AMY Hissrich, vice president for web site strategies and communications at the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), in her keynote presentation at PCAAE’s recent Associations Summit 7 (AS7), laid out a framework for associations on developing a culture of foresight.
Based on ASAE Foundation’s project, “ASAE ForesightWorks,” the framework aims to help association professionals think about leading their organizations into the future. It is grounded in the concept of foresight: a systematic, multi-stepped process for discerning, analyzing and acting on potential futures.
Actually, many association professionals already practice foresight, frequently in connection to one of these four goals: to support strategic planning and strategy development, to inform members on anticipatory learning, to conduct risk analysis, and to inspire innovation and business development. However, in most cases, these actions are not integrated and insufficient.
Amy first stated the purposes of having a culture of foresight: (a) make future-informed decisions in the present, (b) identify emerging issues that matter to members, (c) identify new opportunities for member value, (d) plan investments in new technologies and (e) increase the association’s relevance. She outlined a systematic process for foresight that can be easily integrated into other strategic planning processes, from defining the key questions to taking action:
1. Framing—This ensures a manageable project scope and purposeful outcomes. What information is needed, who needs to know, why is it important, and what needs to be done with the information collected?
2. Scanning—This involves a systematic search for the patterns of change across a variety of data sources and resources. Scanning also includes identifying the context for and relationships between potential changes to organize the scan results into meaningful information.
3. Forecasting—This involves thinking through potential futures. How might this pattern of change affect how work is conducted? What are positive, negative, and ideal possible futures connected to this change, and what are the implications of each?
4. Visioning—This sets the future direction. Associations need visioning at critical turning points in their industry or profession. Without clear vision, it can be easy to lose sight of what needs to be accomplished. Who do we want to be, how we can better serve society and what will be our highest contribution to the future?
5. Planning—This requires leaders to identify actionable steps to make their vision a reality. Scanning and forecasting the future out as far as 10 years is an important exercise in making more strategic decisions in the near term. Planning for that 10-year horizon puts the association in a position to work toward the preferred future and meet potential challenges.
6. Acting—This turns the theoretical preferred vision of the future into the association’s reality. The vision and the plans must be effectively communicated to all stakeholders, champions must be recruited, and actors in the process must buy in to their roles. As foresight becomes a regular part of an association’s strategic planning process, acting on the results will become a more ingrained part of the organizational culture.
The contributor, Octavio Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific, founder and CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives and president of the Asia-Pacific Federation of Association Organizations. The purpose of PCAAE—the “association of associations”—is to advance the association management profession and to make associations well-governed and sustainable. PCAAE enjoys the support of Adfiap, the Tourism Promotions Board, and the Philippine International Convention Center. E-mail: obp@adfiap.org