Michelle Mason on the Future for the Association Industry

Associations are poised to lead the way, but will they?

We’ve got some big problems to solve and associations are in a position to help bring the right people together to solve them. But what does it mean to be an association professional today and what role will associations play in solving these big issues in the upcoming months? What role *should* associations play? Can a stronger association community help?

For this episode, Association Chat host KiKi L’Italien talked with Michelle Mason, FASAE, CAE about her role as CEO for ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership and her thoughts about the future for the association industry.

For this interview, we discussed the future for professional and trade associations, disruptive forces in industry and commerce, and Mason’s ideas for ASAE’s next chapter.

More about Michelle

Passionate about the advancement of the professional practice of association management, prior to ASAE, Michelle served as the President and CEO of Association Forum for seven years; as Managing Director of Strategy and Innovation at the American Society for Quality (ASQ); and Vice President of Strategic and Future Focused Research Programs at ASAE.

Michelle currently serves on Destinations International Foundation, and Tourism Diversity Matters (TDM).

Michelle is a Chicago Business Journal Women of Influence Honoree 2019, Chicago Defender Women of Excellence Honoree 2019, and the CEO Update Professional Society CEO of the Year 2020. Michelle is a certified association executive (CAE), Fellow of the American Society for Association Executives (FASAE) and a Certified Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA).

This interview was recorded Tuesday, September 21, 2021, from 2:30 pm – 3 pm (EST).

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[TRANSCRIPT] Michelle Mason on the Future for the Association Industry

Tues, 9/21 3:30PM • 31:05

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

associations, association, community, learned, excited, members, opportunity, important, discussion, leaders, future, Michelle Mason, advocacy, book, started, organization, year, understand, pandemic, read

SPEAKERS

Michelle Mason, KiKi L’Italien

KiKi L’Italien  00:05

Welcome to Association Chat, your online discussion where we warm ourselves by the virtual fire with the topics of the day, welcoming thought leaders and trailblazers alike to join up in this online home for the community. I’m the host of Association Chat, KiKi L’Italien. And on today’s show, are you ready for it? Oh, my gosh, I am. We are talking with CEO and president of the American Society for Association Executives. Michele Mason, welcome to Association Chat again,

 

Michelle Mason  00:39

Michelle. Hello, KiKi, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

 

KiKi L’Italien  00:45

Oh, yeah, I’ve been looking forward to this ever since we got it scheduled? Because I have to say, you know, you have, you have been definitely on everyone’s radar for a long time in the association world, this association community. And when the news came out that you were going to be taking this position at ASAE. I think it was no surprise, everyone was really excited about it. I was too. And so today, I thought, you know, I have so many questions, but I thought, yeah, no, I really want to just bring you on asking you a few of these questions as you kick everything off and get started, you know, in this in this role in this big position? So. So let’s talk about it. Okay. Yeah, let’s

 

Michelle Mason  01:38

do it. Let’s do it.

 

KiKi L’Italien  01:40

Alright, so you have you’ve taken on this, this role as CEO and president of ASAE, at the Association of associations, and you have been this longtime leader in the association industry. You were the president and CEO of association forum for seven years, and on and on and on, you have this extensive past in the industry. So you know, you know, the challenges, you know, how weird associations can be, and you know, about this position? So were there any moments where you said, Hmm, maybe I don’t know if I should do this or not? Like, were there any moments of hesitation before you said, Yes.

