I’ve been very lucky in that my Board sees the value in this program and commits the funds for three of us to attend this, or a similar program, each year.  What I value most is the time outside of the Boardroom or at an Association of Water Technologies (AWT) meeting, where I can bring up sometimes difficult conversations, be it a leadership issue or industry challenge.  Each year is different because at least one of the players change.  But it is exciting to watch a President-Elect the first year and then see the changes that happen the next year when that person is now President.  They tend to be more confident and more strategic-minded.

This is just one way to develop leaders.  Some other things my Board and I are doing are conducting an expanded and enhanced leadership program for all Committee Chairs, Subcommittee Chairs and Related Trade Organization Liaisons.  It’s a meeting of over 30 people where we get to talk about our priorities for the year ahead.  It also gives us time to do some training and development with these key people within AWT.

Something else we enhanced this past year was our New Board Member orientation.  And before we rolled out the new program to the actual new Board Members, we did the entire session with the Board, so they received a great refresher on their duties and responsibilities.

It’s important to remember that for many volunteer leaders this is a new role for them.  They may not be familiar with association practices and may not have the leadership skills required of their position.   As association professionals, it’s our job to give them as much help as we can in making them a success.

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Scribus provides a reasonably simple interface and can output print-ready PDFs! It is not a replacement to InDesign—it has limitations, but individuals and small businesses no longer have to pay thousands of dollars for layout software to create ads and brochures.

But as we started writing the book, we realized it’s not really even about social media. Social media just shines a light on the fact that we have been running our organizations like machines for at least a century, and that is no longer serving us. We argue that being human–being open, trustworthy, generative, and courageous–was one of the keys to the success of social media. More importantly, though, those elements also provide a set of organizing principles that can guide the way we run our organizations that is much more powerful than the status quo.

In the book we dig into each element in detail, discussing how human organizations address each issue at the levels of culture, process, and individual behavior. Once the book is out (in September), we will also have a set of worksheets that you can download–one for each of the four main chapters on open, trustworthy, generative, and courageous–to help you get started changing things, no matter where you are in the organization.

The book is available for pre-order now, and we do have the book website set up (though the worksheets won’t be there until September) at www.humanizebook.com. And I promise now that the book is done, I’ll have more time for blogging!

For Microsoft Word it is Style Sheets, for PowerPoint it is Master pages. Use these tools and you life in the office will dramatically improve!

I am no expert on PowerPoint, but I whipped together this handout to introduce new employees to a few basics. I hope it will benefit you as well.

Chrome does have a setting that opens PDFs in Google Docs but it is unpredictable and a little cumbersome.

So I am sorry Chrome but Firefox wins again!

It is funny—every time some internet solution comes along to speed-up and simplify our lives, it creates 10 more problems that also need solutions.

According to Maggie’s post, they started the Fan page about  eight months ago with no goals and no plan, and today it has 20,000 fans. Now, ASHA is a big association and it has a large student base, so I doubt all associations will get this kind of growth, but it points out a key lesson when it comes to social media: get out there before you are clear on what you are going to do in social media. I don’t mean jump into all the tools because they are the newest thing. You still need to develop a strategy. It’s not “if you build it they will come.”

But you are not going to have your strategy all developed first and THEN you launch your initiative. You’re going to be developing it (in part) on the fly because part of the essence of social media is that the users actually get a say in how it develops. But the longer you wait to start and get out there, the longer it will take for you to get the results.

Although we have very different dispositions, I believe we function very well as a team. We are like peanut butter and jelly: different tastes and characteristics, but put us together, and we seem to complement one another. Like the jelly, she is sweet (I’m more acidic). Like the peanut butter, I can get a little nutty (she is much more calm). She likes to correspond via email, I prefer the telephone. She is an introvert, I am an extrovert.

But somehow, it works! Despite our very different personalities, we have a mutual respect for each other and, more importantly, we both possess a drive and a desire to do our very best to ensure optimum service and results for our client.

To quote Dr. Steven Covey, author of the best-selling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “ Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” I believe that we have used that approach to build a very effective team. Our client has also benefited from our ability, and willingness, to work well together and produce results.

Now I don’t write this to blow my own horn (or hers, per procurationem). It is simply my opinion that a good professional partnership can achieve unlimited goals. When people share a similar work ethic, trust each other to get things done (and done right), work cohesively and appreciate each other for their strengths, as well as provide help where there is room to improve, the result is always going to be favourable.

So, hopefully you’ve found your peanut butter or jelly in the workplace. I hope so; it makes for a much happier, easier and productive professional life! It’s an awesome combination!