Association Dialogue Series: Scott Breen Interviews Melissa Garcia

Enjoy the interview!

Read the Transcript:

Scott Breen: Going back to the very early days, like when you were younger, was there anything that you think set you on the path to success?

Melissa Garcia: Yeah, there are a few things that might have shaped me a bit. One is that I used to go to work with my mom on weekends, and she would put me to work. While she was a little bit of a workaholic, the philosophy with her team was always to have fun. That approach of not taking yourselves too seriously stuck with me. Second was my English language writing and rhetoric studies major at University of Maryland. I took a lot of great courses that helped me break down arguments or understand how people came to a point of view.

S: Makes total sense. I minored in philosophy at Georgetown and those courses helped me in a similar way. And then, in terms of making things fun, let’s go on that for a bit, how have you carried that through in your association roles?

M: I think at Society for Neuroscience (SFN), if you asked anybody, I never took myself too seriously, even through the ranks. We actually did like quarterly division game days where my division would challenge another division, and we would go sit and play games at the end of the workday. I think finding ways to bring people together socially creates a better bond. And now at the Hand Society, we have a great office setup that encourages making time for fun.

S: Got it. I can see where board games could help do that. And then when did you come across associations as a potential career path? Like, were you looking to get into associations with that job at SFN or you just saw the job posting?

M: Completely by accident. I got placed by a temp agency. They told me it's a nonprofit, so I was like, oh, sounds noble and fun. It was meant to be a one-year thing, just enough to get my feet wet and get a salary until I figured out what I really wanted to do. Then I recognized the great experience I was getting. I wrote specs, tested new software, and project managed the implementation of entirely new systems. My mom rightly pointed out normally that is three separate jobs. The joke was that I later tried to leave SfN two or three times, but I was fortunate to work for a great mentor and leader who kept giving me opportunities that helped retain me.

S: I think I'm also hearing that you just need an awesome mom and things tend to work out. I can attest to that too. And then you did all these different roles at SFN. Was that stressful having to start over in different function areas or you enjoyed it?

M: It wasn’t ever too stressful, but it could be challenging at times. Some of it is really about leveraging the subject matter experts who report to you and just trusting them and guiding them, while keeping in mind the principles of the larger organization. It's very rare for somebody who ends up in a CEO spot to have at some point covered every aspect of an organization. So you have to learn how to take on those things that are in your area and trust the people around you. I also felt like I was given a lot of support, whether it was professional development or access to people or just guidance.

S: With the support you mentioned, was there anything in particular you felt quite useful? Maybe you had a coach?

M: Over time, I did have coaching, which I feel very blessed that my organization would pay for professional development and coaches as needed. I think the other thing that was really helpful to me was being on the tech council at American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). It was very good timing for me because I was coming into overseeing digital strategy and information technology, so it was useful to have access to all these intelligent people in that area.

S: Totally. Having that network of people that are experts in your area is so key. Then there are the experts in the field you’re representing. I like taking tours of can making facilities and learning about those operations. I imagine hand surgery is like on another level to the point that it’s hard to understand without being a doctor. With you not being a hand surgeon, is it perhaps a plus because you don't get caught up in the minutia of hand surgery and can focus on running this association well and delivering value to those that are hand surgeons?

M: I think what it requires is understanding the journey and the trajectory of the people that you serve. With hand surgeons, that includes medical school, residency, and fellowship. They have different journeys with different pushes and pulls. You don’t have to live that, but you have to seek to understand it.

S: That all important member journey. In the can industry, people ask me if we use puns like can-do. We most definitely do. I have to ask. Is some of your marketing we can give you a hand up or anything like that?

M: All of the marketing at American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) has some reference to hand. Hanthology, Touching Hands missions, and at one point, we even had a fundraising event called Handapalooza.

S: Sounds like a fun party! Before I talk to you about your current role, I want to ask you about your Certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell. Did you find that useful? That seems broader than the Certified Association Executive credential, which I know you have too.

M: Yeah, I found the process invigorating. It's good to step out of our box. We can learn a lot about how the corporate world does things and apply it to our world. I took a number of NYU executive leadership courses as well. In one of those courses in 2018 they were talking about artificial intelligence. I remember coming back and telling people AI is going to change the world. Everyone thought I was nuts, but here we are.

S: I would have thought you were nuts too if said you could just enter questions like that and get a fully written answer. So, with staff you oversee in your role how do you help them flourish? How do you manage so they are guided but not micromanaged?

M: Well, I think the most important thing is listening and trusting. By listening and trusting, you therefore establish reciprocal trust. I was blessed to land in an organization with an incredibly talented staff team. I did a listening tour and made sure to speak to everybody. Then I earnestly tried to make changes that stemmed from them and that made sense for me and my style of leadership.

S: What would be an example of that?

M: We changed from a three day in the office week to two. We’re also reconfiguring the office to create more collaboration space that’s actually used.

S: And what about rethinking broader initiatives?

