Steps You Should Be Taking Now for Your Fall Conference April 21, 2020 by Dave Lutz This is the fourth in a series of blogs posts, written collaboratively by our team, which uncover lessons learned in advising dozens of our clients on their events in the time of COVID-19. Although each situation has its own unique issues, we hope you find nuggets to help you with your disruption response and planning. … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning, Experience Design, Hybrid & Virtual Tagged With: , COVID-19, leadership, negotiations, pandemic, social distancing, virtual events
Conference Reform Requires Cultivating Leaders With Moral Purpose To Make A Difference January 8, 2019 by Jeff Hurt Many conferences are stuck in the rut of legacy routines, age-old rituals and cloned programming. Conference organizers and its advisors replicate the past maintaining the traditions and well-established procedures of yesteryear. The event is nothing more than a zombie conference—a conference that appears to be alive yet in reality creates the walking undead. If you … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , conference purpose, conference reform, conference vision, leaders, leadership, make a difference, moral purpose, restructuring, transformation, transformative, trasaction, walking undead, zombie conference
Has Your Leadership Evolved For The New Normal? January 4, 2019 by Jeff Hurt Change is hard. Foresight—looking forward—is hard. Why? Because we prefer certainty and concreteness to ambiguity and abstraction. Becoming a new normal leader requires shifting your perspective. It means becoming biased towards consistent, persistent evolution, not inclined to keep things the way they are which results in stagnant-status-quo-sameness. Your organization’s sustainable success depends upon you transforming … [Read more…] Filed Under: Experience Design Tagged With: , 21st Century mindset, ambigious, association leaders, board, board of directors, complex, exponential change, leadership, new normal, uncertain, volatile, VUCA
The Achilles Heel Of Association Leadership March 7, 2018 by Jeff Hurt One of the ironies of associations is that the strengths that led to their initial success may actually be detrimental to their ongoing growth. Most associations start with a group of passionate volunteers that serve in many roles. They are intricately involved in all the functions of the association. These core volunteers oversee the organization’s … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning Tagged With: , association leaders, board of directors, leadership, volunteer leadership, volunteer resource capacity, working boards
Even More Buckaroo Breakaway Cadillac Conference Programming Trends – Part 2 January 19, 2017 by Jeff Hurt Expect the unexpected…just as Buckaroo Banzai did in the 1980s movie of the same name. Buckaroo and his merry band of cavaliers were ready to save the world from whatever came their way. They would embrace the context of each dimension much like you need to embrace these current conference programming trends. While these trends … [Read more…] Filed Under: Event Planning, Experience Design Tagged With: , attendee experience, collaboration, conference organizer, disruption, future-focused conference programming, leadership, meeting planner, strategic thinking, systems thinking, trends
Many Organizational Leaders Prefer Dysfunction September 14, 2016 by Jeff Hurt Your organization needs to change because it’s broken! Or is it? “There is no such thing as a dysfunctional organization, because every organization is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it currently gets,” says Jeff Lawrence. The Illusion Of A Broken Organization? So is your organization broke? Or is it working just fine… Even though … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , adaptive challenges, adaptive leadership, association best practices, leadership
Future Forward Thinking Cultures Lead To Extraordinary Results May 2, 2016 by Jeff Hurt This is part four of a series on being more future focused in our planning. See part one here, part two here and part three here. So how do we develop, foster and leverage future focused leadership? How do we encourage our committees, volunteers, staff and customers to laser focus on what’s next, what’s coming … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , association best practices, association future, association governance, association issues and challenges, board of directors, foresight, forward thinking, future focused thinking, leadership, organization development, volunteer leadership
Start Today By Stepping Into Your Future With Your Feet Firmly Planted In Reality April 29, 2016 by Jeff Hurt This is part three in a four part series on being more future focused in our planning. See part one here and part two here. Strategic foresight is a competency that all leaders need today! Yet rarely do we discuss it. Much less practice it for our future planning. And hardly ever do we foster … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , association best practices, association future, association governance, association issues and challenges, board of directors, leadership, organization development, volunteer leadership
Foster Novelty And The Absurd as You Feed Your Brain’s Craving For Future Foresight April 22, 2016 by Jeff Hurt This is part two in a four part series. See part one here. Go ahead and admit it! If you are even a little like me, you have a curiosity for the future. I have always felt a fascination for what’s next more than a nostalgia for the past. Imagine my surprise to discover my … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , association best practices, association future, association governance, association issues and challenges, board of directors, leadership, organization development, volunteer leadership
Future Focused Leadership Not Lollygagging Laggards April 21, 2016 by Jeff Hurt This is part one in a four part series on being more future focused in our planning. This illustration is part of the booklet How to Change the World. Many organization leaders take great comfort in rear view leadership. It feels safe. We know what to expect. (At least that’s what we tell ourselves and … [Read more…] Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: , association best practices, association future, association governance, association issues and challenges, board of directors, leadership, organization development, volunteer leadership