 

Michelle Mason  02:25

Oh, you have a really great question. And, you know, I really believe in the right leader at right time, right. And so I believe that’s where, why I am here today, particularly in the position to support ASAP as is right. As it writes, the next chapter is history, building on a really strong foundation. So, you know, in terms of pause, you know, I sat back and I thought, wow, I’m standing on shoulders of leaders, right, particularly John Graham, who was a mentor or friend, not so much to me. And so, you know, I, you know, as I as I go on this journey with ASAE, I think I thought about that. But I also sat back, and I really thought about how this really presents an opportunity for me to be the leader of an organization that serves a profession that I am so passionate about it that everyone has that opportunity to use a platform like I’ve been given to, to impact change from the inside out. So I’m really excited to be here. And I think it’s gonna be a great journey. You know, like most organizations, ASAE, has experienced a tremendous amount of change in challenges over the past two years, and some, in some respects more than other associations. So that’s really on my mind as well. Yes, we plan for the future. But I really think that we’re set up for success. And it will take all of us to get there. And I’m excited to be in this role.

 

KiKi L’Italien  03:55

Well, and I’m excited for you to be in this role, too. I mean, you talked about the fact that so many associations have been facing serious change, and and without a doubt, and just last week, I spoke with Mary Byers and Harrison curver. You know, they wrote the race for relevance, and they just released the 10 year, it’s been 10 years and they released an update to to that book. And, you know, I, I think on that note, you know, in thinking about the discussion I had with them, I mean, what do you think about the role of associations in today’s society? Do you think that they are in a race for relevance?

 

Michelle Mason  04:39

Yeah, I think, you know, most Association leaders, I tell you, they’re not in denial. There is a race for relevance. What we’ve learned over the past two years is that the playbook is changed, right? So the game has changed. So we need to adapt. We need to be resilient, all the things that we talked about, in some respects it is racing for relevance being Being comfortable with being uncomfortable, we know that they are our non traditional competitors that have entered our space. And so we have to understand how to adjust to that dynamic. We know that, you know, time energy, just, you know, just being able to connect and engage is I mean, our members high commodity, right. And so, so we really have to think about our well evolving value proposition. And in terms of relevance, sometimes we can’t let the enemy of good be great, we have to be able to be comfortable with the level of experimentation, learn from it, adapt, adjust, but continue to move on forward on that journey. So I think we’re all learning this leaders, and you know where I am, but as you know, I have learned to be comfortable in some cases, and I don’t have the answer to that. Right. But um, I really will work as hard as I can to identify a solution, in most cases is really a community effort.

 

KiKi L’Italien  06:00

Yeah, well, I mean, it is a community effort. And I think, you know, everyone has been sort of pulling together and trying to keep on top of, you know, what are you doing? How are you solving this problem? And, you know, along along those lines, you know, I’ve seen a lot of shifts in the way that the way that jobs, you know, are put together, what these jobs look like, you know, technology changes are coming along with all kinds of other changes to our society. And so, what do you think about the association professional today? Do you think that that role, the way that we see the association professional, do you think that that has, you know, changed compared to, you know, what it used to be? What have you seen?

 

Michelle Mason  06:48

Yeah, yeah, I speak to that from a couple of perspectives. as professionals, we always should evolve, right? We always should be seeking to become a better version of ourselves, right. And so if anything, we’ve not evolved and changed based on what we’ve just experiences, I think, oh, we have, we should pause, right? We need to bring those good practices into what we’ve learned into the years ahead. For me, I started off in this profession as on the administrative track, right, I started viewing it as a job and not a career. But once I became aware of the diverse opportunities it presented to me, I quickly learned that I could become, this could be my career of choice, this could be a profession that I am now so passionate about. And so I think that, you know, as we look at where we are, we need to step back and think about the fact that, you know, how do we evolve from just being a career to actually be in a profession, and we consider it to be or our job to be a professional when you consider that? What level of impact Are you having in our sector. And so is this very evolutionary, I think about to how the whole focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is really changed the landscape here and in the community. When I started off again, it was just a job. And as I, as I advanced through my career, and I was able to experience a variety of opportunities. And as the community started to open up and understand the dei is a strat strategy, I was able to take advantage of opportunities that probably would not have been available to me, under normal circumstances. And so I’ve used that just simply as an opportunity to bring others along as well. So I think that yeah, I think we are changing, I think our mindset needs to change.