M: This can be tougher. Sometimes there’s an emotional tie to a program. You've got to use data to be able to make a case. I tried to be cautious in the first few months. Even if something didn't seem quite right or the numbers weren't adding up, it was more like seeking to understand why it is so and what's the history here? And only then, after fully understanding the levers and what's going on, can you talk about how continuing to do this means taking away resources from pursuing certain other things, as well as suggestions on what could be changed to check more boxes in the strategic plan. It was only the one or two risky things that we changed immediately.

S: I listened recently to a book on how to make good decisions. One of the key points in it is to not make it a do it or not do it decision. There may be other ways to do it. So what you’re saying about modifying the approach to check more boxes on the strategic plan resonates with me.

M: Yes. There’s a storytelling aspect too. This program was a great foundation and now we're going to transform it into this incredible program that capitalizes on our strengths and what we are uniquely well positioned to do, even if it's smaller in some ways. It's a little bit of spin and framing.

S: The all-important spin. Now, let’s talk member benefits. I was looking at the website, and I saw a lot of member resources, education opportunities, etc. How do you think the members get the most value and that you feel like you're delivering the most value possible to all these 5400 members? How do you determine what they need and deliver it?

M: I think it's a journey that never ends. Beyond my listening tour, we do a regular survey. We’re actually in the middle of engaging an outside consultant, McKinley Advisors, on that for the first time to enhance it.

S: I know them. Good team. And I saw you have your 79th annual meeting coming up, and I'm sure the last organization you were at had annual meetings. How do you keep them fresh and have members feel like it was worth the time?

M: My last organization was huge. It had 30,000 people meetings with 12,000 posters being presented at any given time.

S: That’s crazy!

M: Yeah. You couldn’t change a whole bunch at once with those sorts of meetings, but you could incrementally. ASSH is smaller. We listen to the stakeholders and try new things. It’s fun to be able to do that.

S: And then what kind of board do you have? Is it all hand surgeons and how do you keep them engaged in providing strategic oversight without burdening them too much so they can focus on their day job.

M: They are all hand surgeons, and they all love, love, love the organization. There’s a lot of involvement in the committees and the board. I want to transform it a little bit so that the member engagement is more strategic. With the board, I want them to get less operationally focused and take a step back to look more strategically at the components and then delegate down to the committees.

S: I’ve been on boards where I’ve seen that operational drift.

M: Yeah. It’s a classic age-old problem.

S: Totally. And then with being in a medical association, do you learn certain lessons faster than you do in just a different kind of association just because of the nature of it?

M: It goes back to that member journey, but also understanding how they think. With my board being all hand surgeons, they all want to dive in and fix the problem quickly. I have to remind them this or that project could take a year or three years to implement and see a transformation. Sometimes, we need some time to actually diagnose the problem and mull over the data to put together a robust plan.

S: I could see that. Let's schedule the procedure. Come on, people.

M: Exactly.

S: It's interesting when you work for a profession, and then everyone on the board is from that profession. You have to navigate that the whole group likely thinks a similar way. And then what have you most enjoyed about working in associations?

M: It's not completely altruistic, but it's the mindset of doing something for an industry and a greater good. It’s also nice being judged more on how much value you deliver to a group of people rather than how much revenue and profit you made.

S: Totally agree. And then what are you most proud of in your work in the association world?

M: I think supporting new leaders, helping other people to take on more responsibility, grow, and move on and up. My mentor, and former boss, had five former employees become CEOs. I want to have that kind of legacy and have fun doing it.

S: Wow. With your former boss. you think it just was natural or do you think they had that in mind to grow these people and then they're going to go elsewhere and do cool things?

M: I think philosophically he's a developer of people. And he understands that by surrounding himself with smart people and giving them opportunities, we all rise together, and that's the way to manage.

S: Okay, cool. And have there been any mistakes you made in your career that seemed calamitous at the time, but actually proved to be a good learning moment?

M: For sure. I've had things go poorly and then we had to dig out of it. During the pandemic we told everyone the virtual meeting numbers were going to be huge, and we were really concerned the technology still wasn’t set up appropriately for the load, despite the vendor’s assurances. And despite doing everything we could to prepare, we experienced serious load issues and had to navigate people paying for a conference online and then not being able to access the live event and how to fix that. We also tried to launch a community discussion platform in an org that didn’t have a listserv culture. That never really worked. In the end, we had to make really small niche groups.

S: And what were the learnings from those variety of tough problems?

M: I would say before you jump into those things, check your data. Make sure you're serving a need and that you're addressing it based on data, not a whim. Also, don’t be so focused on the original trajectory and be ready to pivot. I also learned from my former boss to have a plan B, plan C, plan D, as you think through what might happen and go wrong.

S: Definitely better to use data than a whim. Last thing, if you were writing a tweet to young aspiring association leaders with your best advice for becoming an association leader, what would you say?

M: Step outside of your little sphere to get outside thinking and understand the interconnected parts. You’re one piece of a bigger picture. The decisions others make may be based on that larger universe. And be nimble.

S: Thank you for taking the time to provide outside thinking from your universe and life to myself and our readers.