HSAE Association Insight 20-Feb 07 

Reserve Now for Feb. 23 Luncheon and "Get Smart" about Money Charlotte Stallings, president and CEO of Getting Smart! LLC, a professional speaking, training and consulting firm that shows people how to get smart about money, selling and success, will be our speaker for this week's Houston Society of Association Executive's luncheon at the Omni Westside.

Charlotte has a knack for sharing even the most complex business and investment concepts in a thoroughly understandable way. As a member of the "sandwich generation" - baby boomers charged with caring for themselves, their children and their parents - Charlotte is acutely attuned to the financial needs and challenges facing today's families. Her goal is to help people understand money and investing, and show them how to structure their financial lives and investment portfolios to achieve their dreams. Her book, I Wish Someone Had Told Me: Financial Lessons Learned The Hard Way, will be published this spring.

 

Time: 11:30, Friday, Feb. 23

Place: Omni Westside, 13210 Katy Freeway

Cost:  $30 members; $35 guests

Register: Click here or email Julie George at jgeorge@absoluteplanning.com .  

 

 

The American Society of Association Executives has announced that Allison Kelley, executive director of Romance Writers of America and immediate past president of HSAE, has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE™) credential. The CAE is the highest professional credential in the association industry. Less than five percent of all association professionals have earned the CAE. To be designated as a Certified Association Executive, an applicant must have a minimum of three years experience in nonprofit organization management, complete a minimum of 75 hours of specialized professional development, pass a stringent examination, and pledge to uphold a code of ethics. Approximately 3,300 association professionals currently hold the CAE credential, which was first awarded in 1961.  Congratulations, Allison!

 

 

Best wishes,
Toy Wood, CAE
Greater Houston Builders Association

HSAE 2007 President

 

If your resolution was to become more active in HSAE this year, then there are opportunities.  Help is needed on both the membership and the social event planning committees.  If you are interested, please contact Toy Wood at 281-970-8970 x 150.  One goal of the HSAE board is developing future leaders through a committee structure.

 

By now, members should have received their invoices for 2007 dues.  If you have not paid, it is time to renew!  Contact Vicky Aranda at hsae@theassociationnetwork.com if you did not receive an invoice or you wish to be come a member.  The board is happy to report that HSAE finished the year solidly in the black, so that no dues increase was necessary.

 

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President-Elect Jo D. Miller (Institute of Real Estate Management), left, and board member Vicky Aranda (Association Network) greet new member Nicole Kennedy, Romance Writers of America, at the January luncheon.  Nicole will be putting out press releases for HSAE meetings.

 

 At left, Keith Butler, Reliant Park, talks with Margery Reinheardt (Hilton Post Oak), Rita Klein and Lori Carper, both of Houston Association of Realtors, at the January luncheon featuring Karen McCollough on personal branding.

 

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Jay Hagins, CAE, Houston Ad Federation, a past president of HSAE (shown at right with Allison Kelley, CAE, 2006 president) was recognized as Association Executive of the Year and Margery Reinheardt, (shown in above section) Hilton  Post Oak, was named Associate of the Year at the annual Association Day in October at the Courtyard on St. James Place. 

 

Other winners included Adam Aschmann, Greater Houston Builders Association, future leader, (shown below left with Toy Wood, CAE, 2007 HSAE President, who nominated him for the award.  The community service program of the American Diabetes Association was selected for the community service award because more than 1000 people were affected by its efforts.  Below right, the award was accepted by Ralston Creswell, CAE, a past president, and his staff member Velma Martinez. Other nominees included Greater Houston Builders Association which built nine homes for Katrina evacuees and HomeAid for its program to benefit Mission of Yahweh.

 Joann Y. Jackson, vice president for Market Diversity Effectiveness for North American Lodging Operations for Marriott International, captivated the October Association Day audience with her tales of generational diversity and how to work together.

 

For the second year in a row, HSAE manned a booth at CenterPoint Energy's  Power Tools for Nonprofit Conference tradeshow held Nov. 15 at Reliant center. This year's booth featured photos from monthly meetings. Among those staffing the booth this year were (left to right) President-Elect Jo D. Miller, Institute of Real Estate Management. 2006 President Allison Kelley, CAE, Romance Writers of America,  and  Ashley Evans, Institute of Real Estate Management.

 

Three Critical Steps to Implementing Organizational Change

By Larry Johnson

 

Larry Johnson is a well-known business author, speaker and consultant who will be the keynote speaker at our meeting on May 24. His latest book is Absolute Honesty: Building A Corporate Culture That Values Straight Talk and Reward Integrity. Larry and his daughter, Gen-Expert Meagan Johnson can be reached at  800-759-4933 or http://www.johnsontraininggroup.com .

  

Change is never easy.  Whether you are expanding your customer service efforts, initiating a new cost management system,  launching a total reengineering effort, or adjusting to a merger, shifting from the old to the new is usually painful.  Here are three ideas that might help that process:

 

1.  Clarify the reason for the change

 

In the 1996 presidential election, despite a Republican sweep of Congress two years before, Bob Dole lost by an overwhelming majority.  Was it that the nation had suddenly become Democratic?  Probably not.  Was it that Dole ran a less-than-effective campaign?  Maybe.  Was it that the unemployment rate was at it’s lowest in 30 years and the economy had never been better?  Absolutely. 

 

Dole had the misfortune of running in a year when there was no compelling reason for change in the minds of the electorate. 

 

Change puts people out of their comfort zones.  They must learn new processes, establish new habits and develop new skills - which means that for a while they will be incompetent, inefficient, and awkward.  Boy, that sure sounds like fun to me, doesn’t it to you?  No wonder people resist change.

 

To overcome this resistance, people must have a compelling need to do so firmly established in their minds.

