Writing
Institutional design, in the open
Essays on governance, institutional memory, member experience, and why frameworks built for companies keep failing associations. These are the arguments underneath Association Architecture.
Most Associations Have Activities. Very Few Have Architecture.
Every association has a strategic plan, a committee structure, and an annual conference. Almost all of them are fragile — not because the people are wrong, but because the design is missing.
August 3, 20264 min read
Why I Studied Psychology Before I Touched an Agile Framework
Organizations are behavioral systems before they are operational ones. Why graduate training in Industrial-Organizational Psychology preceded — and outlasted — every framework that followed.
August 3, 20264 min read
The Four Pillars Every Association Needs (And Almost None Have)
Leadership and governance, institutional memory, operations and execution, member experience. Four systems that must be designed together, and almost never are.
August 3, 20264 min read
What Fortune 100 Transformation Taught Me About Nonprofit Operations
Enterprise transformation and nonprofit operations are treated as different disciplines. Four lessons that transfer directly — and one that changes shape entirely.
August 3, 20264 min read
Your Association Doesn't Have Customers. Stop Treating Members Like They Are.
Customer experience frameworks applied to associations miss the governance dimension. Members are simultaneously customers, constituents, and co-governors — and that changes the design problem.
August 3, 20264 min read