ACA’s 20/20 Vision

Jim Collins, who wrote Good to Great and Build to Last, was asked what we might expect in the next 30 yeas.  His answer:  uncertainty, chaos, turbulence, and risk.  Well, that just about sums it up.  If you want to read the full article you can go to http://www.inc.come/magazine/2009040/in-times-like-these-you-get-a-chance.html

In the article he also states it isn’t risk that is making us all squirrely (my word, not his) but the ambiguity.  Ah, another one of my favorite words.  I have found that we all have different levels of tolerance for ambiguity.  It has been said my tolerance level is rather high - of course, that drives those around me crazy.  Nonetheless, ambiguity needles at all of us to one degree or another.  However, discriminating between risk and ambiguity is worth consideration.  If you get a chance, read the article.  I wonder what it makes you contemplate.

There is no place to hide.  Whether you are at work or home, serious issues must be addressed.  The good news is we are all in it together.  And often, great crisis bears great innovation.  As an association, we have many questions that we must answer.  We need not focus on traditional re-organization issues but, instead,  questions that will result in the remaking of our association for the next century.  What does it mean to be a member today in a web-enabled world?  How does an association respond to the demand for more choices, greater openness, and equal access  - all defying boundaries?  How does an associaiton facilitate and maximize the desire to self-coordinate within widely distributed networks? How does an association create a collaborative environment with shared planning frameworks designed to ensure efficacy in a world of finite resources while accomodating distributed decision making?

Some one said to me this week that camp had not been his birth right.  This suggested to me that many may grow up thinking camp is a birth right.  If that is the case, then it may be difficult for some of us to understand that others grow up not expecting to go to camp or even know what that experience might provide.  Birth right is like my expression of Camp DNA.  More and more of us do not understand that birth right and/or do not have camp DNA in our family.  I want to change that fact.

Very few people disagree with the importance and value of the 2020 Vision. It is inspiring, motivating, mobilizing, and challenging.

 

Over the past 18 months, nearly 100 volunteers and staff have been working on committees and having discussions evaluating the merits of the initiative as well as our current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

 

For me, the primary brutal truth is we cannot accomplish 2020 using our current structure. Most agree that we can’t be 25 micro-enterprises working in the margins if we want to influence and impact so many lives with the power of the camp experience. However, another important truth is that questions cannot be answered or decisions made without your help.

 

If you read the Vision of 2020 and agree it is worthy - what would be the roles and functions of the national staff and volunteers? What would be the roles and functions of the staff and volunteers in the field? Currently we are organized with each enterprise doing a little bit of everything - some well, and some not so well. As a result, we question one another’s capacity and competence. What if instead, within the context of the 2020 Vision, roles were clearly articulated, competence’s needed were described, and an appropriate structure was put in place that was designed to have both the capacity and capability to advance? It is understood that, as currently designed, none of us are capable or have the capacity to achieve 2020.

 

Finally, I believe the current economic crisis only adds to our urgency to ‘get our house’ in order and the need to operate outside of the margins articulating the value proposition of the camp experience.

As the national board began to contemplate ACA’s upcoming 100th anniversary - no fewer than 5 years ago - the pursuit of our history set the stage for us to consider what was happening to us now and may occur in the future.  It was the first time we really started to study the changing demographics and contemplate how those changes might influence ACA and the camp community.  We also initiated a process designed to inform us of our strengths and weaknesses as an association and industry.  The implications of all discovered have ripple effects from member, to camp, to section, and to the association at-large.  We also have realized how important it was that we started amassing  a great reservoir of research about the value of the camp experience - that continues to enable us to articulate value in today’s challenging environment.

So, as we started examining our business model and our product against an emerging new marketplace, we never anticipated the huge economic upheaval that we are all experiencing today.  It appears we are going through an economical and psychological transformation.   This chaotic shift in the marketplace immediately causes a tremendous  visceral response.  Waste, greed, and excess are being challenged.  Value, purpose, and contribution are being sought.  Upon reflection, there may be no better time to seriously examine our business model and product in order to ensure efficacy and relevance.  We have a viable value proposition.  Our design and patterns of work must maximize our opportunity.  What we do does add value to the development of healthy, productive citizens.

