Although ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference concluded last week, I want to encourage everyone to take advantage of the free recording  of the general closing session from Great Ideas with Daniel Pink. Pink, who’s the author of bestselling “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” had a great session and discussed how the concept of motivation and rewards are more complex for humans than we may think.

I downloaded the presentation and took the time to watch it since I wasn’t at Great Ideas and only followed the tweets with hashtag #ideas10. I know others have blogged about their own takeaways, but I wanted to include a few of my own thoughts.

1. Dan Pink is a great speaker. He’s entertaining and truly knows what he’s talking about.

2. Higher rewards lead to worse performance. This may sound counter-intuitive, so if you’re curious, listen to Pink explain why.

3. Allowing employees pursue their own projects 20 percent of the time leads to innovation and engagement (two HUGE association buzzwords!). Google follows this model, and it led to Gmail and many other Google products we all use today.

4. Everyone wants to be a master at their trade/job/career/whatever. Humans crave progress no matter what the reward. It’s intrinsic.

What’s unique about Dan Pink is that his speaking at Great Ideas was crowdsourced. ASAE & The Center issued a survey to members and attendees, who overwhelmingly said they want to hear from Dan at the conference.

This is a fantastic presentation that I think association professionals of all ages and experience levels can benefit from. It’s definitely worth your time.

Who doesn’t love a good recognition program? No matter how big or small the achievement, I think we all enjoy a little positive reinforcement. But could a more unconventional program work for your organization?

This post was inspired by an old Acronym post about its unique recognition program – when someone achieves something noteworthy, a bell is rung throughout the office.

Some people may find this annoying, and I’m sure if used too liberally, it would be a little grating. But if you work for a small-staff association, I think something like this is a fun idea. Another option (perhaps for slightly larger associations) is to host a staff meeting every quarter and recognize people’s achievements.

At MemberClicks, we hosted the First Annual Clickies (loosely based on Michael Scott’s “Dundies” on “The Office”) last March. In addition to the more serious awards, people received semi-silly awards that garnered lots of laughs and allowed them to recount the past year.

Of course, the possibilities for recognition programs are nearly endless. You can host a ceremony at your annual meeting or conference, but be aware that many people find them too long and tedious. Recognize when members reach milestones such as five, 10 or 15 years of membership.

Keep in mind that not everyone likes to be recognized the same way. I’ve been discussing more casual recognition programs, but of course, formal options are often necessary (and important). And don’t forget to recognize your volunteers! Without volunteers, your organization likely wouldn’t function as well as it does.

How can your association recognize milestones in a fun, unconventional way?

Image via Kevin Patrick, MemberClicks Director of Product Experience

This is the sixth in an ongoing series called “Beyond The Big Three,” which highlights social networking sites other than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are tons of other social media outposts on the Web, and they’re great places for associations to curate content. The first five installments can be found here. Stay tuned.

If your organization (i.e. your membership) isn’t ready to dive headfirst into the social Web, there are tons of smaller social media sites that can supplement your communications goals. SlideShare is one of my favorites.

You may have already — unknowingly — used SlideShare. Usually, whenever anyone embeds a slideshow into their blog or sends you a link to a presentation online, it’s hosted on SlideShare. Not only can you share presentations (generally PowerPoint files), you can also upload documents and PDFs.

You can use SlideShare to assist with virtual meeting experiences – if members can’t attend in person, it’s easy to upload the presentation to one location and send the same link to everyone. You can adjust the privacy settings for each presentation you upload, so the links can be private and only accessed by those who have the link.

SlideShare can provide your organization with the tools to easily get your mission or message out to many people. You can even sync audio to your slides for a complete presentation experience.

You can use SlideShare to:

- Get the word out about your organization
- Give information to those who can’t attend an event in person
- Embed presentations on your blog or Web site
- Connect with other association professionals

Another great feature – the transcripts of your presentations will be indexed by Google, which will help your organization be found more easily in search engines.

The site is also searchable, so you can find other presentations and documents relating to association management or your organization’s particular industry.

Check out this — what else? — presentation from SlideShare. It’s a great explanation of how the site can be used, and shows you what an embedded presentation looks like.

