ASME unveils Continuity and Change initiative at Summer Annual Meeting

June Scangarello
ASME Public Information

During the Summer Annual Meeting last month in Atlanta, several top-level leadership meetings were held to discuss how ASME's strategies match its performance and whether the Society is adequately directing its resources toward its priorities.

The meetings were organized as an introduction to a new ASME initiative called "Continuity and Change."

Through this new initiative, ASME is allocating a significant amount of time and resources to redirect itself as a knowledge-based, market-focused, learning organization. This forward-looking process pulls together the necessary tools for an analysis that will generate recommendations to enhance ASME's operational structure. The goal is to develop a more agile, responsive and accountable organization.

Since January, a number of special task forces of the Board of Governors have been studying ASME's operating processes, including marketing strategies, structure and budget models. On June 19, preliminary reports were presented at the BOG meeting and a Web site providing background on the process and unmoderated discussion forums was launched.

Broadcast e-mails announcing the Continuity and Change initiative were sent to all ASME members and staff. The process is designed to encourage participation by both volunteers and staff, with a particular emphasis on the months between Congress 2003 and March 2004.

During this time period, a set of recommendations will be formulated, based on these simultaneous studies. Both volunteers and staff need to be informed about and give feedback on the recommendations, so that they can be finalized by the Board of Governors at its March 2004 meeting.

Three areas are converging: ASME's budget model, its organizational structure and a new strategic marketing plan. Like ASME's effort prior to 1980, when an Arthur D. Little report helped restructure the organization into Councils, the Society again has hired the firm to help identify and assess ASME's direction, including a participative communications plan that includes staff. Simultaneously, a Strategic Marketing Task Force is focusing on trends, communities and market issues, which also have staff involvement.

A process called the Balanced Scorecard — tying the budget to the strategy and the performance of the organization — brings all three together. The Balanced Scorecard involves looking at ASME's measurements, targets and initiatives to meet the objectives. It was pioneered by management experts Robert Kaplan and David Norton, co-authors of "The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action" (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996).

The Balanced Scorecard, according to its Web site (www.bsccollaborative.com), aligns strategy with organizational structure and resources, leveraging knowledge, connecting people and processes, and fostering continuous learning and growth.

ASME is striving for an open, respectful, participatory process that sustains its core values and core assets, while looking to improve its operating structure and become a more responsive engineering society.

ASME intends to provide continuity in its products and services and maintain the current high levels of opportunity, trust and respect between volunteers and staff.

Regular updates can be found at www.asme.org/continuity.

 

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