06/23/2022

Build a Fit-for-purpose Board in The Turbulent Twenties

This is a moment of truth for association decision-makers

As of June 2022, we are roughly 25 percent through The Turbulent Twenties. To say this decade is off to a rocky start would be an immense understatement. Unfortunately, it is not an overstatement to suggest that while most of the 2020s are still ahead of us, our situation will get worse unless we take immediate action on the existential threats facing our associations, our country, and our world.

Association boards and CEOs appear ready to get on with the “new normal,” yet they must resist that temptation because nothing happening now is normal. Instead, it is the foreseeable result of collective neglect, declining institutions, and fragile systems that can no longer withstand the pressure of what I refer to as “the discontinuous next”—the relentless and radical uncertainty, volatility, and risk unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its follow-on consequences.

This is a moment of truth for association decision-makers. Will they conclude that they are finally ready to tackle the most challenging issues before them, or will they continue their predecessors’ decades-long tradition of using the future as a dumping ground for wicked problems? The stakes of this decision could not be higher.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.