 

KiKi L’Italien  08:48

Well, you know, I think you’ve brought up a lot of interesting, a lot of interesting ideas about, about the way that things are changing. And I know that when we had our conversation a couple of years ago, and by the way, anybody who’s watching this, you should go back and see the interview that I did with Michelle, like a couple of years ago, we were talking about DNI initiatives, and you did some powerful things Association form. So I’m really, I know, I’m really excited to see like, what’s on deck for the future of ASAE. So, you know, what, what is in the car? It’s, I know, I know, you just got in there. Okay. So, but but, you know, it’s like, during this time, you know, we’ve got so much that’s happening for the industry where, you know, we have changes because of, obviously, the pandemic, we have changes with Black Lives Matter, we have changes with me, too. We have all of these societal shifts happening at the same time, that technology is advancing just as fast as it can be beyond beyond that, and so That’s a lot of stuff. That’s a lot of stuff to be at the at the head of an industry to say, Okay, how do we lead into that future? So, what’s in the cards as far as representing and leading the industry? Do you think that ASAP is going to change, you know, over the next several years? And if so, what do you think that change will look like?

 

Michelle Mason  10:26

Well, there’s a big question. So what I will share with you is that there’s a lot of good work has been done, right. And so I am very fortunate to step into a situation where we have a strategic plan after several years of not having mine and that was in a really was developed through the engagement of members, we have a business framework, I’m really fortunate to step into an organization where we have a strong leadership team, right. And so that’s very important in and engaged membership, very supportive membership. And starting this role, as we discussed earlier, there’s a lot of support out there for the future success of ASAP. And we need to leverage that. And we do that through leveraging the voices of the contributions of our members to be part of the process. And so one of my favorite quotes is Be the change you wish to see in the world. Absolutely, we will be that changed, we’re going to do it with our members, we’re going to do a listening to our members. So for example, as I share with you, I was, you know, I’m on this listening tour, right. And I believe that feedback is a gift. In order for us to have sustainable change, we need to listen to our members, we need to listen to the voice of the customers in and again, invite them into that process. So what’s on deck for us is we’re going to over the next several years for an execute our strategic plan, we are going to invite our continue to invite our members voices into that process. And we will work on on a model where we’re agile and agile enough to make the changes based on what we hear and based on what we learn. And so we want to be comfortable with sharing that with our members, will we be successful at all? In many cases, you know, I am prayerful that we will but there are cases there are times where we probably will not be it best is simply a fact. But we want our members to learn from that as well. So, yeah, there’s a lot of shifts, there’s a lot of societal shifts, we’re not going to shy away from having the tough conversations, however, and again, bring our members into that process because they’re learning and growing, as well. And we certainly want to be a model for them. So what I’m excited about Kiki here says we discuss this is a process. This is a journey. And so while I’m 21 days in, I know they will continue to stay in dialogue to keep the community updated on the progress that we’re making.

 

KiKi L’Italien  12:56

I you know, you know, I’m game to do that, like I love this. I love community. And I love the fact that, you know, you’re on this listening tour to find things out now. Okay, I know there are a lot of people who are listening to this that are probably saying, How does one get to be a part of that listening tour? You know, so, you know, should people like, are they reaching out to you directly? Are you reaching out to them? I imagine that there are so many people lined up to try to get a little time with you right now.

 

Michelle Mason  13:28

Yeah, it is a process. And so, you know, I started this tour with, obviously culture, the team, very important. So outreach internally, board members, key stakeholders, but you know, I’m very, I’m a very welcoming person, as you know. And so just email me, and then we’ll schedule time, we’ll find the right opportunity, whether it’s an as a meeting, that we can be in the small group to have a discussion or if it’s a one on one. But for the most part, I believe that feedback is a gift. I am learning a lot and I’m really excited you mutts to share with you what I’ve learned and how we as an organization will evolve based on what again, our members members are telling us. So you can reach out directly to reach out to, you know, any team member here. We were definitely here to serve its organization.

