storytelling.

Because maybe “breaking news” isn’t broken. Perhaps it’s just waiting for someone to redefine what’s worth breaking through.

Introduction:

Juneteenth—celebrated each year on June 19—marks the day in 1865 when the last enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Now recognized as a federal holiday, Juneteenth is more than a commemoration of delayed freedom; it is a day to honor Black Americans’ resilience, culture, and enduring contributions.

Observing Juneteenth is both a moral responsibility and a strategic opportunity for associations. It affirms core values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), strengthens organizational culture, and positions the association as a leader in societal progress.

• Reinforce Your DEI Commitments: Publicly honoring Juneteenth reflects a living commitment to equity—not just in words, but in action.
• Educate and Inspire: Many members and staff may not fully understand Juneteenth’s significance. Observance offers an opportunity to build historical literacy and empathy.
• Build Inclusive Culture: Acknowledging this day fosters belonging and signals to members and society that their histories and identities are valued.

Ways Associations Can Celebrate Meaningfully:

Celebrating Juneteenth goes beyond issuing a statement. Consider how your association can take action that reflects your mission and community:

1. Host Educational ProgramsInvite speakers, historians, or DEI leaders to discuss the legacy of Juneteenth and the work that remains.
2. Amplify Black VoicesHighlight stories of Black leaders in your field. Use newsletters, podcasts, or webinars to showcase their contributions and insights.
3. Support Black-Owned Businesses and Nonprofits Partner with local organizations or vendors for events and services. Elevate their visibility through your platforms.
4. Encourage Volunteerism and Community ImpactOrganize service projects or donation drives supporting your community’s racial justice efforts.
5. Create Space for DialogueHost listening sessions or facilitated conversations that allow members and staff to share their experiences and reflect on systemic inequities.

Beyond the Day: Sustaining the Commitment:

Juneteenth should not be the only time associations focus on racial equity. Use it as a catalyst to:

• Embed DEIA into leadership training, hiring, and governance.
• Advocate for inclusive policies within your profession or industry.
• Invest in ongoing education, mentorship, and support for underrepresented communities.

Coda:

Honoring Juneteenth is a meaningful step toward building a more inclusive and equitable future. Associations have the platform—and the responsibility—to lead with purpose. By recognizing Juneteenth not as a symbolic gesture but as a sincere commitment to justice and inclusion, your association helps shape a future where all truly share freedom, opportunity, and dignity.

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In today’s BANI world—Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible—change is relentless, systems fracture unexpectedly, and certainty is a vanishing luxury. In such an environment, research and higher education function as stabilizing forces. They build adaptive capacity, generate critical insight, and prepare society for volatility. For associations and governments alike, supporting these institutions is not simply a matter of tradition or public good—it is essential in navigating disorder and ambiguity.

1. Innovation as an Antidote to Brittleness

Brittle systems break under stress because they lack the flexibility to evolve. Sustained research investments unlock the innovations that renew those systems, whether in healthcare, energy, cybersecurity, or organizational design. Associations can lead by championing research,anticipating emerging disruptions, and reimagining how industries and professions operate under stress.

Example: The National Institutes of Health’s rapid mobilization during the COVID-19 pandemic was possible because of decades of foundational research. Associations that foster similar forward-focused initiatives can increase resilience across entire sectors.

2. Reducing Anxiety Through Talent and Tools

Fear stems from a lack of control and understanding in an anxious world. Higher education provides a powerful countermeasure—offering individuals the skills, context, and confidence to act. Associations play a vital role by helping shape those educational pathways and aligning them with future-focused careers, easing workforce anxiety and employer uncertainty.

Example: Associations that support micro-credentialing and lifelong learning empower members to respond to fast-changing job markets, reducing anxiety through agency.

3. Nonlinear Problems Require Interdisciplinary Solutions

The challenges we face rarely unfold in predictable, linear ways. Climate change, for example, involves economics, geopolitics, science, and social justice at once. Research universities and think tanks are among the few institutions designed to integrate knowledge across domains. Associations can amplify and use this integrative work to inform their advocacy, standards-setting, strategic vision, and purpose.

Example: A professional society that funds cross-disciplinary research on urban resilience contributes more than data—it fosters systemthinking essential to futurereadiness.

4. Making the Incomprehensible Understandable

Incomprehensibility emerges when rapid change outpaces our frameworks for making sense of the world. Research restores coherence. It tests hypotheses, reveals patterns, and invites open inquiry. Higher education trains individuals to interpret complexity instead of avoiding it. Supporting this infrastructure ensures society can respond to uncertainty not with retreat but with insight.

Example: Associations involved in public communication—whether through journals, webinars, or certification—can partner with universities to translate complex findings into meaningful guidance.

