Chapter 6

Putting the 7 Measures to Work

While reading about the attributes of remarkable associations, you may have made a mental assessment of your own association’s inclinations. For example, you might have thought, “Would we react with the same speed and agility to an organizational crisis?” or wondered, “Do our products and services truly line up with our mission?”

The process through which such questions are answered will be as unique as the association asking them. With that in mind, here are summaries of how three organizations of varying age, size, and structure have incorporated the seven measures into their cultures and operations. (For additional ideas to implement in your association, see Appendix E: How to Measure the Measures.)

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)

This 70,000-member federation participated in the Measures of Success study but wasn’t selected as a remarkable association. More than a little disappointed by being placed in the group of comparison associations, ABC’s staff members and volunteer leaders delved into the study’s results. All employees and members of the executive committee read 7 Measures of Success and participated in book-club discussion groups; joined by numerous chapter presidents, this group also completed an online survey of the areas where they thought ABC could easily make progress. Interestingly, staff members and volunteers had divergent opinions. The latter group selected a customer service culture (Measure 1) as most likely to yield improvements quickly, while staff answers were equally distributed among all seven measures.

With the survey results as a starting point, ABC hosted a one-day, facilitated brainstorming session that addressed four questions:

• What does ABC do well in this area?
• What could ABC do better?
• How can ABC measure progress?
• What might ABC need to improve competency in this area?

Following another one-day brainstorming session with chapter presidents and a two-day executive committee meeting, all dedicated to analyzing ABC’s performance relative to the seven measures, the association’s leadership finalized a plan.

For starters, the group decided to rewrite ABC’s mission statement as a precursor to better aligning its products and services with the mission (Measure 2). Conversations among staff vice presidents revealed the need to boost dialogue and engagement with internal audiences (Measure 4) and to redesign the national database to better capture and use information gathered from the field (Measure 3). Perhaps the most significant change related to the CEO being a broker of ideas (Measure 5): The executive committee voted to restructure the staff by adding the new position of chief operating officer (COO), thus freeing up more time the CEO could dedicate to building and strengthening alliances (Measure 7).

“7 Measures did not give us any answers. Rather, it gave us a way to think about the right questions to ask,” observed Kirk Pickerel, CAE, who retired in 2011 as president and CEO of ABC.

International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP)

Don Bretthauer, CAE, admitted being a bit skeptical when 7 Measures first appeared on the scene. As IAAP’s executive director at the time, he had seen numerous approaches to nonprofit management come and go—but he liked the book’s research-based observations and thought they might help IAAP’s staff and leaders guide the 25,000-member association through a somewhat tumultuous period in its more than 50-year history.

First, IAAP’s leadership looked at the mission statement and decided the long, nebulous description didn’t accurately reflect the association’s true identity. The board drafted five new mission statements and polled the membership to narrow the choices. After some tweaking, the two finalists were again presented to the members, who favored this concise mission statement: Enhancing the success of career-minded administrative professionals by providing opportunities for growth through education, community building, and leadership development.

“That was our first effort at getting data and promoting dialogue and engagement,” Bretthauer said. “We wanted the members to have buy-in on the new mission statement, so they’d be more aware of what the organization was doing.” IAAP also started surveying its members about their attitudes, gathering different information than it had in the past.

With the new mission statement and data in hand, board and staff began “mission testing”—comparing programs, products, and services to IAAP’s professed purpose. Not all activities passed the test, leading IAAP to phase out some long-time activities. For example, for years the association had tracked Continuing Education Units (CEUs) on its members’ behalf and issued certificates to them. Yet few members used the service, which other organizations in the profession also offered. “Serving as a repository of people’s attendance at meetings was a convenience for our members, but it didn’t align with our mission statement,” Bretthauer explained. “We just stopped doing it, so we’d have more time to devote to another opportunity that would have greater impact for our members.”

For IAAP, the next logical step was to incorporate the seven measures into its strategic planning. The association created its Executive Oversight Committee, consisting of three elected officers, the executive director, and a staff member to serve as project manager. Committee members outlined the areas in which they wanted to see the association improve, then appointed short-term action teams—with both staff and volunteer members—to help bring the changes to fruition. This process has continued; each spring, the Executive Oversight Committee reviews the previous year’s progress, identifies new areas for improvement, and appoints new action teams. One team, for example, analyzed the association’s alliances in the preceding five years, using the results to develop a standardized process for evaluating potential partners in the future.

