Welcome to the LBL Strategies Newsletter
Who is LBL?
Welcome to our first newsletter for 2006. We hope you will find the enclosed information thought provoking and valuable to your organization. Please let us introduce ourselves.
LBL Strategies, Ltd is entering its third decade of delivering practical strategy development and execution services to our valued clients. We work with geographically dispersed leadership teams to achieve their goals by delivering modern solutions to age old problems facing today’s busy planning teams; time and distance. We provide web-based planning technologies, direct consulting services and our university-based training program to build each client’s capacity to navigate today’s rapidly changing environment to focus, make knowledge-driven decisions and grow.
Editorial
Discipline Counts
We agree 100% with best-selling author Jim Collins (Good to Great and the Social Sector) that “A culture of discipline is not a principle of business; it is a principle of greatness.”
Discipline as a necessary component of greatness is not exclusive to businesses or the corporate world. It’s a universal value that results in greater performance and effectiveness in the independent, nonprofit sector as well.
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There is a dialogue underway among association professionals about the need for greater discipline in every aspect of their operations – internal and external. Throughout 2006, we will share our thoughts as part of this dialogue. Our goal is to offer practical recommendations and resources that will develop and strengthen a culture of discipline in your organization. What we offer is based on more than 20 years of experience working with associations, NGOs and nonprofits throughout the country.
And, being disciplined, we’ll explore one particular aspect of discipline as it manifests itself in organizations such as yours in each issue of our e-newsletter.
# 1: Effective Environmental Scanning
Each time an association leadership team launches a strategic planning and management process there is a need to balance current challenges, emerging trends and long-term stakeholder needs. The day-to-day does not wait for a strategy map to emerge. And if you haven’t identified the trends that are impacting (or are about to impact) your operations, as well as your industry or nonprofit “sector,” you may not be around to help shape (and fund) any long-term needs.
These competing considerations can be balanced and addressed by using an excellent environmental scanning resource that is now available from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the Center for Association Leadership.
Their report, Mapping the Future of Your Association, analyzes “eight super trends” that will drive change in the years ahead. Among them: demassification, unbundling, scrimping, wave 3.1, virtualization, cybermobbing, scrutiny and counter-Americanism.
These super trends are critical issues for you, your staff and board members to address. If you assess these considerations realistically and without fearing or dismissing them, you can create and implement a disciplined, comprehensive environmental scan process now. You can improve both internal and external operations and processes -- thanks to ASAE and the Center.
The scan process is made easier by using their report. All it takes is discipline on your part.
News and Upcoming Events
ASAE Conference in Orlando and San Diego
LBL Strategies is participating in the American Society of Association Executives “Great Ideas” conferences being held Orlando and San Diego this winter season. Randy Rollinson along with Kirk Leeds, CEO of the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) delivers a workshop on effective use of technology to measure strategic progress. Basis of the workshop is a case study chronicling LBL’s work with the Iowa Soybean Association to develop, implement and ultimately evaluate performance of its strategic plan via LBL’s web-based planning application: MAPPware 2.1.