5. Joint Responsibility for Long-Term Resilience

In a BANI world, no one sector can shoulder the burden alone. Governments must recommit to sustained, depoliticized funding of higher education and research. Associations must be more than beneficiaries; they must be architects of a future-ready knowledge ecosystem. Supporting research and teaching isn’t a sideline issue; it’s central to strategic foresight, workforce readiness, and national security.

Coda: Why Now, and Why Together?

We no longer live in a world where yesterday’s models can predict tomorrow’s outcomes reliably. We live in a world that demands we invest in ideas, inquiry, and human potential. Associations and governments must collaborate to support research and higher education—not just to recover from a crisis but to shape what comes next. Because in a BANI world, the best strategy is not control—its capability.

In Abundance, Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler make a provocative point: many of today’s most persistent challenges stem not from failure, but from the unintended consequences of yesterday’s solutions. Procedures, rules, and structures designed to fix problems or ensure fairness decades ago now often stand in the way of progress. This tension is especially visible in the nonprofit association world—where mission-driven intent collides with the inertia of institutional Process.

Associations, by nature, are built for stability. They safeguard standards, preserve institutional memory, and uphold democratic engagement. But over time, these same strengths can become barriers to agility, especially in an era of rapid change, digital disruption, and escalating member expectations. The challenge we face isn’t whether to keep or discard Process, but how to make it serve outcomes—rather than hinder them.

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1. A Legacy of Good Intentions

Processes in associations often come from a place of principle. They’re designed to ensure fairness, transparency, member input, and legal compliance. Bylaws protect against tyranny. Policies promote consistency. Procedures provide a roadmap when the road ahead is unclear.

But as Abundance suggests, good solutions can age poorly. Structures created to solve problems in one era may be ill-suited for today’s needs. Legacy processes in associations—especially those designed in the analog era—can become calcified, taking on a life of their own, detached from the purpose they once served.

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2. The Problem with Over-Processing

Every association executive knows the pain of watching a fresh idea die in committee. Or watching a board table a strategic priority because the bylaws don’t address it. Or shelving innovation because the risk, however small, threatens “the way we’ve always done it.”

Over-processing leads to what some call “policy paralysis.” The costs are substantial:

• Missed opportunities for innovation and growth
• Delays in responding to members’ urgent needs
• A culture of “no” or “not yet” instead of “why not?”

Risk aversion becomes a core cultural trait, even when the risk of doing nothing is greater.

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3. When Structure Serves, and When It Doesn’t

None of this is to say that Process is inherently bad. On the contrary—Process can be a powerful ally in building trust and delivering value. The key is fitness for purpose.

Structure serves us when:

• It clarifies authority and accountability
• It provides a framework for inclusive decision-making
• It ensures continuity across leadership transitions

But it fails us when:

• The Process becomes the goal rather than the means
• We prioritize adherence to protocol over member impact
• Decision-making cycles drag on without resolution

To lead well, associations must distinguish between Process that supports strategy and Process that supplants it.

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4. Toward a More Adaptive Association

Some associations are already rethinking how they govern and operate:

• Sunsetting outdated policies: Automatically reviewing and retiring policies every 3–5 years unless reaffirmed
• Creating innovation zones: Establishing “safe to try” pilot programs outside traditional governance channels
• Using agile committees: Task forces with short-term mandates, clear charters, and direct reporting lines
• Empowering staff: Letting executive teams make low-risk decisions without board micromanagement

These shifts require trust, clarity, and shared purpose—but they free up organizations to experiment, adapt, and evolve.

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5. Questions for Boards and Staff to Ask Themselves

To begin this journey, ask:

• Which of our processes protect us, and which limit us?
• Where are we using Process as a proxy for trust or control?
• What policies or procedures have outlived their usefulness?
• Are we prioritizing procedural compliance over mission outcomes?
• How can we create space for rapid experimentation and learning?

A regular governance and policy audit can reveal friction points and spark meaningful reform.

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6. Conclusion: A Call to Purposeful Agility

Process isn’t the enemy. But in an era that demands nimbleness and clarity of purpose, associations must ensure that their structures serve the mission—not the other way around. We owe it to our members, our missions, and our futures to ask: is our Process a platform for progress—or a cage?

By balancing thoughtful structure with adaptive execution, associations can step fully into the future—not as prisoners of past solutions, but as builders of new ones.

Remember Memorial Day 2025
A Time to Reflect, Honor, and Serve

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On this Memorial Day, we pause to honor and remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Their sacrifice is a solemn reminder of the cost of freedom and our enduring responsibility to uphold the values they fought to protect.

As we enjoy time with family, friends, and our communities, may we also take a moment to reflect on the courage, dedication, and selflessness of those who served and never returned. Let us keep their memories alive today and throughout the year by striving to live with purpose, gratitude, and a commitment to the greater good.