No.  Nearly 6 years ago, the ACA national board of directors created a chart with concentric circles indicating ACA’s owners.  In the center of the circle you find the ACA leadership, then members, the camp industry, those interested in camp, and finally the public.   Influence flows from all directions.  As we demonstrate value and relevance to the public, we serve members and the public.  As we provide members with excellent service and programs, we serve the public and members.

Many of us have also been talking about how important local, grassroots relationships are to the camp community and ACA.  From those discussions have come some interesting perspectives.   A young camp professional said to me yesterday, “but the word community today has many definitions”.  He said being in close proximity and face to face is not the only way communities come together today.  Communities today are not necessarily (only) defined by borders and boundaries.  A couple of days earlier a SEction Executive said to me, “opening up as one nationwide association may actually give us a chance to be smaller”.  She went on to talk about more opportunities to bring not only more small groups together at the local level but expand our social networking communities in a way not yet realized by ACA.

Bottom line, some great conversations are taking place.

First of, let me apologize for not posting something for over a month.  I am a person who talks to know what she is thinking.  I need to understand that blogging is the new way to talk to know what you are thinking. 

Of course, we are all cognizant of the economy and the impact it is having on our lives.  We each have our personal stories to share about struggle and worry.  I have also been thinking about the influence the economy will have on the camp community and ACA’s 2020 vision.
It has been said by many that the consumer is moving from a mind-set of consumption to investment. I believe that can be a good thing for the camp community - if we recognize the opportunity. And we will need to do more than recognize it but figure out how to articulate the value of the camp investment in today’s world. The public for nearly a century have often considered camp a luxury or something that only the rich can afford - Time to bust those myths.

Most of you know, I love books. One I have enjoyed recently is “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel H. Pink. He talks about the competencies we will need in the future. As I read his descriptions, I realize they are the very competencies that we nurture every day at camp. Parents of all social, cultural, and economic groups will want their children to posses the skills needed to survive and thrive as they grow into adulthood in a rapidly changing future world - work place. Can we match the desired competencies that we, in fact, nurture with the emerging markets and customize our messages in ways that resonate with diverse cultures? Updated, contemporary messages can be genunine and true to what we do and value but, more importantly, speak to a whole new audience.
I also believe the six essential aptitudes Pink defines will also be important to ACA as a professional association. We can no longer evaluate success based on the functionality of our product, services, experiences, or lifestyle. Daniel Pink challenges us to question the economy of what we do and whether it is personally rewarding, emotionally engaging. We need to express purpose and the opportunity to achieve professional fulfillment while giving back to others. For the public to support and understand us, we must be seen as more than consumers ourselves but a community that gives back in return for the investment. That is the business model of the future.

As we move forward with the 2020 Vision, tackling the plethora of ‘pieces parts’ inherent in this initiative, we often get tangled up in the detail and lose sight of purpose and intent.  To be expected and understood.  As that happens, the cry for transparency increases.  Again, to be expected and understood.

However, it occured to me today that often when people ask for greater transparency that we interpret that as a cry for more forms and frequency of communication.  although that may be true, I believe it is also a wish that those communicating would be more frank and candid.  People want information to be direct, straightforward, and open.  Without apparent candor, people begin to think others are being deceptive.

The truth of the matter, I believe, is people are being invited to explore unrealized opportunities or options for working together in order to achieve the envisioned future.  The perceived ‘deception’ is an honest attempt to not ‘lock and load’ prematurely but to provide space for innovation and new ideas to emerge.

What I do know, without a doubt,  is this is hard work full of emotion and passion.  It is the emotion and passion, however, that will carry us forward.

