Energize / Collaborate

Aligning the culture with the mission

Situation

A once-successful international association of management consultants was facing a culture crisis. After two decades of profitable collaboration among association members, referral activity dwindled and the association struggled to live up to its purpose as defined in its mission statement. Frustrated, a core group of members considered resigning. Such a loss of expertise would have substantially reduced the association’s ability to serve its global membership. 

Strategy

I determined that an analysis of the association’s operations, geographical reach, and organizational culture was necessary. 

Over a period of months, and in multiple stakeholders’ countries, I convened this group of corporate, executive-level stakeholders in one-on-one interviews and group conversations both in person and virtually.

The analysis revealed that the association, which had always been managed by group consensus, had drifted into a decision vacuum. Without committed and decisive leadership, the association had inadvertently failed to keep pace with its membership’s needs.  

Result

To reconnect the global membership with the association’s purpose, and to reenergize referral activity, a committed leadership body had to be established. After securing buy-in from the entire community of stakeholders to establish an Executive Board drawn from multiple countries across the membership, I then: 

• Recruited executive-level, financially invested international leadership from multiple companies with deep industry experience.

• Organized the leadership group into a legal and legitimate Executive Board.

• Established communication and board management protocols for this international work group.

• Focused the nascent Executive Board’s energies on immediate and long-term operational stability, member management and recruitment, and finance and budgeting practices. 

With a nimble, invested Executive Board providing sustained leadership and decision-making, the association experienced a 42 percent increase in global business development activity over a five-year period and doubled its geographic reach through new member recruitment.