By Randy R. Kilgore, CLU, LUTCF, RHU

What will it take for transformation to take place in our association? It will occur only if we work together on some tough issues and take some chances that will help move us forward.

If we are to continue our journey to change NAIFA and bring it into the 21st century, we need cooperation as well as collaboration. We are all working toward the goal that is best for NAIFA, so we must trust each other.

Cooperation and collaboration John Maxwell, in his book The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player, describes cooperation as working together agreeably. The Board of Trustees will be presenting ideas to the National Council, and the council members—in the spirit of cooperation—should allow those ideas to be implemented to see if they work. Modifications can be made if they don’t work as well as planned. According to Maxwell, collaboration is working together aggressively. The Board of Trustees must collaborate with the Transformation Task Force and Executive Committee if this transformation is to be successful. It must make the national association more effective and set an example of where and how our federation should change. And there are a lot of changes to consider: We need to find a more efficient method of paying our dues. We should explore the idea of allowing our members to join the local association of their choice—maybe even a virtual local. We need to work with state associations to stop duplicating services.

Thought should also be given to our current governance. How can our association be more efficient and still retain its effectiveness? We need the national and state associations to be leaner, and the local associations to be more relevant. Looking at the needs of our members should always be uppermost in our minds, and that mission will take the complete commitment of our Board of Trustees.

Commitment
In his book, Maxwell states, “Commitment is usually discovered in the midst of adversity. Adversity fosters commitment and commitment fosters hard work. The more you work at something, the less likely you are to give it up.”

We may meet with adversity in the implementation of the ideas that are proposed, but we are committed. Now is the time we must get down to hard work, trust each other and try something different. This is also the time that we need your help with this very difficult task of implementing the programs. We can’t look at this as the “right way” or the “wrong way;” we must look at this as a different way of running our association.

I recently graduated from the Leadership in Life Institute program, which I highly recommend. The curriculum is based on books by John Maxwell and Stephen Covey, and many of the principles should be used by the members of the Transformation Task Force as they go forward with their planning. Covey states that you should always start with the end in mind. If you don’t know the result, you will not know when you have achieved your goal. Our end goal should be a better run, more efficient, leaner NAIFA.

Covey is also a proponent of “win-win.” This should be our objective as we go through this transformation. We need to have our members win, our local associations win and our state associations win. Then, ultimately, the national association will win. If we keep our goal in mind and make sure that each partner wins, all of us will be winners by going through this process.

Randy R. Kilgore, CLU, LUTCF, RHU, is president-elect of NAIFA. He is the owner of Randy R. Kilgore & Co. in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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