Continuing with Acronym’s “Big Ideas” theme…

Would you still think members complain too much or would their complaints seem more valid if you had to walk in their shoes?

This question stuck out to me for a few reasons. When I first began learning about associations, I — for some reason — thought association staffers had previously worked in their memberships’ fields, or had some sort of interest in the industry. I didn’t realize there was an industry comprised of “association staffers.”

It makes sense, though. Someone has to plan the events, do the administrative work and take care of all the behind-the-scenes things required to make an association run smoothly.

So what if you had to work as an engineer, or a photographer, or an accountant? What if you belonged to your association and you just wanted to be able to take advantage of the great things it had to offer and meet other professionals in your field? Wouldn’t members’ “complaints” (requests) seem a little more valid?

Let’s even take it a step further and imagine if members had to work in their association for a few weeks, too. I think everyone would appreciate his or her own job, and also gain a lot of perspective.

Imagine how improved communication and understanding between staffers and members could be. (Sure, communication still might be not be perfect, but it would improve a little at least. Right?)

I think this idea is a great one, despite how unfeasible it is. It reminds me a bit of Maggie McGary’s post on association staffers working at another association. It just makes sense that staffers who support their members’ common interests should be aware of their perspectives. I’m sure some association staffers belong to other organizations, but I think to truly understand where their members are coming from, staffers should walk a mile in their shoes (so to speak).

This also goes along a little bit with Elizabeth Engel’s post about staffers cold-calling members just to connect and listen. She wrote about connection, community and a new source of ideas — and I think her idea is great, and obviously a lot more feasible than actually swapping lives.

Maybe this is all a little idealistic of me (improved communication! more perspective!), but in all seriousness, I think we too often get caught up in how our own jobs are so difficult, not thinking how our roles play into the big picture.

Do you think your members would appreciate the hard work staffers do if they had to do it themselves? Would you have a better understanding of your members’ wants and needs if you had to work in their industries?

Happy Friday! It’s absolutely freezing here in Atlanta. (Our fountains aren’t frozen yet, but sometimes I feel about as cold as one!) I guess winter is finally upon us… I was hoping for a few more autumn days, but I guess I should start gearing up for the holidays. I’m still in denial than 2009 is almost over. I feel like I was just watching that ball drop!

There is so much fun stuff going on in association blogs right now, so let’s get right to my favorite posts!

1. I’d love to link to every “Big Idea” post, but Acronym has taken care of that for me. So go check them out and if you’re a blogger, start brainstorming! If you’re not a blogger, comment! Or better yet, start your own blog! Personally, I think the more voices and opinions out there, the better.

2. OK so this one is Big Idea-related, but before you start crankin’ out ideas, make sure it’s spongeworthy. Jeffrey Cufaude drew parallels to Elaine Benes’ sponge dilemma in a classic episode of “Seinfeld.” Don’t act like resources are scarce when they truly aren’t – part of putting big ideas into action is experiencing setbacks. Don’t be afraid to put something into practice, even if the “experiment” doesn’t quite pan out as planned.

3. Jeff Hurt compiled a great list of tips and guidelines to help speakers succeed at conferences and events. In addition to a contract, Jeff gives speakers a ton of helpful forms (including an AV form with requirements, a travel and lodging form and a Speaker’s Guideline form). The best part? Jeff included each form for download as PDF. Such a great resource!

4. Do you have an excellent member experience to share? Peggy Hoffman shared one from an ASAE listserv this week. As one association professional was leaving the industry, she posted a moving farewell note on the listserv — it’s a reminder of how valuable membership can truly be. Does your association create a welcome and enjoyable atmosphere for members, volunteers and community?

5. Wondering how the economy is going to affect other event and meeting planners? This article from planyourmeetings.com has a bunch of statistics relating to event planning looking forward to 2010. The top two concerns among meeting planners are how to attract higher audiences and how to offer better value for money. What are some concerns you have about your events in 2010?

I can’t wait to read more “Big Ideas” posts from around the community, and I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. Stay warm!

(Image via moria on Flickr)