11/10/2022

Becoming More Responsible Consumers Of Research

This is something association professionals must do

Association execs are being asked to do more with research these days, but there is a temptation to play expert when it comes to analyzing data about your audience or your industry.

A new white paper makes the case to resist the temptation: Caveat Emptor: Becoming a Responsible Consumer of Research‌, authored by Spark Consulting Chief Strategist Elizabeth Weaver Engel and consultant Polly Karpowicz. In an interview, Engel and Karpowicz made it clear that this challenge of responsible data consumption was widespread.

"Most of us don’t have any kind of a formal research training background,” Engel said. This is in part, she said, because association leadership is not generally a field people train for. “Nobody asks a 5-year-old, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and they say ‘I want to be an association executive,’ right?”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.