Create Your Association Innovation Plan

Ready to get serious about innovation? Take your association's strategic plan and add a page entitled, "Innovation Plan." Set as its goal, "Create new ways to enhance the value we offer members and related stakeholders."

Fill in the page, guided by this advice.

1. Outline objectives that foster a sense of urgency to sole the problems of the association as well as create new opportunities. Keep in mind two important points:
• The sooner you stop a problem, the sooner you saver resources that can go into other opportunities.
• The sooner you start a value - adding opportunity - the sooner you create new resources.
2. Make sure the plan cuts across divisions or functions to focus on overall association activities. Build in innovative practices as an underlying day-to-day capability, not a separate function from normal business activities.
3. Include training in the plan. Help staff develop the skills needed to brainstorm, assess ideas, enhance ideas, solve problems, and create opportunities. Assist staff in learning how to transform insights into ideas and actions.
4. Develop an agenda to drive the plan.
• Exactly which problems and opportunities will be addressed?
• What processes will be employed to address these challenges and opportunities?
• Can staff budget two or three hours per week to work on new opportunities?
5. Tie the plan to performance appraisals. To strengthen staff but in, make sure that the results of the innovation sessions in which staff members participate will be considered when their performance is evaluated.

At some point, the activities involved with an innovation strategy and plan become the normal way of doing business, This fulfills your goal: People are taking their own initiative to solve problems and offer suggestions.