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Workforce Development in Associations: AI, Adaptability, and the Power of DEI · Associations NOW Presents

0:05
Lowell Aplebaum: Welcome everybody to episode two of
0:07
Associations NOW Presents, an original podcast series from the
0:11
American Society of Association Executives. And we'd like to
0:15
thank our episode sponsor today Visit Omaha for the support of
0:18
this podcast. My name is Lowell Aplebaum. I'm the CEO of
0:23
Vistacova, typically hosting the Association Rockstars podcast,
0:27
but really excited and overjoyed to have the opportunity today to
0:31
facilitate a meaningful conversation around workforce
0:35
development with two brilliant minds in our community. And
0:39
rather than read a speaker bio, which probably would not have
0:42
you still tuning in, we're going to have the opportunity to hear
0:44
a little bit about the own professional journey from our
0:47
two panelists today. So for each of you, I'll ask you one at a
0:52
time, if you could please tell us a little bit about who you
0:55
are and where you work, as we're thinking about workforce
0:58
development and professional journeys that have led you to
1:00
places of the association community. Tell us a little bit
1:04
about your journey. Haley, do you want to go first?
1:07
Haley Jones: Sure. So I'm Haley Jones. I'm the director of
1:09
member engagement at the American staffing Association in
1:12
Alexandria, Virginia. I spent my entire career in the association
1:18
space, but I got started through being placed at my first
1:22
association from a staffing firm, ironically, X amount of
1:27
years later, so I don't necessarily age myself. I now
1:30
work at the trade association that represents the person who
1:35
was once a member who got me into associations to begin with.
1:38
I started in associations through member care, was
1:42
answering the 800 line processing applications. Moved
1:46
into the membership department. I spent the first half of my
1:49
career in membership. The latter half has been in governance and
1:52
volunteer management, leadership development. And then the last
1:56
almost five years now has been also in the DEI space. I oversee
2:01
a team of four people who run all of the, basically eight of
2:06
the nine engagement programs that ASA has. My main focus is
2:10
our DEI initiatives. I think where I've gotten to where I'm
2:13
at now, I attribute a lot of it to being a DELP Scholar. I'm in
2:18
the 2019 to 2021 class, and got access to mentoring and
2:24
executive coaching and just education opportunities that I
2:28
ordinarily wouldn't have thanks to Visit Detroit that sponsored
2:32
everything, and that was a turning point for me and my
2:35
career and finding my voice and just putting me in a leadership
2:40
position, where I still work on this now, but where people see
2:44
me as a leader and I also finally see myself as one too.
2:48
Lowell Aplebaum: I love that. Hopefully, as we were able to go
2:50
into a discussion around workforce development, that sort
2:54
of transformational journey from an employee to a profession to a
2:58
leader, hopefully we can dig in a little more on those stages as
3:01
well as we think about that, Joe, please.
3:03
Joe Lindhal: Yeah, so I'm Joe Lindahl. I serve as the CEO for
3:07
Mission MSA, which is a nonprofit organization for
3:11
patient advocates and research around multiple system atrophy,
3:14
which is a rare neurodegenerative disease
3:17
closely aligned with Parkinson's, but has the size
3:20
and progression of it. I am with MCI USA, which is a management
3:24
company, so I think I share many similar stories and journey as
3:30
Haley. I was placed through a temp staff firm with the
3:34
Association Management Center right after I graduated with a
3:38
degree in journalism from DePaul. Go Blue Demons! In front
3:42
of the recession where newspapers were failing, no one
3:45
wanted to read or at least pay for it. The whole industry was
3:49
turned upside down. So I was placed in this firm and I ended
3:52
up really loving the world. This, I think, is a very common
3:56
story for us, association professionals. Starting in
3:59
marketing, really, after the first two years of more
4:02
operations and governance, moved out to DC, where I got to work
4:06
for the Child Life Council, and then also worked at the American
4:11
Staffing Association, where Haley is now, where I had my
4:14
"association, full circle moment." Like, I get to support
4:17
an industry that really has done so much for me to where I am
4:20
now. And then I moved back to Chicago, worked for AMC again,
4:25
serving as a senior ops for specialty nursing groups, and
4:28
eventually as an executive director and to where I am now.