Another team’s work led to a significant change in one of IAAP’s signature programs. In 2011, IAAP restructured its certification program—which traditionally had offered two credentials—to support one general credential that can be expanded upon with specialties. After earning the new Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) designation, for example, a member might take additional exams related to specialties such as organizational management, medical or insurance administration, or technology/software. The change simplified the certification program while also providing numerous ways to expand it to reflect members’ specialized skills.

The extent to which the seven measures have become ingrained in the association’s culture might best be described by the theme IAAP’s 2011–12 international president selected to guide her year in office: “Making the Leap to Remarkable.” When introducing the theme to IAAP’s members, the international president noted, “The Leap to Remarkable isn’t a destination—it’s a journey. This [theme] encapsulates the vision that our association has been working toward.”

Bretthauer observed, “We use the seven measures to do incremental improvements. Our process is a hybrid between business planning and long-term strategic planning, and it keeps everyone focused on improving the organization.” In particular, staff appreciate the association’s continued focus on data-driven strategies (Measure 3) because they feel confident about making difficult decisions that are fully supported by usage statistics and survey results.

On his own, Bretthauer tackled the idea of the CEO as a broker of ideas (Measure 5). For six months, he tracked how he spent his time each day—and discovered he typically dealt with so many internal issues that he rarely got around to reviewing ideas from outside the organization and offering creative options to the board. That realization led to a staff restructuring, which changed reporting relationships for some of Bretthauer’s direct reports.

He added, “There isn’t any prescription for how you should use the seven measures. They don’t offer a cookie-cutter model but rather provide a framework for change, one that can be adapted to your association and how it works.”

American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM)

Founded in 1998, AAHPM had reached a critical juncture when the Measures of Success project concluded with publication of 7 Measures of Success. With membership increasing steadily—and physician members preparing for board certification for the first time—AAHPM had begun the transition to a leadership-oriented board, rather than one that sometimes dabbled in operational issues. The seven measures provided a perfect framework for managing the growth and taking the 4,000-member association to the next level.

“The book reintroduced to some volunteer leaders the notion that association management is really a business, so it helps legitimize the profession. They realized that there are resources, theories, and practices that go into making an association successful,” said Steve Smith, CAE, AAHPM’s executive director/CEO.

After reading 7 Measures, the 18-member board and the 10-person staff began incorporating the book’s terminology into trainings, discussions, and decision making. When a decision looms on the horizon, for example, the association’s leaders remind themselves to first engage in data gathering and dialogue before beginning any deliberations that will lead to decision making. AAHPM also introduced the seven measures to its five strategic coordinating committees—one for each of its strategic goals—and to the task forces that focus on various activities which support those goals.

“We worked hard to get our entire governance structure working through the same process of data-driven strategies and dialogue and engagement. That has created trust and helped the board become more strategic,” Smith explained. Board members became less focused on the details of implementing a particular initiative because they trusted the task force proposing it had gathered supporting data and member feedback. In turn, task force members felt more empowered because the board relied on them for strategic recommendations.

7 Measures doesn’t tell an association specifically what to do, added Smith, but it provides inspiration. For example:

• AAHPM dedicated one staff retreat to discussing a customer service culture (Measure 1). With the assistance of a facilitator, staff members generated guidelines for good service to influence every interaction with members, either in person or on the phone. As a constant reminder to implement the guidelines, not tuck them away in a written document, the association gave employees coffee mugs bearing its stated commitment to customer service.
• In support of both data-driven strategies and dialogue and engagement (Measures 3 and 4), the association seeks input from its members every month. The research might range from a quick online or phone survey, to formalized focus groups, to a full-blown member satisfaction or market research study. The results have helped AAHPM identify critical transition points for its members—such as completing a residency, starting a practice, or serving as a mentor—and provide appropriate information and programs to support them at those times. Also, based on the feedback it received from members, AAHPM made an early move into social media; its annual meeting routinely produces a high volume of traffic on Twitter as attendees share content and comments from sessions.
• In addition to partnering with an association of nurses to host its annual conference, AAHPM dedicates a certain percentage of staff time to external outreach and alliance building (Measure 7). The association aims to increase collaboration with other medical specialties, in support of its purpose to improve the care of patients with life-threatening or serious conditions.

“Many small associations use their size as a barrier; they assume they can’t do something because they lack the resources,” noted Smith. “We take the opposite approach—we assume we can do anything because we are nimble. And if we align everything we do with our mission and strategic goals, and the membership provides validation through dialogue and engagement, why wouldn’t we do it?”