Molly Marsh
Like all organizations today, Associations are being asked to keep pace with a world that rarely sits still. Industries shift, technology reshapes how professionals work and connect, and the expectations members bring to their membership look very different than they did even a few years ago. The result is a quiet but growing gap: the…
Here’s what we hear from association staff again and again: “Our board is brilliant. They’re thoughtful people who really care about the mission. But at the end of the day, we spend a lot of time in meetings talking about strategy, and then… nothing changes.” This isn’t a board problem. It’s a governance problem. Many…
You don’t have to bet everything on a single strategy. In fact, you shouldn’t. One of the most valuable lessons from corporate strategy and investment management is viewing your organization not as a single plan, but as a portfolio of strategic investments. Now, not all corporate methodology translates directly to the association space—associations have different stakeholders, different…
What if your strategy isn’t to hit certain future targets no matter the circumstances, but to change and evolve along with the environment you’re in? Welcome to the concept of adaptive strategy! If you’ve spent years developing a traditional five-year plan, this might sound unsettling. But here’s the truth: when the world changes (and it will), a…
Scenario Planning: Preparing for Multiple Futures (Not Predicting the One) If we learned anything from Back to the Future, it’s that predicting the future is tricky business. Marty McFly tried, and things got weird fast. The good news? Your association doesn’t have to predict the future. It just needs to prepare for multiple futures—and that’s exactly what scenario planning does. …