 

KiKi L’Italien  14:21

I love it. So there’s been a lot of discussion that’s been going on since ASAE. Annual. And it was about, you know, the education it was the there have been a couple of big conferences that ASAE was known for that. It was time to sort of move on and that was announced at ASC annual no more great ideas, no more. I mean, we’re gonna have great ideas, but not the conference. Hey, we love evergreen ideas and a new more SDP and one of the things that was a focus was that there was going to be this This focus on some new initiatives, you know, so can you give us some insight into ASC ees plans for some of the new services and programs and things that we should be looking for in 2022? what’s changing and who’s the intended audience?

 

Michelle Mason  15:20

There, it sounds great. Well, as we should move, discuss, we have a strategic plan that was, you know, we spent the greater part of last year developing the plan is launching this year. So we’re really excited about the strategic framework that it provides us. In that plan. There are three goals they’ve got, there’s a goal to deeply understand and serve the needs of CEO and C suite. So that’s very important to us. But that’s not the only audience we have a responsibility to serve, I really want to be clear about that we have a responsibility to develop leaders, we have a responsibility to build that pipeline of talent and future talent. And in throw all of this obviously, diversity, equity inclusion is very important. So our second goal is to build meaningful community through omni channel platforms and event so we’re currently building or conceptualizing products to better serve our members and meet them where they are. In a third will be, as I mentioned earlier, strengthening the leadership pathways for Association professionals. And so those are three core goals that we will build on. And to accomplish that those goals, we are building our products, for example, knowledge, or knowledge framework. And, and again, I’m getting my arms wrapped around these initiatives, because the plan is in process, as I started here, in a knowledge framework is that we have a responsibility to be to be the stewards of the competencies for associations, right? We know, as we talked last year, the game changer for many of us have been the competencies are evolving and changing. And we want our knowledge framework and the competencies to evolve as well. And there be business alignment with our cae program of business alignment with our content strategy, and also our major constituency groups. So that’s, that’s something that you’ll see moving forward in the future, that knowledge framework will be relevant to CEOs. It’ll be relevant to aspiring leaders, aspiring CEOs, I’m excited that we will, you’ll hear in months to come. We will convene focus groups designed labs to kind of kick the tires on that right? Or is this the right framework? If not, then what is again, getting voice of the member getting voice did multiple or diverse voices on some of the products that we were delivering is very important to us. There’s another initiative that we will launch in the next several months, if not weeks, might be a pretty aggressive on that. And what we learned this last year, many of our members started to create their own peer network, their their peer communities. And we know that’s very important. So we would like to leverage that model internally, for knowledge sharing, to have to create community to build networks, particularly in the virtual environment, but most importantly, to just really have some uncomfortable comp, confidential conversations. And so then it’ll be very important for us to build out these communities as we proceed throughout the implementation of our strategic plan. So those are just a couple of things that we’re working on. But there’s there’s a lot in the works, I’ll close with, with this key key. And that is, I haven’t really committed to communicating regularly with members, you’ll start to see more communications direct from me, and I will share the progress that we’re making. And I will seek feedback throughout that, that process. So there’s more to come again, 21 days.

 

KiKi L’Italien  18:52

21 days to anyone. I know, I feel like I feel like I mean, as soon as it people were were already chomping at the bit to ask you questions before you before September 1. So 21 days, you’re here. You’re doing a fabulous job. You know, I’m getting excited hearing about the future. And I can tell you that from some of the comments that are coming in. Other people are excited hearing about you talk about the future to Rachel right here. She thinks so exciting. So she’s she’s definitely not alone. You know, that’s kind of i’ve i’ve seen that as the theme coming in as we’ve been talking. You know, there’s been some discussion, and I know, it’s hard to imagine right now, while we’re in the thick of dealing with things like the Delta surge, but there’s been some discussion about the post pandemic world, you know, and what what will you know, that look like for associations, when we’re trying to plan for a future. We’re hoping for a post pandemic world, right? And so, what do you think is the biggest vulnerability or exposure for associations? In a post pandemic? world?

