Often, individuals and organizations resolve to achieve a group of goals or resolutions at the beginning of the new year. Most of these go unfulfilled or look lovely in a memo to staff, friends, and the board.
Rather than make a series of resolutions for the new year, let's commit to one of the fundamental truths, "the only constant is change." Our association community has a long and meaningful set of traditional beliefs built over decades, "that if it ain't broke, don't fix it."Our problem is that our operational structures, governance, and long-standing practices are not meeting the test of a new disruptive and challenging BANI worldview century.
Let's briefly explore the necessity of accepting the constants of change. The following is a dozen to help us advance as strategic thinkers and the BANI worldview.
Reframing these strategies in a BANI worldview (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible) can provide sharper insights into how associations should operate in a world characterized by fragility, complexity, and unpredictability. Here's a revision of some strategies with a BANI perspective in mind:
1. Governance and Decision-Making
BANI Lens: Brittle governance structures crumble under volatile pressures. Associations must adopt adaptive and participatory decision-making models that prioritize flexibility and inclusivity, preparing leaders to act in the face of incomprehensible complexity and nonlinear change.
2. Membership Models
BANI Lens: In an anxious world, rigid membership tiers fail to provide a sense of stability. Associations should offer modular and personalized membership models that evolve based on real-time feedback, giving members confidence and relevance in unpredictable circumstances.
3. Value Proposition and Engagement
BANI Lens: Anxious members in a nonlinear world value clarity and connection. Associations must redefine engagement by creating safe collaboration, storytelling, and co-creation spaces that help members find meaning amidst chaos.
4. Workforce and Talent Strategies
BANI Lens: Workforce dynamics are increasingly brittle and nonlinear. Associations need resilient talent pipelines that emphasize cross-functional skills, adaptability, and the mental well-being of their teams to mitigate anxiety and prepare for sudden disruptions.
5. Program Delivery and Innovation
BANI Lens: Programs must be built with redundancy and adaptability to withstand brittleness and nonlinear spikes in demand. Associations should focus on iterative design, scalable solutions, and rapid prototyping to meet real-time evolving member needs.
6. Technology Integration
BANI Lens: The incomprehensible pace of technological advancement requires associations to embrace modular, interoperable systems that can scale or pivot without becoming brittle. Cybersecurity and AI-driven ethical analytics have become essential tools in navigating a chaotic digital landscape.
7. Advocacy and Public Policy
BANI Lens: Advocacy strategies must address societal anxiety and reflect nonlinear political dynamics. Associations should focus on building long-term narratives and fostering trust-based relationships that can endure sudden political or public sentiment shifts.
8. Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
BANI Lens: Fragile systems and rising ecological anxiety demand associations to adopt regenerative practices that mitigate harm and actively rebuild resilience. Equitable policies and DEI initiatives must be central to their missions to create stability and trust.
9. Revenue Diversification
BANI Lens: Revenue models must be designed to navigate global economies' brittle and nonlinear nature. Associations should experiment with diverse, adaptive income streams that can flex with economic shifts and ensure financial resilience.
10. Strategic Thinking and Scenario Planning
BANI Lens: Strategic plans must embrace incomprehensibility and prepare for nonlinear outcomes. Associations should implement scenario-based planning tools and develop strategies that are flexible, iterative, and capable of navigating sudden and unexpected changes. Think Strategically before developing any planning documents.
11. Collaboration and Partnerships
BANI Lens: Nonlinear challenges require associations to think beyond their traditional silos. They must cultivate resilient ecosystems of partnerships that share knowledge, pool resources, and amplify collective impact.
12. Measurement and Impact
BANI Lens: Traditional metrics often fail to capture the true impact in a BANI world. Associations should develop holistic, real-time impact frameworks that measure resilience, trust, and system-wide influence rather than relying solely on financial outcomes.
This BANI-Worldview highlights associations' need to embrace agilityand adaptability, foster resilience, and prioritize meaning-making in response to the volatile and uncertain conditions of the 21st century.
Let me know what you think.