How Associations Can Honor Memorial Day:

• Host a Moment of Silence: Begin meetings or events near Memorial Day with a moment of silence to honor fallen service members.
• Feature a Veteran Speaker: Invite a veteran or military family member to share reflections on service and sacrifice.
• Highlight Members Who Have Served: Use newsletters or social media to recognize association members who are veterans or military family members.
• Support a Cause: Organize a fundraiser or service activity for veterans’ organizations or military family support groups.
• Share Educational Content: Provide historical context about Memorial Day to help members understand its significance beyond the long weekend.
• Encourage Personal Acts of Remembrance: Suggest members visit a local memorial, volunteer, or fly the flag to honor the fallen.

This Memorial Day, we remember. We honor. We vow never to forget.

Why do so many associations wait until a crisis hits before making the very changes they’ve known for years they needed to make?

It’s a common and costly pattern I’ve seen repeated across the nonprofit sector. A challenge emerges, data accumulates, feedback mounts, and everyone knows a change is coming someday. But nothing happens until a financial shortfall, a reputational blow, a board shake-up, a regulatory change, or a membership exodus forces action.

We must ask ourselves: Why do associations continue to operate reactively, rather than strategically and proactively?

1. The Comfort of the Known

At the root is a deep organizational preference for what’s familiar. Most associations are built for consistency, governed by process-heavy bylaws, shaped by long-standing traditions, and driven by consensus culture. That’s great for stability. But it also means that even when leaders know what needs to change, taking action feels risky. The pull of “the way we’ve always done it” is strong, even when it’s no longer serving members or the mission.

2. The Myth of ‘No Time’

“We’re too busy right now.”

This refrain is the death knell of strategic momentum. Daily operations consume attention, particularly in small staff associations. When everyone’s focused on keeping programs running and member expectations met, change becomes a luxury that gets deferred until it becomes necessary.

But if an association can’t afford strategic change before a crisis, how will it find the time during one?

3. Fear of Internal Conflict

Change is hard. It invites questions, challenges authority, and risks disrupting harmony among staff, boards, and members. That fear leads many leaders to kick the can down the road. Ironically, though, crisis-driven change is more disruptive and painful. When action is delayed, decisions are made under pressure, with fewer options and higher stakes.

In one national association I worked with, leadership postponed key governance updates for years to avoid upsetting legacy board members. When a public controversy forced restructuring, the transition was rushed and divisive. The change happened with higher costs and reputational damage that should have been avoided.

4. No Foresight Framework

Few associations make time to look ahead in a structured, strategic way. They don’t run future scenario exercises. They don’t scan for weak signals or emerging trends. As a result, they’re constantly surprised when predictable change—demographic shifts, technology evolution, changing member expectations—arrives at their doorstep.

Foresight doesn’t require a crystal ball. It requires discipline of curiosity, scanning, and dialogue.

5. Crisis as Permission

Ironically, a crisis often gives leaders the permission they lacked before. A financial downturn suddenly makes long-debated cuts or consolidations politically acceptable. A pandemic accelerates digital transformation that had languished for years. The money saved for that rainy day fund suddenly becomes availablein these moments, and resistance melts away. But it shouldn’t take an emergency to do what’s right.

6. The Hidden Costs of Delay

Waiting to act comes with a price. Programs become stale. Staff morale erodes. Member valuedeclines. And when the crisis does arrive, the options for change are fewer and more urgent.

Consider the case of a state-level association that delayed replacing its outdated member database due to cost concerns. When the system finally crashed, they had to implement a new platform with no transition time, resulting in lost data, member complaints, and a blow to the association’s credibility. What would have been a manageable project became a reputational and operational disaster.

7. A Path Toward Proactive Change

Here are a few ways associations can shift from reactive to proactive:

• Schedule Foresight: Set time on the board agenda to discuss emerging trends and what they might mean for your mission.
• Use Scenario Planning: Engage staff and volunteer leaders in imagining future states. What would force us to change? What would we wish we had done earlier?
• Start Pre-Mortems: Before major initiatives or continued inaction, ask: What could go wrong if we don’t act now?
• Reward Innovation: Celebrate experimentation—support pilots. Build a culture where not all change must be perfect to be valuable.
• Anchor to Purpose: Reframe change as an expression of mission, not a departure from it.

Coda: Change Before You Have To

Associations don’t need to wait for a fire to test the alarm. The signals are often clear. The data is usually there. The unease is already felt. What’s missing is often the commitment to lead change before circumstances force it.

If your association has been circling a necessary transformation, whether in technology, governance, member engagement, or strategy, don’t wait. The time to act is not after the storm. It’s while the skies are still clear enough to navigate wisely.

Use this tool to spot early signals, surface overdue decisions, and take steps before a crisis forces your hand.