4:32
So it has been a rapid journey. You open your eyes and like, oh
4:36
my gosh, what has happened? But it's been a lot of fun, and I'm
4:39
really excited to talk about the workforce journey and workforce
4:42
development.
4:43
Lowell Aplebaum: I hope that you will continue, both of you, to
4:46
insert sort of personal reflections of your own stages
4:49
of your professional progression as we talk about the larger
4:52
workforce development. What's interesting, I think about both
4:55
of your backgrounds - besides, it's amazing that both of you
4:59
found sssociations by being placed in them; I'd be
5:01
interested in a research study of what that percentage looks
5:04
like as we now go into a discussion on workforce
5:07
development - there's really a duality that we're discussing.
5:10
One is the place of workforce development within the
5:13
association community itself, and then the larger societal
5:18
challenges or opportunities of workforce development across
5:21
many industries. And I imagine from an American Staffing
5:25
Association, you're looking many different lenses. We all, of
5:28
course, are well matched in the association industry. So I
5:32
welcome either of those paths that you want to explore with
5:34
the top I'll start thinking broad, which is just as you
5:37
think about workforce development in general, from
5:40
what you've experienced and from your insights, what trends do
5:44
you see? What would you identify as some of the big markers of
5:48
challenge, opportunity or the way things are go? Haley, do you
5:51
want to go first?
5:52
Haley Jones: Yeah, so this is something we do talk about a lot
5:55
with our members, and especially in hearing what they're seeing
5:59
as they're putting people to work, and one of the biggest
6:02
ones is probably the emergence of AI and the fact that people
6:07
really need to learn it. And there are people who think that
6:10
AI is going to remove other people from the workforce, and
6:13
then that probably will happen in some instances. But there's
6:17
also a way to use AI as more of a partner and not much for a
6:23
replacement to your responsibilities, and being able
6:26
to learn how to use it to help with maybe administrative tasks.
6:31
Or several of us have used it for writer's block, and then
6:36
going back in and using it to going through it with a to read,
6:39
for comprehension, to make sure that what it does dump out is,
6:42
one it's accurate, or you make it accurate, and also that it
6:45
makes sense. But it gives you the opportunity, if you are
6:48
using it, to be able to focus on higher level work and higher
6:52
value things. But I just had a conversation about two weeks ago
6:56
about this, where everyone's starting to learn AI now. I had
6:59
an owner the other day say, "I'm going to become obsolete. So I'm
7:03
learning how to do all of this now." He's, I think, in his 60s,
7:06
and has been in the business for over 30 years, but is also
7:10
trying to keep his business relevant. It's just been
7:13
interesting to see the different facets of it. There's also a
7:16
bias issue when it comes to AI that we can get into later, but
7:21
because that definitely can hurt minority communities in certain
7:25
ways. But yeah, we've been talking a lot about AI and just
7:28
also really upskilling to learn that or learn other skills to
7:32
help further your career.
7:34
Lowell Aplebaum: Joe?
7:35
Joe Lindhal: The general workforce piece, I think some of
7:38
the trends that when we look for talent, at least from an
7:42
employer standpoint, is, we are looking for a kind of
7:46
willingness to adapt, having some comfortability with
7:48
technology. And how we operate as a workplace is we are almost
7:53
completely remote, so our team is everywhere. There has to be
7:58
the level of comfort of having these video conversations,
8:01
having to use SharePoint, how to do video calls, how to be
8:04
comfortable doing some of these things that are really
8:07
important. And from piggybacking on what Haley's saying is as
8:11
small staff especially, AI presents a lot of opportunity. I
8:14
think it's not going to replace a lot of what we do yet
8:19
individually, but it certainly can act as an accelerator or
8:23
simplifier in a lot of our processes. For example, we have
8:29
a support line that is open where you can speak with a
8:32
social worker if you have any questions about your diagnosis.
