Years ago, military intelligence was the phrase I trotted out as my favorite oxymoron, but maybe it should be one much closer to home: association leadership.  

After all, associations document the minimum standard of practice and benchmark reasonable expectations of performance. The goal is to draw a line in the sand that places ethical practice just beyond the truly unscrupulous but in easy reach of those in technical compliance. So by definition, the bar must be low enough to avoid challenges and excessive legal bills. If that's leadership, we are all in trouble.

Yet, the opportunity for leadership lies in a vigorous challenge to that minimum, the status quo.  To attract new members and support, we must advance practice and aspire to be more. 

How can we make sure "association leadership" is a redundant term not an oxymoron? 

• What if associations relentlessly sought out the thought and market leaders in our sectors and senior practitioners who have moved on, chasing them down and co-creating meaningful opportunities so compelling they couldn't say no to getting involved? 

• What if associations elected and groomed leaders whose business and professional practices reset the benchmark and rewrote the definition of responsible policies and actions?

• What if associations welcomed critics and competitors into neutral forums or created mega-communities of leaders where we could work together to eliminate a mega-problem rather than negotiate the shape of the table?

For too long, association managers have dumbed down member involvement in search of efficiency, emulating Nurse Ratched in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, neutralizing boards and members to keep them docile. Maybe the inmates should be running the asylum.  Maybe it's time to be a movement.

Originally posted @ Ann Oliveri