The nature of meeting planning makes us overly attentive to the present and the near-term. Sure, we're doing site inspections and signing contracts for events years in advance, but those are exceptions and tied primarily to logistics, not to creating a more desirable learning and community-building experience. Our success as professionals almost always depends on our ability to simultaneously create the future while managing the present. Here are four tips to bridge that gap:

1. Create tremendous clarity about the core. You can lift weights and climb stairs daily, but if you don't do the conditioning exercises to develop your core, you may not be fit. Successful learning experiences are no different. Every meeting should have a one- or two-page strategy framework outlining its core purpose, how the event supports the organization's overall mission, the key indicators for the meeting's success, its brand position in your overall professional-development portfolio, the target audience, and the core values or qualities the meeting should exemplify. Every stakeholder and contributor (both staff and volunteers) should understand and execute this streamlined strategy.

2. Maximize systems and templates. Planners pride themselves on the systems and templates used to ensure high-quality execution. But how many of your systems and templates focus on creating the future, both near-term and long-term? Too many of our ongoing efforts are exclusively about managing the present.

Automate or routinize every single task you can to free up mental energy for those efforts that require fresh insight and judgment. Then create "higher-order" templates that move beyond the logistics to intentionally address how the meeting will impart learning and enhance the sense of community it engenders.

3. Enable more eyes and more initiative. I was a bit of a control freak as an education director, but I quickly learned that the best meetings wouldn't result from every idea and decision passing through my hands. Smart planners intent on creating the future identify the core needs/questions to be addressed in the idea-generation stage. Then they open the floodgates for feedback from any and all interested parties. Such contributions are voice, not vote, unless crowdsourcing the decision is your objective. An internal filtering process can select evolutionary (and revolutionary) ideas to incorporate.

4. Experiment and refine using frequent feedback. So much of the planning mindset is about making sure nothing goes wrong - an admirable ambition. But this conservative approach too frequently inhibits our willingness to experiment precisely because we can't control the outcome. So let's manage - not completely avoid - that risk.

Just as your personal financial portfolio should include a mix of consistent yield assets and other investments with more long-term growth potential, so should our learning experiences.

If your attendees are a risk-averse group, clearly identify and market your riskiest new ideas as such, so people know exactly what you're attempting. (For example, new ideas and technologies have been showcased at PCMA's recent annual meetings under the umbrella of "Meeting Xperiments.")

Use a mix of tech- and touch-feedback mechanisms to gather input that can help you refine your efforts appropriately for their next iteration.

Take Away

When people are pressed about why they aren't focused more on the future, they often mention the demands of the present: "I just don't have enough time right now to think that far out into the future." Let me suggest that it's not - nor will it ever be - about time. Rather, it's a matter of cultivating the habits and discipline required to create the future while simultaneously managing the present.

So I ask again:

What will your annual meeting look like in 2014? If this question doesn't currently have your attention, will it be too late when it does?

Jeffrey Cufaude is a former higher education administrator, meeting planner, and association executive. He currently writes, speaks, and facilitates on a variety of individual and organizational leadership issues. Learn more about his work at www.ideaarchitects.org.
To submit topic ideas and feedback on the Leading Learning column, e-mail jeffrey@ideaarchitects.org.

Leading Learning is sponsored by Freeman, www.freemanco.com.