The Acronym Blog from ASAE has made it Big Idea month and many folks have risen to the task blogging about various what if scenarios in the association world. I know I am late, but having just started a new job, I am just now catching up with my blog reading. For those that follow me on Twitter, you know that I just yesterday went in and added all my RSS feeds again after purging them about a year ago. So here goes...
What if associations weren't afraid of doing new things just because they might fail?
As Clay Shirky says in Here Comes Everybody, "The cost of trying things is where Coasean theory about transaction costs and power law distributions of participation intersect."
Said another way, sometimes the cost of the resources to try something new are more than the return on investment if it succeeds. So what?
As they say, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got. For some associations, that seems ok. But for the ones where that isn't ok, you have to try new things in order to break that cycle.
What if associations weren't afraid of doing new things just because they might fail?
As Clay Shirky says in Here Comes Everybody, "The cost of trying things is where Coasean theory about transaction costs and power law distributions of participation intersect."
Said another way, sometimes the cost of the resources to try something new are more than the return on investment if it succeeds. So what?
As they say, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got. For some associations, that seems ok. But for the ones where that isn't ok, you have to try new things in order to break that cycle.
Comments
What would you say is the next step for someone who wants to suggest something new and different, but who works for a conservative association? (Not asking for myself, but out of curiosity...)
What I don't understand is why associations seem to be so much more afraid of failure than for-profit orgs. Why is that? I feel like if we could find the root of the fear, it might be easier to counteract it. Where do you think it comes from?