How associations can bridge generational data divides to improve strategic decisions
- Within associations, team members and leaders display a range of comfort levels around analytics and data-driven decision-making, with some embracing dashboards and AI while others prefer spreadsheets or operating on instinct.
- To better incorporate data into your decision-making frameworks, work to organize your data into a centralized repository or data warehouse and then encourage your team to draw from it using whatever tools they prefer.
- Better integrating data into your daily operations is an iterative, ongoing process that requires buy-in from your team but can make your whole organization more responsive to changing member needs.
As member engagement declines, association leaders need fresh insights on how to connect with their audiences and stay relevant. Leaning more heavily on data to drive your strategic decision-making process can help.
To do this, you may need to incorporate a broad range of attitudes and technical proficiencies around leveraging data and analytics, as well as change how your organization approaches data governance. But the payoff can be substantial.
Keep reading to learn more.
Different generations of association professionals may approach data differently
Association workforces typically show a wide range of technical aptitude. Some people are comfortable with even the latest technology, while others prefer to stick with proven processes. And there is a generational element here, although it’s less black and white and more nuanced trends.
Baby boomers worked most of their professional careers before the data boom
The data revolution in business is relatively recent, with modern analytics capabilities ramping up over the last few decades. This means that baby boomers in leadership roles have typically spent the bulk of their careers relying on experience and instinct when making decisions, although many have also embraced modern analytics as new tools have become available.
Gen X is comfortable with some analytics
Meanwhile, Gen X now holds most leadership roles within associations. Gen X professionals are typically comfortable using data to inform their decision-making processes, but often lean more on spreadsheets rather than newer analytical tools and turn to data analysts to offer additional insights.
Millennials have leaned more into automation
Many millennials came into the workforce as more platforms began offering dashboards to help automatically collect and report on data. This means millennials often prefer this sort of automated reporting solution to old-school spreadsheets, which they may view as cumbersome or time-consuming.
Gen Z entered the workforce alongside AI
For Gen Z members who have entered the workforce over the past few years, the beginning of their professional careers has coincided with the explosion in AI tech. Many Gen Zs may be comfortable using AI to analyze data, but may also struggle from a lack of institutional knowledge, as fewer entry-level jobs and more remote work have made it harder for some to learn from more experienced colleagues.
Why should associations lean more heavily into data when making decisions?
Associations are going through a challenging moment, with some leaders reporting falling member numbers and declining engagement. Better incorporating data into your decision-making processes can help mitigate or reverse those trends.
Consider three major benefits:
- Learn more about your members: By diving more deeply into your member data, you can learn more about your specific audience, including what they want their association membership to provide.
- Run your organization more efficiently: Clearer data can help you to understand how your organization actually functions and identify gaps or blockers that are hindering your ability to succeed with the resources you have at hand.
- Gain deeper insight into your offerings: Are your offerings actually connecting with your members? Deeper data insights can help you find out, so you can focus your energy on delivering more of the events, learnings or credentials that resonate best with your audience.
How should associations leverage data in a way that embraces different decision-making styles?
There is no one ideal decision-making framework or process. Good decision-making is less about getting everyone using the same dashboard or AI model when making decisions than simply making sure that leaders and team members throughout your organization are relying on the same data, in whatever form they feel comfortable consuming it.
Here are three key elements to giving your association the knowledge to make more effective, data-informed decisions:
1. Balance different types of knowledge
Analytics can offer a great deal of useful insight. And leveraging your data to drive smarter decisions is at the core of how many organizations are adapting to meet the challenges of today.
But this doesn’t mean your team should throw professional experience, instinct and intuition out the window, as all of these can be incredibly valuable as well. Instead, incorporate all of these elements into your overall decision-making framework, relying on different sources of knowledge to gain a broader, more holistic perspective on which to base your strategy.
2. Modernize your data governance framework
Different members of your team don’t have to approach decision-making exactly the same way. If certain team members prefer AI analysis and others like using spreadsheets, that’s okay — so long as both groups are drawing conclusions from the same source of data.
That’s why it’s essential to create a data governance structure that combines all of your data into a centralized data repository or data warehouse so your whole team has access to all of your data in one place. Rather than information being siloed between your association management system (AMS), your marketing platform, your finance system and more, you’ll be able to keep everyone aligned around the same common set of facts, identify trends across your membership base and gain deeper insights into which of your offerings drive engagement or create value.
3. Embrace an evolutionary, iterative mindset
Taking a more data-driven approach within your organization isn’t a one-and-done effort. Building a centralized data repository, integrating it into your thinking and incorporating that information into a range of different tools is an ongoing process.
Association teams tend to run lean, so you’ll need to build internal buy-in around creating a data repository and then actually using it to drive how you operate or risk your work here sputtering out. Help your team to understand the value of leveraging data and provide training when needed (don’t assume that everyone knows how to use a chatbot or a dashboard, for example).
And as you begin to ramp up your capabilities here, think about different problems within your organization and consider how you can lean on your new data capabilities to help solve them. The more you can target specific problems and solve them, the quicker you’ll see ROI.
Can more effective data management deliver benefits to your members, too?
Associations used to have more of a monopoly on industry information. But with so much now available for free, associations need to find new ways to deliver insights that their members can’t get elsewhere.
As you work to modernize your data management by centralizing your data in a repository or data warehouse, consider whether your efforts could provide value for your members as well. What data have you collected that isn’t publicly available, and what conclusions, trends or patterns can you glean from it that could be useful to your members?
Consider these questions as you move forward.
How Wipfli can help
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