8:37
No one really generally knows about multiple system atrophy
8:40
until they have to know about multiple system atrophy. And in
8:43
that context, you're dealing with folks that want everything
8:46
they want to literally swallow the ocean, and it's a really
8:49
hard thing to do. And so what we do have a social worker that's
8:53
available to talk on the phone answer emails, but we're
8:56
exploring like we know what the common questions are. We know
8:59
where people need to go to where can I find a movement disorder
9:02
specialist? Where can I find a clinical trial? How do I manage
9:06
my symptoms? We can create a chatbot based on our documents
9:11
that will answer 75 to 90% of those questions immediately. Our
9:17
helpline is only open from nine to five, but we deal with a
9:21
global audience. So someone from Australia has a question they
9:24
want an answer. We think we can create a resource that's going
9:28
to be really useful in that regard. So I have a person that
9:32
is a licensed social worker, that has a level of
9:34
comfortability with the technology. Might not have
9:37
walked in as a coder or developer, but is willing to
9:40
learn and ask the questions to those that can do it. How do we
9:43
train it? How do we make sure it's transparent? What biases?
9:46
How do we make sure it takes these two outputs that's really
9:50
important from a workforce place, because that way, I'm not
9:53
training two skills they have a level of comfort they're walking
9:56
in with.
9:57
Lowell Aplebaum: I love that we've started in terms of
9:59
discussing workforce development with really front and center,
10:02
the role of how AI is impacting workforce development today and
10:06
for the future. What's interesting, I think, is if we
10:08
look at historical trends of where workforce development
10:11
issues and discussions have been, it's really been that,
10:15
like your career journey has been defined by being able to
10:18
demonstrate the skills and experience that you have, right?
10:21
That's what your resume shows. Does the skill and experience
10:24
align to the position you're looking for? But what you two
10:27
are discussing is actually this intersect that's not, perhaps
10:31
not, about rate interested to hear about the skills you have.
10:34
It's about how much you're able to demonstrate an ability to
10:39
adapt to the skills that you will need.
10:41
Haley Jones: It kind of reminds me of 2020 and obviously we all
10:44
had to go virtual, and suddenly everyone was learning how to use
10:49
Zoom. And I remember for myself and what we were doing. We used
10:54
Zoom already however, we didn't use it as often as we do now.
10:58
And everyone laughs about I remember when I had to just make
11:02
a phone call, and now if someone calls you on the phone, it's
11:04
weird. And I became the resident Zoom expert. There's two of us
11:08
on staff who all of a sudden it was like they know how to do
11:12
this. So let's have them run this virtual conference on Zoom.
11:16
And when we have breakout sessions, even now, for one of
11:19
our virtual conferences, I get the one that's the most
11:21
difficult to set up, because I know how to do it. I saw one of
11:25
my chapters ran, I forget what the platform was, but she ran
11:30
virtual conference, and then started offering her services to
11:34
others because she had already paid for the platform. So she
11:36
offered it to other chapters and other organizations, and she
11:40
would run logistics in production of their entire
11:43
virtual conference. That became another stream of income. She
11:46
just adapted and learned how to use it and became this expert at
11:49
it. But I feel like AI is about to become that same situation
11:53
where you're figuring out how it works best for you, how you can
11:56
use it to move your either yourself or even your
11:59
organization, forward, but we ought to adapt to it.
