HERE’S a thought that may make some association leaders uncomfortable: What if the people we most need to collaborate with are precisely those who don’t think like us?
We often talk about collaboration as if its greatest virtue were consensus, i.e., bringing like-minded people together to work towards common goals. Our recent conversation with Dr. Gillian Whalley on the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE) podcast ‘Association Matters’ challenged that comfortable assumption. For Gillian, professor of Clinical Sonography and Cardiology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, the real magic of collaboration happens when different perspectives collide. Sometimes there is friction. And that, she says, is precisely where the really great ideas can emerge.
Gillian has experienced this firsthand through her work in research and on professional boards in Australasia and internationally. Different people bring different experiences, cultures and ways of seeing a problem. The challenge is not to eliminate those differences, but to learn from them.
For association leaders, this is particularly relevant today. Our members are changing. Their expectations are changing. The competitive environment is changing. And what worked yesterday cannot automatically be assumed to work tomorrow.
Gillian’s scientific background offers an important lesson: be guided by evidence and be willing to change your mind when the evidence tells you to.
That same openness applies to international collaboration. Gillian cautions against assuming that approaches developed in Western or Eurocentric environments can simply be transplanted elsewhere. Her experience in New Zealand has taught her much from indigenous culture about respect, inclusivity and different values.
This leads to a fundamental principle for associations: global collaboration should not be about exporting answers. It should be about listening, learning and co-creating solutions.
Gillian cited her work with the Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine, the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, and the American Society of Echocardiography. Through these relationships, associations share educational resources, training, guidelines and professional expertise with organizations in countries with fewer resources.
But the most important part is how they do it. They do not simply assume they know what local communities need. They ask.
That is a powerful lesson for any association contemplating international partnerships: listen first, contribute second.
There is another message from Gillian that should make association leaders sit up: loyalty alone is no longer enough to retain members. She belongs to five professional associations herself and admits that she periodically questions whether the value she receives justifies the cost.
For younger generations, the question is even more direct: What’s in it for me?
Associations must demonstrate value, express meaningful values and show that they are actively contributing to solving problems, not simply maintaining traditions.
Perhaps, then, the future belongs not to associations that build the biggest networks, but to those that build the most diverse and meaningful relationships.
Because when we collaborate across borders, we do more than expand our networks. We expand our thinking.