Adopting a Growth Mindset around Integrated Technology at your Association
We all know software creates efficiencies in our operations, improves our processes, shifts our policies, and has the ability to identify deeper seeded insight into our member data. But the ability to keep up and on top of all of these fluctuations can easily burn us out. So what’s the solution to the never-ending technology stack rat race? Adopting a growth mindset.
What is a Growth Mindset?
Carol Dweck, approximately 30 years ago, became interested in understanding student’s attitudes around failure. Dweck’s findings from her study identified two terms; the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. A fixed mindset is when people believe their basic qualities, such as their intelligence or talent, are fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can be developed, and that through efforts you can increase your intelligence and talent.
Technology isn’t going anywhere. Let’s begin embracing it.
Technology naturally plays a big role in the operations of associations. It can be hard to flex and bend at such a rapid pace. Technology can make you and your staff feel as though the mountain you’re all trying to climb just keeps getting steeper. The simple solution to complexity is to continually learn – developing a growth mindset. When you become comfortable with the reality that technology, your association, and the world around you is going to continuously change, you can begin embracing that! Starting with leadership and then adopting it as an entire organization. Craft a culture and staff of employees who can adapt, adopt, shift, and bend with technology.
Michael Brennan, Executive Director, Canadian Management Consultants Association (CMC-Canada) nailed it on the head when he spoke at Wicket’s event The Shift last month, “there is a technology solution for every one of your problems.” And there is! MailChimp for email marketing, Litmos for e-learning, and Shopify for ecommerce, just to name a few. We live in an incredible time, where we have the power to choose which technology solution best suits our needs. The issue associations often face is that they have an AMS, where they’re forced to use the modules for these operational needs, rather than best-in-class 3rd party software tools. Or, if they do, their member data is scattered amongst the 3rd party software tools they use, with no single source of truth connecting them!
The Power of an Integrated Technology Stack
There’s a new player within the AMS space enabling associations to harness the use of best-in-class 3rd party software! Enter Wicket. Wicket is the world’s first Member Data Platform. Their software allows associations to integrate with 3rd party software solutions such as MailChimp, Shopify, Eventbrite, and Litmos – just to name a few. Wicket’s dashboard synchronizes all member data – communicating two ways to ensure your data can be trusted.
So, how does a growth mindset have anything to do with this new innovative technology approach for associations?
Adapting and adopting the growth mindset within your association will enable your association to utilize new, innovative technologies and solutions. Your team will naturally pivot to becoming a team of problem solvers. When your AMS’ modules fall short of meeting the needs of your members, staff will (if they haven’t already) begin turning to alternative solutions. Empowering your team with these tools now sets them up for the future of your association. Enable your staff to be continuous learners and explore new innovative solutions.
Shelby-lyn Miller is the Marketing Manager at Wicket. Wicket was born in the creative labs of a digital workshop in Canada, Industrial. The team at Industrial are experts at building websites, web applications, and thrive on integrating web-based systems using APIs. They’ve been doing so for over 18 years, watching first-hand the evolution of the internet. To learn more visit https://wicket.io/.
