195. Sheri Jacobs, CAE, CEO of Avenue M Group, on The Unexpected Power of Boundaries, Smart Risk-Taking, and Innovation

What if the thing holding your team back from innovation isn’t too many constraints, but too few? And how can associations create clear boundaries that give staff the confidence and freedom to experiment, learn, and move faster?In this episode of Associations Thrive, host Joanna Pineda interviews Sheri Jacobs, CEO of Avenue M Group, keynote speaker, and best-selling author. Sheri discusses:How AI is making information and education easier and faster to access, but associations have an important advantage: trust and reliability.The premise behind Sheri’s newest book, The Unexpected Power of Boundaries: “Growth happens at the speed of clarity,” and clarity comes from well-defined boundaries.Why telling teams to “think outside the box” can actually inhibit creativity. Unlimited choices can overwhelm people and cause them to default to familiar ideas.How leaders can define the why and the what—including the constraints—while giving their teams freedom to determine the how.Why leaders should reverse the speaking order in meetings. When senior leaders speak first, others tend to fall in line; inviting junior and frontline staff to speak first can surface ideas from people closest to members and customers.The important distinction between risk tolerance and risk capacity. Risk tolerance is about comfort; risk capacity is about how much an organization can actually afford to experiment, fail, learn, and recover.Why simply telling employees to “take risks” isn’t enough. Innovation happens when organizations combine psychological safety with clear boundaries around where experimentation is safe.How the “Best New Mistake Award” can encourage experimentation by celebrating employees who tried something, failed, learned from it, and used the learning to move the organization forward.Why associations should regularly examine whether their boundaries are outdated—and create a process for experimentation that defines hypotheses, assumptions, learning, and how results will be shared.How associations and conferences can turn inspiration into action by creating constraints such as a 30-day challenge that asks participants to take one smart risk and report back on what happened.References:Avenue M Group WebsiteThe Unexpected Power of Boundaries BookPivot Point BookThe Art of Membership Book