Publications
Running an Association Takes Cooperation
The Chinese Acrobats.
On a recent trip to China, I had occasion to see a performance of the famous Shanghai acrobats. As the show progressed, I thought more and more about how a composite of these acts reminded me of running an association. Not so much a "three-ring circus" as some would say, but rather an ongoing sequence of over-lapping talent providing a steady, reliable and significant performance always threatened by some type of risk or injury.
First Act – Juggling three hats. Each acrobat had three hats, removing one from their head and replacing it with the next while at all times keeping two in the air. Board members and managers must often wear many "hats" and juggle many tasks simultaneously. A board member must be a legislator, business proprietor, good will ambassador and diplomat while a manager must be a psychiatrist, zookeeper, drill sergeant, waiter, cruise director and place-kicker. Should you at any time drop one of the hats, your audience will probably demand new entertainment.
Second Act – Standing on a balance beam held by a "catcher" at each end, the artist is thrown high in the air, does a somersault and returns with both feet landing on the balance beam. Board members, as well as managers, must maintain their balance at all times. Balancing the good of the association versus individual members’ concerns, keeping assessments under control while performing required maintenance and providing services, repairing the property versus spending on upgrades and enhancements and so on. One misstep and you fall on your face.
Third Act – One acrobat after another climbed onto the shoulders of the next, each carrying a chair. Each chair was tilted onto its back two legs and balanced on the one below it. Each acrobat raised themselves on one hand from their chair, all while the anchorman below kept it balanced. TEAMWORK! The board, the manager, the owners, the lawyer, the accountant, the contractors; all must carefully keep their own balance while holding up the others. By working together, all for the common good, everyone benefits. If only one decides to place him or herself above any other single member or the group as a whole, the entirety collapses.
Fourth Act – A juggler started spinning a plate, then another and so on until 24 plates were spinning simultaneously. As soon as he got to the last one he had to run to the earlier ones which started to wobble. As a board member or a manager, you can never become complacent. Your work is never done. The minute you think all the plates are spinning in sequence, one begins to falter. Just because you had enough money reserved to replace the roof, the balconies go. Once you finish painting, you have a boiler blow. You will need to have eyes on the side and back of your head and winged feet in order to run from project to project and crisis to crisis, all at the same time. By pre-planning and having a strategic plan with goals, objectives and a timetable, none of your plates will stop spinning.
Fifth Act – A woman with a body so elastic she can contort herself by laying on her stomach on the floor, reach back, grab her ankles, rock forward and bring her feet up and over to rest flat on the floor adjacent to her head. Sometimes you must bend over backwards and be so flexible in your thinking that you feel that you might break. Running an association successfully cannot be done from a rigid, inflexible vantage point. A board must be willing to see and accept trends and make the necessary adjustments. Long term planning and budgeting by the book may put an association in a good financial position, but what happens when there is an unexpected maintenance emergency? You must extend yourself, bend and contort yourself to adjust without abandoning the original goals entirely. The problem can be solved and the objective can still be accomplished even though in a more limited capacity.
As you can see, we can learn from our friends in the Far East. You don’t have to be a circus performer but you can still get applause from your members by working together, thinking ahead and adapting to change.