 

Michelle Mason  20:12

It’s a big question. When I think about the post pandemic world, what I really think about is how do we take the good lessons learned from last year into this year, right, we spent to me last year was tough for majority of us. But there’s a lot of good that came out of last year, a lot of innovation, right? We learned that we’re very resilient as a, as a community as a sector. We learned that we can be agile, we can adjust, we can pivot.

 

KiKi L’Italien  20:50

There we go.

 

Michelle Mason  20:53

We can pivot, we took our organizations from these physical structures to virtual, not just our organizations, but our meetings, we, again, we were playing a game while we’re rewriting their playbooks I really want for us to learn from last year to take those effective practices into this year, and years to come. And not to do that, I think is what would be a little challenging. So that, yeah.

 

KiKi L’Italien  21:21

So by the way, as we’re talking and I for everyone who’s who’s typing in and having these wonderful discussions, I, you know, Michelle, we’re gonna have to go and really read through this carefully after our discussion, because there’s a really great discussion happening about the workforce, and, you know, educating people about the association industry in higher ed, that is the whole side conversation or a future discussion, I think, yeah, I

 

Michelle Mason  21:48

look forward to that. Yeah.

 

KiKi L’Italien  21:52

But I do have a couple more questions for you before we wrap up the hour. And that is, or the 30 minutes if you could make a wish, and have your dearest hopes and dreams come true for the future of ASAE over the next year? What would that dream? What would that wish look like?

 

Michelle Mason  22:15

What my wish I was next year, that’s a short time from now. I would say I would want for us to see more progress towards a united community, a united Association community, I will say I want to see more partnerships, more collaborations, I would like to see us working together and truly demonstrating the power of associations, because we know we are better together and we can have, we can accomplish tremendous things through collective impact. Have, we were very fortunate here at ASAE to demonstrate that last year, in advocating on behalf of associations with PPP, right. So if we can do that, what else can be accomplished together?

 

KiKi L’Italien  23:04

I love that answer. I feel like I feel like in in previous years, a lot of times the work that associations put into advocacy was something that was maybe, you know, very important work, but a lot of times under appreciated, but then, you know, with with things like PPP, that, you know, those programs have become highlighted, and quite the focus for so many people. And so I feel like the advocacy folks have, if they haven’t been treated as rockstars yet, then they probably will be very soon.

 

Michelle Mason  23:42

For sure. I mean, it that, you know, those moments allow us to tell our story, it allows us to tell the collective societal impact that we have. And so those moments are you know, we don’t tell our story. Someone else well, right. So we need to, we need to be very focused aligned. And with

 

KiKi L’Italien  24:00

so many of our audience members for Association Chat, our readers, and oftentimes one of the things that gets brought up time and time again is is you know, what’s on your bookshelf. What are you reading? And so what book is on your bedside table? And what book do you believe every Association leader should read?

 

Michelle Mason  24:21

Okay. Okay, so sorry, behind my book, I’ll just hold it up. Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence. Yeah. So this is so full disclosure. I’m in the process of reading this book. It’s about leveraging your network and your connections to accomplish big things. You know, basically, the title speaks for itself. This book was gifted to me by lucky she was she is the chair leg of, of ASAE. And she’s, she’s just really an avid reader. And so you know, what are you reading and like, Oh, this sounds like something that is very important, and she gets it this book to me. So I am excited to understand how these connections and the relationships and the community that we have can be leveraged for the greater good of ASAE as we all go on this journey together. So I’m in process of reading it part two of our conversation, I’ll let you know. But I’ve learned was that’s what I’m focused on right now.

 

KiKi L’Italien  25:23

I love that. And and so what’s a book that you believe every Association leaders should read? Do you think that they should read that one? Or do you have another one?