12:02
Lowell Aplebaum: So I think the question I would ask based off
12:05
of that really tangible, excellent example is, as you
12:09
think about workforce development, both for those
12:11
seeking positions and those seeking positions, what is your
12:15
perspective of what that looks like in a different context,
12:18
when it's about, as you're saying, finding someone who has
12:21
the agility to adapt to what we're going to need. Right? From
12:25
your perspective in workforce development, either, how does a
12:28
candidate display or demonstrate that agility, or from your
12:32
perspective, how do employers seek that agility that's not
12:35
just based off of "give me your resume of all the things you've
12:37
done," because that doesn't display that, right? I'm
12:40
wondering if either of you have perspectives about from either
12:43
side of that. We've talked about AI, this would have been a very
12:46
different conversation 24 months ago.
12:48
Joe Lindhal: Yeah,I think it's a tough thing to get at times
12:51
like, it's not you're like, you're it's not on a resume,
12:52
it's not in chronological order of how my past experiences would
12:56
be a perfect fit for this role, this opportunity in your
12:59
company. For, I would say, like, entry level folks, they don't
13:04
have that. They're an intern, maybe. But asking the questions
13:08
around some more than interpersonal like, how have you
13:10
been a chameleon? And then also asking, here you have the job
13:15
description, I'm happy to walk you through it in more human
13:17
terms, because sometimes these jobs because they already read
13:21
like they've been written by robots at times. But how do you
13:25
just say, "Hey, this is what I need. Give me an example from
13:29
your perspective. How do you make this work? What would you
13:32
do differently?" I even give them like test scenarios,
13:35
saying, "This is the issues the opportunity with what when the
13:39
landscape of tools or processing. What would you do?"
13:42
It doesn't have to be perfect. You don't know like the disease
13:44
per se, but I just want to give a general sense of how does your
13:47
mind work? How does it adapt? And can take things that aren't
13:51
necessarily crystallized, but absolutely can be flexible, and
13:55
put them into work that advances whatever industry, or that's how
13:59
like as an employer, that's what and from a talent perspective,
14:03
that's what I look for, especially for folks that are
14:05
coming into a small staff organization. We have titles,
14:09
but the reality is, we're doing what's best for the patient and
14:13
the care partners, and we want to find a cure. That's it.
14:16
That's the North Star. So if it comes outside your job
14:18
description, and if you're really good at zoom, or you're
14:21
really good at implementing X, Y or Z, I think you'd be willing
14:25
to do it, it, be it in research or advocacy or awareness, that's
14:30
what we look for. Yeah,
14:32
Lowell Aplebaum: I doubt that if an association executive
14:35
actually had a business card that was the title of everything
14:37
they did that would fit on a business card. What you just
14:41
shared, Joe, in terms of the idea that I love...the "how have
14:46
you been a chameleon?" That the demonstration through
14:49
application of how someone would say that they would deal with a
14:52
situation and adapt, is really interesting. We all are really
14:56
enmeshed in the association world, part of which the mission
14:59
of many. Organizations is to support individuals on their
15:03
professional journeys. Do you have any perspectives from a
15:06
place of how we help the individuals that belong to our
15:09
organizations get better at demonstration of this
15:13
adaptability? How are organizations that are supposed
15:15
to be your partners in supporting your professional
15:17
success actually helping people learn how to be adaptable in the
15:22
skill sets they need for the future.