 

“But,” you may say, “I’ve told them the reason for the change.”  Try this test: Select some employees at random,  and ask them to give you, in their own words, the reason for the changes you want to make.  If they can’t give you a reason for the change that would compel you to want to take the risk of changing, then it’s a fair bet that they do not feel compelled to change themselves.

 

2.  Keep people informed about all aspects of the change

 

There is a cynical, Dilbert-like sign that pops up on office bulletin boards.  It has a picture of a mushroom and a caption that reads, “They treat me like a mushroom here - they keep me in the dark.  They feed me a lot of ‘mushroom food,’ and then they can me.”  No one likes to be treated like a mushroom, and almost everyone likes to be “in the know.”

 

Unfortunately, it is conventional wisdom among many managers to only tell people what they absolutely are required to know to implement their little piece of the change.  These managers reason that it’s not good to overwhelm people with too much information.  Nonsense!

 

Nature abhors a vacuum.  When there isn’t official information available, people will create their own rumors to fill the vacuum - and those rumors tend to be less accurate, more negative, and more distressing than any true information about the change that you’re keeping  from them.

 

You might even want to start your own, true rumors by discussing various aspects of the change with your fellow managers or other OTD’s (organizational top dogs) while in earshot of line employees.  Given human beings’ propensity for gossip, this “true gossip” will shoot through your organization faster than any official announcement, memo or e-mail.

 

3.  Measure and reward what you want to change

 

In 1994, Boeing executive Gordon Bethune took the reins of Continental Airlines.  At the time, Continental was a company in distress.  Hated by its passengers, its  unions, and its shareholders, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.  Bethune realized that to survive, Continental would have to start giving customers what they wanted, and what customers wanted was an airline that was reliable.  In other words, an airline that would get you there on time, every time.  Continental had one of the worst on-time arrival records in the industry.

 

On-time arrival became the mantra of the new Continental Airlines.  Since arrival and departure times are already measured by the Department of Transportation, Bethune had only to reward improvement performance, and he did that the old fashion way - with money.  He promised every employee that they would be paid $65 for every month that their on-time performance was good enough to place them in the top five nationwide, according to Department of Transportation figures.

 

You may say that that’s an expensive proposition.  Continental has 40,000 employees, which at $65 per head adds up to $2.6 million.  But their research showed that the loss of customers due to poor on-time performance was costing them $5 million per month.  If spending $2.6 million could correct the problem, it would be a win/win for everyone.

 

And it worked.  They announced the program in January 1995.  And by the end of the month, their on-time performance had risen from 61% to 71%.  In February, it jumped to 80%, which placed them in fourth place nationally.  Today, Continental regularly ranks at the top of the rating in on-time performance.  This, along with other changes Bethune has instituted has turned Continental around from being one of the worst airlines in the industry to one of the best (Source: Fortune Magazine, 5/25/98).

 

Of course, you may not have the margins to pay every employee a bonus for making progress toward a desired change.  But as we all know, money is not the only motivator.  Recognition, days off, flex time, praise, desirable assignments, increased responsibility, and opportunities to have input into decisions are just a few ways to reward the changes you want.

 

Two important things are critical, however:

1.  You must measure progress toward the change outcomes you desire.  There’s an old rubric that says, “What gets measured, gets done.” Bethune says, “What gets measured gets managed.”

 

2.  You must reward progress toward those outcomes, based on the measurements.  People will strive to support your change efforts when they can see what’s in it for themselves.  And make sure the links between their progress and the rewards are clear and easy to understand.  (The $65 bonus for Continental employees was not included in the employees' regular paychecks where it might be overlooked.  It was issued as a separate check.  Additionally, the taxes taken from this $65 were deducted from the regular paychecks so the bonus check was a simple, clear $65, period!).

 

So as you implement changes in your organization, ask yourself these three questions:

 

1.  "Could anyone in this organization tell me what we are trying to change and why?"

 

2.  "Could anyone in this organization describe the plan for the change and any changes to that plan?"

 

3.  "Could anyone in this organization explain the direct and indirect rewards he or she will receive for making progress toward the desired outcome of the change?"

 

If the answer to all three of these questions is “yes”, perhaps your change efforts will be rewarded with success. If, on the other hand, the answer to any of the questions is “no,” you’ve probably got some work to do.

 

© 2003 Larry Johnson.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.

 

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Toy Wood, CAE, President
281-970-8970 x 150
Executive Vice President and CEO of the Greater Houston Builders Association

Jo D. Miller, President-Elect
713-783-9225
Executive Director, Houston Chapter Institute of Real Estate Management

Jeff Tafel, CAE, Secretary
713-623-4362
Director of Allied Services, International Facility Management Association

Paula Ruth, APR, Treasurer

281-870-1717

Paula Ruth & Company Public Relations

 

Allison Kelley, CAE, Immediate Past President

832-717-5200

Romance Writers of America

 

HSAE 2007 president Toy Wood, CAE, Greater Houston Builders Association, presents a crystal bowl to outgoing president Allison Kelley, CAE, Romance Writers of America, at the December planning meeting, as Julie George (Loren Cook & Associates) (right front) and the rest of the board watch.  Among the board members are second row (left to right) Jo D. Miller, Institute of Real Estate Management; past president Ralston Creswell, CAE, American Diabetes Association; Margery Reinheardt, Hilton Doubletree Post Oak, Phil Kunetka, Independent Electrical Contractors, Vicky Aranda, Association Network; Jeff Tafel, CAE, International Facility Management Association;  Jennifer Lindsay, Reliant Park, and Paula Ruth, APR, Paula Ruth & Company Public Relations. Jay Hagins, CAE, Houston Ad Federation, was also present.  Not pictured were Andy Teas, CAE, Houston Apartment Association, and Lori Carper, Houston Association of Realtors.

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