platform instead of outsourcing and spent a lot of time thinking about how to engage our community in the virtual environment and that went well. We ended up having about 60 per cent of our normal conference attendees and then a lot of people who do not usually attend our conference, too. JL You mentioned strategy.What other lessons of leadership did you take from the last two years? IW That the human nature of what we do as leaders could not be more important. Everything we did that was a success, were things where there was a thoughtful connection with people. For example, at the start of the pandemic, instead of sending out a generic message to our members – a lot of organisations were doing that – we sent a personal note from me with the subject line: ‘Are you okay?’ From a list of 20,000 people, I got 200 plus replies responding to me in so many ways. Another lesson is around how strategy is evolving so quickly now. Because the external environments are changing so quickly, I ask myself every day: ‘how am I showing up for this organisation?’
JL Are you feeling the pressure? IW It’s the pressure of permanent uncertainty. We talk about pressure as something that will be relieved later. But how do you lead when there’s no sign that the pressure will be relieved any time soon? It’s just a different model for all of us leading associations now – a new muscle reflex. JL Which leads us to the crisis in Ukraine. How should associations with international members and maybe a Russian chapter react to what’s happening in Ukraine? IW It’s a complicated situation, but you start with, who are the people we are serving and how are they impacted? And that’s something every association will have to ask themselves and it’s going to look very different depending on the kind of membership you have. And then you look at your values. Is there an opportunity for the organisation to stand up for the values they espouse? That will not be the case for every association. But I think there are some associations that should look at their values and see if this is a moment where they need to expand their voice. JL We hear a lot about fake news, most of it originating online. Does your organisation have any role to play in countering the spread of fake news? Is it something your members care about? IW It’s one is one of the top issues in our industry, and, I think, one of the top issues in the world. We were having conversations in 2016 around media manipulation, around those groups who are purposely writing content to deceive the media or get communities to search a certain word, and then take people down a certain rabbit hole – toAlt-right groups for example. So, we’ve done a lot of work on that, including creating a volunteer-led misinformation playbook as a resource for our members. JL And what role do associations have to play in raising the level of public discourse generally? IW There is growing distrust of all institutions. Fake news is top of mind right now, but, with Covid-19, for example, we’ve seen distrust of the medical profession. So, this is about speaking up for truth, for the facts. This is a rejection of expertise and I don’t think we can say that’s entirely unfounded. There are and have been abuses of power which explain why people might not trust institutions and experts. So, I think we need to combine that knowledge with how we build trust in institutions and our associations and the people that we serve.
Dealing with constant pressure has become a newmuscle reflex for association leaders
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