15:24
Haley Jones: I honestly get an opportunity with a lot of the
15:27
programs that we do. The majority of our members are
15:31
small businesses. Many of them are jacks of all trades, and
15:35
they're putting people to work. I say, I don't, Joe, I don't
15:39
know if you ever said this too is, having worked at ASA, that
15:42
the staffing industry, to me, always reminded me of the
15:44
association industry, and that there's an association for
15:47
everything. There's a staffing firm for literally any job that
15:49
you can think about and what we do a lot of our programming, in
15:53
some cases, it's to help strengthen their own internal
15:57
workforce, but also to help them guide the candidates that
16:00
they're placing, or the clients that are accepting the
16:02
candidates and working with them, and different ways to
16:06
hopefully either adapt to what they're about to hire or be
16:10
higher into and succeed. But we have one member in particular
16:15
who I always love hearing about them, their focus is skills
16:19
first, and so they're taking these great skills that their
16:23
employees or candidates have. And they're finding the best fit
16:26
for them in the workplace. I think of one story where a
16:31
person is actually someone who had special needs and he was not
16:34
doing well at a job site. He was also non-verbal, so he couldn't
16:38
necessarily express what he didn't like about the job. But
16:41
they knew that he liked something down the street,
16:43
because he was always going to a car watch, and was an amazement
16:46
at these cars. So they thought, why don't we focus on what he
16:50
likes and see if we can get him a job down there? He still works
16:54
there, and he dries off the cars in a car wash, watches them go
16:57
through. But he's succeeding in this role because it's something
17:01
that fit him, and they focus on his skills and interests.
17:03
Lowell Aplebaum: First, I love that the people-center approach
17:06
to that, that how do you balance the needs of an organization or
17:10
a company, and what they think they need is a skill set by
17:12
recognizing the strengths and interests and potential in the
17:16
individuals that work for that company, and have that be
17:19
something that can be, hopefully something in harmony. That's a
17:22
really nice picture of what ideally a workforce could look
17:26
like.
17:27
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18:26
Lowell Aplebaum: I want to shift, if I can, a little bit,
18:28
just to recognize that while there are sort of general
18:32
workforce challenges out there, I'm curious, as we go into a D&I
18:37
lens, what roles do you see the associations playing in the
18:41
future of workforce development when it pertains to diversity
18:44
and inclusion? Do you think there's a role for our
18:46
professional organizations as we think about workforce
18:49
development paths and have a lens towards minority
18:53
communities or the need for a more diverse workforce?
18:56
Haley Jones: It's an unfortunate reality that we have to put it
18:58
this way sometimes, but it's also effective. DEI affects your
19:03
bottom line positively, if done correctly, and that's something
19:07
that I work for my I'm the staff liaison to our IDEA group, which
19:12
is inclusion, diversity and equity advocacy. And we are just
19:18
promoting the business case to our members and to understand
19:21
why these inclusive practices essentially help your bottom
19:24
line, help your retention, with your employees or candidates,
19:28
for that matter, but also just make it a better place and
19:31
environment to work. But I think that one of the ways that we can
19:35
play a role in this is just at least setting not a standard per
19:39
se, but maybe a good example, I always hesitate to say best
19:43
practices, and I try to say effective instead, but showing
19:46
effective ways that you can incorporate dei into what your
19:51
workforce and by helping them succeed, I just think that
19:55
that's where associations can help and having things that they
19:57
can model after. Even for other orgs who are modeling DELP-like
20:02
programs for their respective organizations, that's where
20:06
ASAE, I think, has played a huge role. We've all seen the success
20:09
of the DELP program, and we're starting to see other
20:11
organizations do something similar to try to have that same
20:15
success for whatever that population is.
20:17
Joe Lindhal: I totally agree. I think there's a lot of different
20:20
responsibilities associations and nonprofits have when they
20:24
represent a whole industry or profession. You have so much
20:27
access, in theory, to thought leaders staff that can help
20:31
elevate communities that haven't been seen or heard from in a
20:35
really meaningful way. There's systemic issues I think that
20:39
associations can certainly play a role in. I also think that
20:43
there's an opportunity and a responsibility for groups like
20:46
ours to elevate, purposefully and intentionally provide
20:50
invitations and access of almost a see it, and you can be it kind
20:54
of situation like I think ASAE has done a pretty good job of
20:58
that from a personal perspective. As an association
21:01
management professional coming into the industry, I'm a member
21:05
of the AANHPI group that we recently formed three years ago,
21:09
and one of the first things I said of why I even want to be a
21:13
part of this--shout out again to DELP because this is where this
21:17
conversation starts--is my barrier has been, I have never
21:21
seen anyone that looks like me be in a CEO position of a large
21:25
association. One person I knew that was the name only, and now
21:28
I think I can call him my mentor is Richard Yep, who was with the
21:33
American Counseling Association. That was it. And for me, I think
21:37
we have a responsibility to ask that question of, "Why aren't
21:41
there more folks that are actually reflective of the
21:44
country and the world that we live in places of influence?"