There are so many means to communitcate today in real time, yet, all of us feel everything is a secret.  Or, we feel everyone knows about what is going on - anywhere - but us.  Do you blog, twitter, facebook, my space, email blast, snail mail, call, and/or all of the above, and more, in the  attempt to communicate?  I suppose the answer is yes with the knowledge the result will be the same - “no body told me”.  That is the way I often feel today.  It is a conundrum for the one who thinks he/she is communicating as well as for the one who feels left out.  At last, something in common.  It is simply harder, not easier.

We have been watching for years the changing profile of America.  We know the demographics of our American culture is, and will be, different.  For many industries, including the camp community, our marketplace is profoundly impacted.  Outreach, communication, values, language, traditions, and subsequent relevancy are being challenged.  Not all of us, yet, have been confronted with this emerging truth while others have been seriously impacted by the societal changes. Many of us have been aggressively seeking ways to extend and expand our influence in tomorrow’s marketplace.    We have realized that status quo, and supporting status quo, might be one of the riskiest decisions made today.  Yet, it has been said, “status quo is persistent and resistent.”

But this is not what I am thinking about at this point in time, at least not in isolation.  Today, we face major changes in our economic systems, as well. Add the financial dimension to the demographics and it is increasingly difficult to fathom that we can afford to cling to status quo.  Not only does our marketplace look different but the financial psychology of that marketplace is undergoing a significant transformation.  All of us are reprioritizing how we spend our resources - time and money.  We are participating in a rapid transformation of our society including elements that impact our social, emotional, environmental, political, psychological, and financial truths.

What does this mean for me as an individual?  For communites?  For organizations and institutions?  It seems that given this plethora of change means that using a common path or not doing anything at all are not viable alternatives.  That said, how does one do business in this new environment?  How do we collect the best thinking and information?  Who influences?  Why do they influence?  How do they influence?  How do we make decisions?  Who decides?  Why do they decide?  How do they decide?  And maybe, even more importantly, how much change can we tolerate yet still survive and thrive?  Or how much change can we ignore yet still survive and thrive?  What assurances must be in place to address the human need to find an anchor in the storm?  Or, is it as it has been said, “stability is an illusion”? 

I wonder, if so much is unstable can we preserve our relationships within a foundation of trust and respect in order to give us the strength to navigate our way to this new tomorrow?  I see us often as a large family.  You know, the family that questions the sanity of ‘cousin Joe’.  Or the family that is sure the wayward Aunt was  born without a full deck.  Or the family that wants to totally ignore those horrible second cousins. Yet, in difficult times, all family members realize the importance of working together to make a better tomorrow.  If a family takes its own stresses and fears and injures one another how does that forge the deep meaningful relationships that are needed to endure?

I know we are threatened by loss of affiliation, power, place, and the comfort of the known.  I do not believe those things have to be lost as a result of change.  I think those things are lost when fear, anger, and anxiety are allowed to rule.  I believe there are those who are threatened by loss who often capitalize on the fear in order to stop change. Will there be loss?  I am sure loss is inherent in change but there is much to be legitimately set aside and maybe even honored in a place of history; but, if we approach this new future from a philosophy of abundance, the gains may far outweigh the loss.  We are relational.  We would not create anything that did not honor that fact.

So, as always, I read and listen.  I was in Texoma last week.  I picked up Seth Godin’s book, Tribes.  A easy and quick read.  I suggest you consider picking it up.

Brian Crater from Southern California sent me a book this month titled, Chnage is good…You go first. 

The book talks about the fact that sameness is the fast track to mediocrity.  Hmmm, I said outloud as I pondered what the implied message a 100 year old organization might derive from that thought.  I certainly know as I get older I recognize repeated patterns in my life - some good, some not so good.  : )  But, we won’t go there.  The book goes on to quote Tuli Kupferburg, “When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.”  Yikes, the truth is that I often feel safer with my old patterns.  Right or wrong, it is what I know and that gives me comfort.  I have to admit it  (sameness) protects me from dealing with emotions that can cause me discomfort.  It is not easy going first.  What happens if no one goes first?