A strategic assessment is like a check-up for your association

The busyness of work sometimes gets in the way of doing our jobs. We simply get going on a track and when we step off we see that we were only going in circles.

A strategic assessment

A strategic assessment is like a check-up for your association. It can help you get off that track and really give you a map for where you're headed. Specifically, a strategic assessment will help you:

• create a plan for getting your association or nonprofit in a forward direction toward your goals
• help you "clean out" those unwieldy processes that build up over the years, like dust under the refrigerator
• identify where training or technology may help your organization

Are you wondering if this kind of check-up is for you? Here are 6 signs that your organization could benefit.

You need to work your strategic plan.

Most associations have a strategic plan, but many think it's an exercise to check off a list -- do it and forget it. It becomes another chore to complete. But strategic plans can help us achieve and do great things for our members. Focusing your attention on those goals will finally get you some forward momentum.

You’re frustrated with your AMS.

We often find ourselves blaming our association management system. But the poor little thing can't help it. It only does what we tell it to do. There are times when an organization has outgrown its AMS, for sure, but there is also value in analyzing why things work the way they do and if we can refine our processes to get us where we need to be with our technology.

Department silos keep you from getting it done.

Unfortunately, departments in our organizations, like people, have personalities. We must be attuned to this and ensure that each division in our association pulls their portion of the load and understands that they are a part of a whole organism.

"There’s got to be a better way."

A strategic assessment is particularly good at finding and documenting processes that have grown out of control and cause you headaches of inefficiency. Use your strategic plan, then employ your AMS to do the heavy lifting on your workflows.

You think at a third party opinion might make a difference.

Sometimes it simply helps to have a qualified consultant or advisor carry your message to the Board. Affirmation by a third party often helps seal the deal for technology updates and upgrades.

You'd like to change the staff culture.  

There's something about sitting in a room together talking about the processes and procedures of your work that opens minds and hearts. We've heard that strategic assessments can totally change the culture of an organization.

Strategic assessments aren’t scary. The consultants who perform these assessments are there to help – to help you unwind processes, identify training possibilities, to suggest where updates and upgrades might work.

Is it time for your organization to take that step?

Read our article in the July/August issue of TSAE's Association Leadership.

Read more about strategic assessments.

Learn how it helped one association.

TSAE brings its members a discount program for strategic assessments.