 

Michelle Mason  25:32

You know, a book that, selfishly, I will say, this is really interesting, because this is the 15th anniversary of the book 7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t. And that was a that was a publication that I had the opportunity of being a part of, and is what you know, really focusing on, you know, measures of remarkable associations. And so it’s the 15th year. So I’m curious to understand your method of post pandemic, how those associations are doing, because we really focused on researching associations and investigating associations to see what made one Association outperformed the other. So kind of taking a read that publication and maybe we can test it off and understand what those success factors are, current day might be a good opportunity for us.

 

KiKi L’Italien  26:27

Alright, so I have that there are tons of comments coming in from so many different channels. People obviously have a lot of they’re very excited to to hear from you today. And I know that I only have you for a little tiny bit longer. We do have a question about the author of get big things done. So who is the author of get big things?

 

Michelle Mason  26:52

Erica Dhawan. And she’s primary author. Yeah.

 

KiKi L’Italien  26:57

All right. Erica Dhawan. You know what I saw her and she’s in the lineup for an event coming up, like in an ad in Harvard Business Review. [The 13th Global Peter Drucker Forum, ad in HBR, September/October 2021 issue, page 40.] So she’s coming up a lot.

 

Michelle Mason  27:09

Yeah, she’s an amazing speaker. Yeah, she’s, she’s just really good. So,

 

KiKi L’Italien  27:13

yeah. And then I see that there is, Are you okay, for one question from our audience. One more question from our audience. This is a good one. It’s a tough one, though, because it’s from, it’s from Glenn Tecker. I love it. I love Glenn. And I would be remiss if I didn’t include this one. So I’m so glad you could actually make this because I knew he had a call before this. associations have the potential to be a primary source of retraining for retraining for in multiple industries for millions of people, new revenue streams related to the public good are possible. What role can ASAE play in encouraging associations to assume that rule?

 

Michelle Mason  28:02

Oh, that’s a great question. Glenn, thanks for for asking. I think ASAE can play a very important role and the role of a good place to advocate education and advocacy we talked about earlier. And I think it’s definitely, definitely a role for Association, Chat, the advocacy, advocacy, and education, you know, we have a really strong portfolio of work, that we really need to start telling our story. And then also making that portfolio accessible and translatable to other sectors is very important during this time that don’t have the exact answer. But I know collectively, we can certainly identify a solution, but certainly do add education to advocacy. And then also make sure the bit work that we’re doing as associations is translatable to other to other sectors.

 

KiKi L’Italien  28:49

I love it. Yes. And our we’re just loving the responses. We’re so excited. always interesting to listen to you both. They’re looking forward to seeing your impact at ASAE, the Center for Association leadership, Michelle, we all are Michele, thank you so much for joining us today. You’re on your listening tour. You are listening, you’re out there talking with people and and hearing what they have to say. So folks, if you want to reach out, she is listening. She’s listening right now and be watching for more collaboration. And we have so excited to be part of this community standing with you and Michelle Mason as you lead ASAE and the Association of profession. Well, thank

 

Michelle Mason  29:37

you. I really appreciate this floor and i i know it really is a community effort. Right and I look forward to working with everyone. I look forward to the ideas I look forward to less years being able to have a conversation Kiki on the progress that we’ve collectively made to advance our profession, the one that we are so passionate about. So thank you so much for this opportunity.

 

KiKi L’Italien  29:59

Oh ABS salutely and you know what I have to say thanks to all of you for watching, because I’m telling you, Michelle is phenomenal. I can’t wait to see her in Action Day 21 we’re only on day 21 and she’s got this whole listening tour taking place right now. So with that, you know, I want to thank you for joining me today and joining Michelle and listening to everything that she had to say about the future of associations the future for ASAE. And really what we’re thinking about as far as the way we lead organizations into the future, I hope that you will go back if you miss part of it, go back and watch the replay. But more than that, I hope that you continue to ask questions to learn every day. Because as Joseph Campbell once said, The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. Have a great rest of the week, everyone

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