21:48
Because we shouldn't be. And I do think there's a
21:51
responsibility for associations to be reflective of their
21:55
industry, and there are underrepresented people and
21:58
communities that have the ability to be elevated, not
22:01
because of tokenism, but because they're really good at their
22:05
jobs, and they have to do it. And eventually you want to get
22:09
to a place where it isn't a big deal, but it is. I notice every
22:13
time, as an Asian American, is elevated to senior level
22:17
position, or when there's a Fellow at ASAE, and I think it's
22:20
really important that see it, you can be it, so it really
22:24
supports the next generation, the workforce development,
22:28
saying, that's cool. I never saw an Asian American male in this
22:32
capacity, and that is an actual viable place for me, because I
22:36
won't be the only one. I do think that there's a
22:39
responsibility there for groups like ours, of why we exist as
22:43
nonprofits and associations.
22:45
Lowell Aplebaum: How do you think associations can prepare
22:47
themselves for these evolving workforce needs, thinking back
22:51
to where we started, right like adaptability and what we need to
22:54
demonstrate in the future for successful career journeys. How
22:58
do associations prepare themselves to be able to address
23:01
those workforce needs, while also, as you're saying,
23:04
meaningfully maintaining a focus on minority communities, knowing
23:08
that it creates a better whole community, a better industry, a
23:11
better bottom line. Haley, as you said, right, all the
23:13
benefits of doing so. Any thoughts or examples you've seen
23:17
about how associations prepare themselves or take action on
23:19
that?
23:21
Haley Jones: I think you have to be prepared and also forward
23:24
thinking. I was on a program, I guess, last month, and we were
23:29
talking about the legislation against DEI or the threats that
23:34
are coming out, one of which is from the other VP candidate, and
23:39
they're trying to flip the acronym on its head and make it
23:42
negative. And someone said, we have to be ready. I challenge
23:48
you all to be ready for this and prepared for something like this
23:51
so it doesn't throw you off when it comes because what you see
23:55
now are people not necessarily walking back their initiatives,
23:58
but they're changing names of it, so that they're not under,
24:01
kind of falling under this category. But I think it's just
24:05
being able to really have some foresight and being ready for
24:09
it, but also leaning in and not walking it back the way that
24:13
people seem to have started doing right now.
24:16
Joe Lindhal: I don't have terribly much to add. I think
24:19
preparing the the wants and the need to the workforce, while
24:23
keeping a focus on underrepresented or minority
24:27
communities is one in the same. I just feel like what we here to
24:30
see from folks that are coming up is they want to have that
24:35
type of education. They want to have these discussions. This
24:37
idea of bringing a whole self to work is valuable, and so how do
24:43
we as employers or supervisors or whatnot, prepare ourselves
24:48
for that? How are we going to react to that? What level of
24:52
conversation, what level of resources do we want to put
24:56
around this? That's what I think is really an interesting
25:00
conversation, because I think the conversations you might have
25:02
with your managers, your directors, your admins, your
25:06
coordinators, probably sound different than the CEOs. And how
25:12
do we get to a closer alignment and transparency around what is
25:15
valuable when we prepare the workforce for the DEIA-type of
25:19
discussions and what's the expectation of the employee from
25:22
the employer? Is it an email celebrating a AANHPI Heritage
25:27
Month and then nothing happens? I don't know. And how are these
25:31
questions being asked earnestly and honestly? So I see this as
25:36
one of the key needs for workforce development and
25:40
consideration moving forward.
