Managing in a Time of Continuous Change
Trends affect both SLMMS and medical practices

Being in the association business is a lot different than being in medical practice, but the professions do have a few things in common. For one thing, it's a constant learning process, because things never stay the same. Like you, I have to continue to recognize that there are always new problems and new ways to attack those problems. And what I've learned in recent years is that associations and societies like SLMMS face an entirely different set of problems and issues than they did 10 or 15 years ago. I'm sure you see some of these same trends occurring in your practices.

First, the process of change itself is now different. Up until the early 1990s, if you plotted a curve of change over time, it followed a pretty normal curve - slow, steady and continuous. Today, the process is discontinuous. As you look at the curve, it gets steeper and steeper near the end, and in recent years has begun to take on the appearance of an EKG pattern.

What that means for SLMMS is that we can't plan as far ahead as in the past. That's why nobody does "long range planning" anymore. Today, it's called Strategic Planning, and your plan is likely to look no farther ahead than a couple of years. And it also means the leaders of societies need to understand that associations need to be structured in a way that they can react to change more quickly. The catch word today is nimble. If you're nimble, you can react quickly, and you may be able to ride one of those "spikes" upward on the curve. You may see a similar need in the business of running a practice.

A second change involves the nature of our members. Members of groups today - even very homogeneous groups like medical societies - are less similar to one another than they used to be … or, in other words, they're more dissimilar. In the past, societies spent more time working for all doctors in a general way. Today, with all the specialties, we find that members have more diverse and finely tuned needs and interests. One week we may be working on behalf of psychiatrists concerned with psychologists gaining prescribing privileges, and the next week working for OBGYNs dismayed with proposed new midwifery legislation. Within every group is a wider variety of people and personalities with a more diverse range of interests, activities and needs than in the past. What that means for associations is that they have to provide a wider range of programs than they have in the past. You have to be in more places. In technical terms, you have to provide more "stuff." Patients today may expect the same.

A third area of difference is accountability. Staffs that work for societies and other associations have always had to be accountable to the boards to which they report. If they weren't, there were quick and sure consequences. But today, boards and councils have to be more responsive to their members than ever before. The call for corporate accountability has crossed over into the nonprofit world like never before. Transparency isn't just a catch word in P4P programs, it's a necessity in the association business as well. We have new accounting standards ensuring that everything is laid open for the scrutiny of the membership. Finances, budgets, progress reports - they're all an open book - and the members will quickly let you know if they believe you're off track.

Another area is time availability. Members today have less time… or at least believe they have less time… than in the past. Societies used to be able to express their needs and ask the members to build their time around those needs. In spite of all the time savings brought about by technology, most of us find ourselves spending more time at our desks than in the past. Computers today may be fast, but they're also cruel taskmasters. They may allow us to do things more quickly, but they've given us more to do. And today, people are more protective of the little personal time they have than ever before, and associations have had to learn that they need to build their programs around the members' time, not vice versa. In your businesses, you have had to establish your own time priorities, and have had to adjust to your patients' changing attitudes as well.

A fifth trend is technology itself. It's been around for many years, but not with the impact it has today. Back in the 1980s, people began to say the organization that had the biggest database would win out over its competition. Then in the 1990s, they said those who had the best software won. It was all about staying ahead of your competition by utilizing the best and the latest. Today, those who have the best Web sites and electronic communications have an edge.

The key thing is that if you're not open to, and comfortable with, constant change, you'll quickly fall behind. And it needs to be a constant and conscious effort to make sure you're always looking for opportunities to change, putting new opportunities to work for you, and not just reacting to change after it's inevitable. In your practices, you have to deal with the advent of EMRs. For us, it's the latest database management software and lightning-fast communication with members.

What I've found is that these trends make up a complex environment that makes the jobs of association leaders - and everyone else in business - more difficult than ever. Some things stay the same. Membership is a key issue for us, and always has been. But the way we deal with it has changed radically, and will continue to change rapidly.

There are a few other things that haven't changed. Members join societies, and more important, stay in societies, for a few very basic reasons. They want to belong to organizations that give them a good return on their investment. They want valuable benefits in exchange for the dues they pay. And they want to belong to an organization that they are proud to be part of - one they can brag about to their associates. And finally, they want to have an enjoyable experience. This is not why they join in the first place, but as time passes, if they don't feel good about their experience, many of them won't stay. That's why providing opportunities for participation is important. Your patients probably feel the same - they want a good return on investment, to be proud to be your patient, and to have an enjoyable experience whenever possible. Maybe our businesses aren't so different after all.

We all have our challenges, and perhaps they're not that different from business to business. But they're certainly different than in the past.

PULLOUT
If you're not open to, and comfortable with, constant change, you'll quickly fall behind