Delivering successful governance strategies with foresight to achieve your organization’s vision

Focusing on strategic planning with foresight for your organization

Increasingly, Chief Staff Officers need to be more future oriented

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Organizations frequently encounter obstacles that blur their strategic focus. Whether it’s aligning team efforts with overarching goals or adapting to unexpected market conditions, the road to success can feel like a maze without a clear exit.

Moreover, the unique pressures facing associations and other organizations alike require a nuanced approach to planning and execution, emphasizing the need for a guiding hand to illuminate the path forward.

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We shape futures through strategic guidance

We deliver results by creating future-focused governance processes.

We specialize in strategy consulting tailored for businesses and associations, guiding you towards sustainable growth and operational excellence.

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Strategic Planning

Developing clear, actionable strategies to achieve your long-term goals and vision.

Organizational Analysis

Evaluating your operations to identify strengths and areas for improvement, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.

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Governance Consulting

Improving decision-making processes and structures to ensure alignment with your vision.

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Governance Directions facilitates successful strategies to achieve your vision.

Since its inception, Governance Directions has guided associations and other businesses towards achieving their vision. With years of association experience, we’ve developed a unique approach to  consulting that identifies challenges and implements sustainable solutions. We provide you a way to communicate it  easily to all of your stakeholders.

What sets us apart is the way we integrate Foresight into our process, ensuring clients develop a clear and succinct vision with goals and strategies that organizations can operationalize to create a sustainable path to their preferred future.

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Why Associations Need Foresight: Anticipatory Learning

By Hannes Combest, FASAE, CAE and Bob London, FASAE, CAE / March 31, 2025

The ability to anticipate change is not just a skill; it’s a powerful tool that is becoming increasingly essential for association leaders. Association leaders are not just coping with change, they are mastering it, gaining a sense of control in the face of uncertainty.

Anticipatory learning is not solely about managing change; it’s about strategically navigating it. Having a future-focused approach that ensures associations are shaping the future, making adaptability a cornerstone of enduring success is essential.

 By identifying trends that are future-focused for your organization, you become less reactionary to change, and more prepared for future changes. This proactive approach allows association leaders to create a robust framework for education so that association leaders and members are not just keeping up with the current, they are staying one step ahead of their competitors.

One tool to assist with anticipatory learning is the ASAE Research Foundation’s tool -ForesightWorks.  ForesightWorks is an ‘evidenced-based research initiative’ developed and maintained by ASAE. It is designed to assist association professionals in conducting a future-focused environmental scan. ASAE has identified 50 ‘Drivers of Change,’ consistently updated and monitored to ensure they are current for the association community and relevant to the futures of associations. A four-page Action Brief that outlines their long-term implications for associations, key unknowns, and potential action steps for consideration supports each of the 50 Drivers of Change.

What is Foresight, and why do associations need to use it?

Hannes Combest, FASAE, CAE and Bob London, FASAE, CAE / December 30, 2024

Every single day, we do something in our lives to prepare ourselves for the future. It may be as simple as brushing your teeth to prevent cavities or going to the gas station to fill up so that you will be able to transport yourself to where you need to go.

 How often do association executives take time to think about the future of our organizations? How many of us were prepared for the situation that presented itself to us four years ago when the pandemic closed the world? Very few of us thought that a pandemic would cause the chaos that it did. In the blink of an eye, our lives changed.

 In 2017, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) began to publish a research-based program called ForesightWorks, designed to help organizations systematically think through the future of their organization. ASAE had historically issued Environmental Scanning publications, typically out-of-date as soon as the publications were printed. ForesightWorks is different as it is designed to consistently be reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

 ForesightWorks is based on 50 Drivers of Change, signals that have been researched as relevant to our world today and are used in multiple ways.  Four-page action briefs, all of which are laid out similarly, form the basis of ForesightWorks. Page one of the action brief includes a summary of the Driver of Change and several forecasts for what will occur in the near and far term future. Page two contains supporting trends supplied to ASAE from the professional futurist research firm. Page three contains
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Is your strategic plan really strategic?

Hannes Combest, FASAE, CAE / September 3, 2024

Is your strategic plan — strategic? 

Having goals with benchmarks are important, however, often times they are not strategic.  Many organizations confuse or call their business plan a strategic plan. While organizations need a business plan, this should not be confused with a strategic plan. The simple test to determine if your plan is strategic or not:  can you answer this question, yes:  if you accomplish all the goals in your plan, will the organization attain its vision?  If this answer is yes – then you have a strategic plan.  However, if honest, most of the time you will need to answer no. 

Where does your Board want your organization to be in ten years (or is it five or seven or twenty)?  Answering that one question is the first critical step in

Common Questions

We provide tailored consulting services founded on the principles of foresight to help small businesses and associations sharpen their vision, improve their operations, and achieve sustainable growth. Our expertise spans strategic planning, facilitating Board conversations and orientations and implementation guidance to navigate operational challenges and leverage strategic opportunities.

With more than 50 years of experience in association management, our consultants customize our approach by focusing on the organization’s unique challenges and opportunities. We used a proven method of foresight to help organizations prepare for various futures, depending on the disrupters that enter their organizational space. This includes facilitating conversations with the Board about its vision and strategies to advance towards that end. Our goal is to empower your organization to achieve its vision more effectively and sustainably, considering your specific goals, budget, and community needs.

The duration of a consulting project varies depending on the complexity and specific needs of your organization. Typically, projects can range from a few weeks to several months. We work efficiently to deliver actionable results while ensuring we comprehensively address your strategic challenges and opportunities to prepare your organization for the future.

Yes, we work with clients nationwide. Our team leverages a mix of digital communication tools and, in-person meetings to ensure we can effectively partner with your organization, regardless of location. This flexibility allows us to support a broad array of clients while maintaining high standards of service and results.

When our clients adopt a culture of foresight that allows them to shape their future we have been successful. Sometimes this happens soon after our engagement with a client and other times it takes longer.  When clients use foresight as a one-and-done tool we have not been successful. 

Even for a long tenured chief staff officer, it is important to have all voices at the table when working on your strategic direction.  If you as the CSE are at the table your voice is one of equals. By using an outside facilitator you will minimize the bias that is included in your planning and have a much better chance of synergy and not just consensus.

Hear From Our Satisfied Clients

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AIA Kansas City hired Governance Directions initially in 2018 to develop a three to five year strategic plan for us.  What they did was lead us through a journey into the future, allowing our leadership to think about potential futures that could exist.  While we didn’t predict Covid, we did talk about disruptors, and how to address them and as a result, AIA Kansas City was able to weather the pandemic well.  When it came time to update our work in 2023, we went back to Governance Directions and once again were not disappointed.  They had strengthened their process in such a way that we were pleased to share this planning process with other AIA component executives at our national annual meeting. By using foresight, we are better prepared not just to meet the future; we are better prepared to handle the present.
Dawn Taylor, Executive Director, AIA Kansas City
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