Ready to transform your association into a digital-savvy organization? Start by focusing on the people.

“Your organization must do more than add nifty technological advancements; it must change the way people work,” says Chloe Blair of Association Success. “A digital-first culture means putting continued education at the forefront of developmental strategies and having a flexible infrastructure aligned with an ever-evolving world.”

Teaching individuals in your organization is key. Provide resources and incentives for them to understand the technology available to them. “It takes time for people to feel comfortable with changing technologies and the best way to feel comfortable with a new tool or idea is to use it and learn about it,” Blair says.

Associations can educate in several ways: provide workshop opportunities to teach specific skills, schedule weekly conversations for employees to discuss new concepts, and ask for internal insights and suggestions to find new ways to solve old problems.

A digital-first organization also properly uses data to make smart decisions. Data is your superpower, Blair says, and you can use it to identify areas where your organization can improve.

“Looking at data can give you a healthy idea about what you’re doing that’s working and what isn’t working so well. As long as you’re recording, tracking, and monitoring changes in data when implementing a new strategy, it should be easy to measure results,” she says.

Facilitate Collaboration in Your Organization

3 ways to build collaborative relationships and end the blame game
– Build cooperation into compensation structure
– Prioritize cross-functional projects
– Set the example at the tophttps://t.co/7Lh7BHzD7L

— MIT Sloan Management Review (@mitsmr) April 8, 2020

In times of uncertainty or challenge, business relationships can become strained. It’s up to leaders and managers to ensure workplace unity and collaboration, suggests Max Altschuler in the MIT Sloan Management Review.

To strengthen relationships across teams, Altschuler recommends prioritizing cross-functional projects.

“The members of these teams build relationships with each other. The more employees from different departments are put into such cross-functional teams, the greater their units integrate throughout the business,” he says.

Other Links of Note

You postponed your event, but you can still keep your audience engaged, suggests a recent blog post from Eventbrite.

In an uncertain job market, associations can help members by leveraging their career centers, says Naylor’s Shanna Mertel.

Worried about video callers “Zoombombing” you? Zoom has responded with drastic changes. TechCrunch has the story.

(ozgurdonmaz/iStock/Getty Images Plus)