25:41
Lowell Aplebaum: I know we talked about a number of
25:43
questions beforehand, but both of your responses makes me want
25:46
to ask one last one, which is not on the list, which is...I'd
25:49
love to hear if you have any thoughts about the implications
25:52
and needs of culture within an organization as we think about
25:57
minority community involvement, commitments, implicit or
26:01
explicit, to diversity, inclusion, or in general, a
26:05
shifting workforce trends like, what are the those cultural
26:08
pieces internally that are going to lead to better organizational
26:11
success in workforce development. As I heard in
26:15
elements of both of what you said, not just process, but
26:18
culture. Do you have any reflections on sort of insights
26:21
of cultural commitment or direction organizations need to
26:24
embrace to see more workforce development success. I'd love to
26:28
hear any of those cultural reflections.
26:30
Haley Jones: I think for me, it mean that just not tiptoeing
26:33
around it. DEI is not a bad thing, and I think sometimes
26:36
people get uncomfortable with it. And it's not always meant to
26:40
be comfortable conversations when you're talking about
26:43
certain things, especially for us as minorities, who see things
26:47
through a different lens, experience things completely
26:50
different than others do. Because sometimes people do just
26:52
look at us differently because of the color of our skin or
26:56
because someone who might have a disability or whatever it is.
26:59
But I think that just having open discussions about it,
27:02
having awareness around certain things, giving time and space
27:07
for people to be able to celebrate certain things. In our
27:09
office, we either have a monthly activity, or we have training,
27:14
or we have some kind of celebration around food, because
27:18
that brings people in the doo. But a lot of it is usually ways
27:23
to just teach people about things they might not know. You
27:26
know, in February we did a we called it Bagels and Black
27:29
History Month. But our the whole kitchen was filled with fun
27:34
facts about black history that some you would think people
27:37
knew. And there are others, like one of them, which was a hot
27:41
topic, was about Reading Rainbow, the theme song being
27:44
sung by Chaka Khan. A lot of people didn't know that. I can't
27:48
tell by your face if you know what I can, but it was such it
27:53
was a fun fact that it was something that everyone was
27:56
talking about for a week, but it was a space for people to learn
27:59
things about my culture, and we've done it for a couple of
28:03
other celebration and awareness months as well. But I think
28:07
having space for people to do that makes a big change, and
28:11
also, I would hope, even with some of the trainings, just
28:14
helps people maybe take a beat before they say something that
28:18
might be deemed offensive, or it might change their perspective
28:21
moving forward. Yeah,
28:24
Joe Lindhal: I think that the culture is...we always I think
28:27
we all ask that question if we're interviewing or doing the
28:30
interview. It's a hard one to answer and when and someone
28:34
asked me that I was I say to me, culture is walk into a room and
28:38
you basically already know what the expectations are of you and
28:42
the people in the room, what are you committed to? And so I think
28:46
culture can be viewed a lot of different ways from different
28:49
lenses, and that's part of it is being okay with people will
28:53
experience and perceive things differently based on their own
28:56
perspectives, but we're all pushing towards this one goal.
29:00
Here's what's acceptable, here is what's not. But I think it
29:04
has to be the culture of acceptance and learning and
29:09
being willing to say, "Hey, I don't know." I think it's a good
29:12
idea to ask employers and employees of what their
29:15
expectations are around some of these things, because they like
29:19
Haley said, they can be hot buttony, but they don't have to
29:22
be like, I'm just like, I just want you to bring your whole
29:25
self. And if I don't know something or like, I'm of the
29:28
age where pronouns are still new to me, but I will ask now, like,
29:31
I've learned a lot as a older-ish millennial, at this
29:35
point, I want to learn except the whole person, and I think
29:39
there's strengths in that
29:41
Lowell Aplebaum: time goes by very quickly, and I have at
29:43
least 20 more questions I wanted to ask, but we'll wrap up our
29:47
time with this last one, which is, just as you think about the
29:50
range of our conversation today and the intersects of
29:54
adaptability and AI into really building a stronger workforce,
29:57
towards embracing that priority of diversity, inclusion, and how
30:01
that can help strengthen workforce and providing those
30:04
opportunities and aligning culture the borrowings we've
30:07
gone through. For those who are listening in, if you were to
30:10
share with them a closing thought, a one-piece-of-advice
30:13
or one takeaway that you're walking away with, what would be
30:17
the one piece that you would hope people would remember from
30:19
this or start from our conversation today. And I had
30:24
Haley introduce herself first. So Joe, I'm gonna go to you
30:27
first for a conclusion.