1. Strategic Signals & Trends

• We regularly scan external trends (e.g., tech, demographics, policy) for impact on our mission.
• We’ve identified 3–5 significant risks or disruptions likely to affect our members in the next 3 years.
• We track weak signals and outliers—not just the obvious headlines.

2. Leadership Conversations

• Our board agendas include future-focused discussions, not just operational reports.
• We’ve discussed at least one “uncomfortable truth” in the last six months.
• We use scenario planning or pre-mortem exercises to anticipate change.

3. Cultural Willingness

• Staff and board are encouraged to raise concerns or propose bold ideas without fear.
• Experiments, pilots, or “safe-to-fail” projects are supported and celebrated.
• We reward curiosity and learning, even when efforts don’t produce immediate results.

4. Known But Deferred Changes

Which of these are already under discussion, but stalled?

• Governance reform or board restructuring
• Outdated technology systems
• Declining membership or relevance
• Unclear or diluted value proposition
• Financial sustainability concerns
• Stagnant or legacy programs needing sunsetting

If two or more are checked, schedule a leadership session to revisit them now, not later.

5. Crisis Preparedness

• We’ve identified who makes decisions during a crisis.
• We have a plan for rapid communication with members and stakeholders.
• We’ve rehearsed or reviewed this plan in the last 12 months.

Proactive change starts with awareness, conversation, and action—before urgency strips away your options.

Use this checklist with your team or board and set one specific change goal you won’t wait to make this quarter.

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In recent years, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) efforts have faced a growing wave of opposition. Some federal and state officials have sought to curtail DEIA programs, claiming they promote division or undermine merit. As these pressures rise, associations across sectors—healthcare, education, manufacturing, and the arts—must decide whether to stay silent or speak up.

Let’s be clear: advancing DEIA is not a partisan act. It is a moral, strategic, and professional imperative. Associations are uniquely positioned to lead on DEIA—not despite today’s climate, but because of it.

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1. Mission Integrity and Member Trust

At their core, associations serve communities, professions, and industries. This mission is grounded in advancing knowledge, standards, and opportunity for many. Failing to embrace DEIA contradicts those values.

If your association represents a field or community, it must also reflect its full diversity. Silence or regression on DEIA risks alienating members, especially those from historically marginalized or underrepresented groups. Publicly supporting DEIA is a way to say to all members: You belong here. We must ask ourselves, will submitting to the pressure improve the situation or result in more pressure?

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2. Future Readiness and Talent

Associations cannot thrive without the next generation. Millennials and Gen Z now make up most of the U.S. workforce, and they expect organizations to walk the talk on inclusion and equity. These generations are more diverse, values-driven, and less tolerant of organizations unwilling to stand for justice.

Supporting DEIA helps associations remain relevant, attract emerging leaders, and build sustainable pipelines of future talent and board leadership. Ignoring these shifts is not neutrality—it’s obsolescence.

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3. Sector Leadership and Ethical Responsibility

Associations don’t just serve members—they shape entire fields. They influence hiring standards, professional ethics, research priorities, and organizational culture across sectors. In that context, a strong DEIA stance is not just defensible, it is necessary leadership.

Backing away from DEIA in the face of political pressure sends the message that values are negotiable. Standing firm communicates that the association is committed to progress, professionalism, and equity, even when it’s hard.

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4. Innovation and Organizational Success

The business case for DEIA is solid. Research consistently shows that diverse organizations perform better: they are more innovative, more resilient, and more capable of meeting the complex needs of their stakeholders. Inclusive teams solve problems more creatively and make better decisions.

Associations that embed DEIA into their culture, programs, and leadership structures gain competitive advantages. Those that don’t will fall behind—strategically, reputationally, and economically.

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5. Moral Courage in a Time of Retreat

We are in a moment where inclusion, accessibility, and equity are under attack. History will judge how organizations responded. Were they silent to protect short-term comfort, or did they act to defend long-term justice?

Associations have a moral responsibility to support a more equitable and inclusive world. Whether through scholarships, standards, codes of conduct, or conferences, every association can make a meaningful impact. That starts with being brave enough to stand up, speak out, and hold the line.

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6. Resisting Government Overreach

Some opponents of DEIA are weaponizing government authority to suppress free speech, free association, and free enterprise. As independent membership organizations, associations should not allow their values to be dictated by shifting political winds.

Resisting such overreach is part of what associations were built to do. Many were born from movements for worker rights, professionalization, or public health, each of which faced political opposition in its time. Supporting DEIA today is a continuation of that legacy.

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Coda: This Is Our Moment

DEIA is not a passing trend. It is a long-term investment in justice, excellence, and resilience. It is the path toward a professional and civic life where everyone can contribute, thrive, and belong.

Associations that stand firm in their commitment to DEIA are not making a political statement but demonstrating vision, integrity, and leadership. Our members, sectors, and society need that in these challenging times.

Now more than ever, associations must lead.