Preparing for change

I cannot believe it is 1997! It seems like only yesterday that I became accustomed to putting 1996 on everything from letters to checks. The speed at which the years roll by seems to be accelerating. There is one other thing that seems to be speeding up also - the pace at which things change in our society.

Not very long ago, we could assume that change would occur, but it would be relatively predictable. Most of us realize that is no longer true. The pace at which our society changes today has reached a point where it is literally too fast to accurately track. I heard a computer industry statistic that the life span of a newly introduced PC platform, the time between introducing the platform and when its successor was placed on the market, has been reduced to 83 days. Not everything in life changes that rapidly, but it is a good example of how quickly the world changes.

This is particularly important to grasp for one key reason - planning. In the past, an organization's strategic plan recommended looking ahead 5 to 10 years. Today's swift rate of change has narrowed that horizon to three-to-five years, at best.

Most of us feel responsible for helping our organizations succeed, both in the short and long term. To do this, we must clearly understand that our organizations' future successes will depend on how well they adapt to change and how well we identify and organize the operational plans we have created.

The American Camping Association has operated under a strategic plan for approximately four years. The original plan was designed for a three-year implementation and was modified slightly in 1995. What we have learned since starting the process is that the world has changed faster than we have been able to adapt. The plan that we started now has significant gaps and some areas no longer seem relevant.

The ACA National Board of Directors spent one day in a mini strategic planning retreat in November. With the help of a consultant, board members and senior staff began developing a new plan that we hope will help the association become more responsive to the rapid changes occurring in our membership and society.

You and your camp need to routinely spend time looking ahead and working to guarantee that you will respond to changes in a way that ensures success both for the short and long term. If you think your camp's future is merely an extension of its past, you are headed for difficult times. Society is changing rapidly. Children are changing rapidly, too. We all need to recognize this and build change into the planning process; otherwise we will be left behind.

I have always said that organizations are similar to living organisms. Organizations go through many of the same developmental stages, and if they fail to adapt to their environment, they, too, die. A key competency that we all try to build into children is resiliency. We need to apply this same competency within our organizations.

How do you build resiliency into your organization? You will probably find as many answers to this question as there are consultants. However, I think that organizations need to master two key issues if they are going to adapt to the future, while retaining their definitions.

Mission is the first. Each organization needs a clear, concise, and inspiring description of its fundamental purpose. Your mission should map out how you will navigate the many changes ahead. Without this clear mission, you can quickly find yourself driven in so many directions that you have difficulty defining success, let alone achieving it.

Second, all organizations need to develop good environmental evaluation techniques. Changes can come from any direction, but regular, systematic evaluation of what is happening to society, children, families, the economy, etc., is critical to a camp's ability to have continued success.

As you begin your new year, I hope that you have implemented a planning process that will ensure your camp's ability to thrive in the crazy, hectic world we live in.

John A. Miller is the executive vice president of the American Camping Association, headquartered in Martinsville, Ind.

COPYRIGHT 1997 American Camping Association
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