30:28
Joe Lindhal: Advice usually comes from a wise person, and
30:30
I'm trying to think how wise I am. It's just my perspective,
30:33
but I guess my one piece of advice is wherever you want to
30:37
work, and when you think about workforce development, just
30:41
think about the whole person. You don't spend any more time
30:45
with a group of people or in a place than you do at work. I
30:49
don't spend as much time my wife, my kids. This is it. This
30:53
is where you spend a bulk of your time. So you can be
30:57
professional. You can obviously not bring your full 1,000%
31:00
authentic self. I don't think we do that other than maybe in
31:04
front of a mirror every once in a while, but understand that
31:08
like they're bringing a wide range of background and
31:10
experiences to the table, and be ready to embrace that. I think
31:14
it's positive.
31:15
Lowell Aplebaum: Haley?
31:15
Haley Jones: So I'm also going to offer advice, and this comes
31:18
from the lens of...I was a college basketball coach, so I
31:21
tend to operate with my team the way I would operate with my
31:23
Lowell Aplebaum: I love that. We can't thank you enough, both of
31:25
players, especially in terms of development. So I would say just
31:29
as far as development of your employees, it's finding out what
31:29
you, for your time today, for being willing to bring your
31:33
motivates them; finding out what interests they have and maybe
31:36
wisdom and your insights and your experience you've all
31:36
where they see themselves going in their career. But not
31:40
necessarily long term, but at least in the next few years.
31:43
benefited from it, and really good thoughts on the workforce
31:43
I've done that every year I ask why--one person on my team has
31:47
actually been with me for over a year--and every year since I've
31:51
ahead and how we need to be chameleons for success in there,
31:51
become her supervisor, I say, tell me what you want to work on
31:54
this year. Tell me where you want to go, where you see
31:58
yourself going, as far as your career, because she's decided
31:58
in the skills that we develop and bring forward. Thanks to
32:01
she really likes associations. She finally started referring to
32:05
herself as a component relations professional. And so I said,
32:05
everyone for listening to this episode of Associations NOW
32:09
"Tell me what things you want to work on so that I can help you
32:12
get there. Because in my eyes, I'm developing you either for a
32:12
Presents. We hope you'll join us each month as we explore key
32:16
promotion where we're currently at or for whatever your next
32:20
role is, whether it's at our association or not." And I enjoy
32:20
topics relevant to association professionals, discussing the
32:23
coaching people, and so that's the approach that I take, but
32:27
it's really finding out what gets them going so that you can
32:27
challenges and opportunities in the field today and highlighting
32:31
encourage that and cultivate it moving forward.
32:35
the significant impact that associations have on the economy
32:43
the US and the world. Again, we'd like to thank our sponsor
32:50
Visit Omaha. For more information about them, you can
32:57
check out visit omaha.com/meetings. We hope that
33:03
you subscribe to our podcast on Apple Spotify, or wherever you
33:11
listen to your favorite podcasts. For more information
33:17
on workforce development in the association space, visit
33:24
Associations NOW online at associationsnow.com We hope
33:31
you'll join us next month, where we'll have part two of our
33:38
discussion on workforce development. We hope to see you
33:45
there. Thanks so much for tuning in.