New Power And The Future Of Engagement
July 18, 2019Associations can’t function like they used to, laying out a few rigid ways in which members may participate in the community. Now, members want to define the terms of engagement—or they won’t join at all. Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms have a vision for what next-generation nonprofits look like in a “new power” world.
Early in their book, New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make It Work for You, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms deliver a warning to associations.
“People are less likely to be card-carrying members of organizations or to forge decades-long relationships with institutions,” they write. “This shift has big implications for organizations large and small.” If you’ve been trusting your authority in your industry to carry you through social and economic changes, they caution it may not be enough.
The shift involves social media, of course, and the many ways in which people can more comfortably and speedily affiliate online. But beyond that, Timms and Heimans explain, people now have different perceptions of how power should be wielded. Expectations for transparency and collaboration are much higher, and the formal governance of the traditional association model is more suspect.