I am going to be part of a three-part webinar series with the title “Beyond Relevance.” It is being put on by TMA Resources, and it was partly inspired by a blog post I wrote on the Get Me Jamie Notter blog last September. In short, the association community often highlights the importance of being “relevant” to members, and I just don’t think that is enough any more. The first webcast will be this Thursday, February 25th, at 2pm. The other two will be on March 16th and 31st. You have to register in order to take part, but they are free!
Each webinar will be an open conversation among three panelists. This Thursday it will be me, Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation, and Ken Wolff from the consulting firm Achievance. But the conversation is not limited to the webinar itself. TMA has set up a blog just on this topic. I’ll be posting to it later today, as will many of the panelists, and there is also a twitter hashtag: #beyondrelevance.
Yes, the title of this post is redundant, but this is my leadership lesson of the week: over-communicating. I learned this one eons ago, and it has been passed down by probably every guru that has ever guru’d. Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.
But when I get neck deep in the work, I forget it. I send the emails out, or we have the Board meeting, or I have the conversation, and then it’s out of my head. I have checked that box. I did my job communicating. I forget that in a week or two I need to send the same message out. I forget that my staff will perform better when I share more information than I think is necessary.
It is particularly important when an association has a decentralized committee structure. A lot happens at the Board level that is assumed to have been communicated down to the Committees. And it was, it just wasn’t communicated enough. We need to remind our leaders (both staff and volunteer) that when you get to the top positions, the decision-making responsibilities are often dwarfed by the communication responsibilities.
I recently completed my first Prezi presentation, and the experience was refreshing to say the least. Prezi is a new Flash-based online presentation software that creates simple dynamic slide presentations—although there is nothing slide-like about it. I recommend visiting prezi.com and testing a few online Prezis like the following http://prezi.com/wesbmcijhqvx/ and http://prezi.com/acdt5llng8xt/
The reason why I have described Prezi as the antithesis of PowerPoint, is because the tools that are provided are incredibly simple and limited. This constraint, I believe, prevents non-designers from creating a visual disaster. I would predict that the average user has a 90% chance of creating a good presentation, were as with PowerPoint, I would estimate the average user has a 90% chance of creating something awful.
Within these very tight constraints, a designer can open up infinite creative possibilities using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. When I say “infinite” I am referring specifically to creativity—Prezi is light like a motorcycle not heavy like a tank. In my limited experience with Prezi it seemed important to keep the file sizes small—I wouldn’t recommend using it for a large slide shows that use hundreds of hi-res images. So don’t worry PowerPoint and Keynote (not that you would) Prezi will not create a revolution and replace either of you.
My experience with Prezi was like a breath of fresh air, although it did take some getting use to—it is an unusual environment to work in—but once you get the hang of it, it is fun.
I did learn a few things during this brief experience that I will do differently when creating another Prezi. I created an abundant amount of custom graphics with embedded text. This became cumbersome when edits were made by the client to the text. I would have to make the text edits in Illustrator or Photoshop, then export the files, then import and replace them in Prezi. I couldn’t simply update my links. Next time I will try and rely more on the text tool in Prezi for areas that have more text, in this case it was Q&A.
Another issue arose when I realized the speed of my computer was a great hinderance. Since Prezi is Flash based—how fast you move within the environment is dependent on how fast your computer can view complex Flash movies.
Overall my experience with Prezi was fun and refreshing—I encourage everyone to at least give it a try—I doubt you will be disappointed.
Below I have included 2 videos that explain how Prezi works.
Welcome to the blog for Management Solutions Plus, Inc., an AMCi-accredited association management company based in Rockville, MD. We hope you'll join the conversation!
Jamie Notter
Beth W. Palys, CAE, FASAE
Heidi Zimmerman
Jon Benjamin
Angela Pike
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Shannon Sperati, Member Services Manager
