What Is the “Innovation Zone” for Associations — and How Do You Get There?
“Think outside the box” has long been the rallying cry of brainstorming sessions, but Sheri Jacobs challenged that assumption head-on during her event-closing keynote at ASAE’s 2026 MMC+Tech Conference. The founder of Avenue M Group, a specialty marketing, consulting, and research firm, Jacobs argued that the problem facing associations is a lack of clarity around where to focus and not a lack of freedom.
“In my research and in my own creative pursuits, I have discovered something counterintuitive,” she said. “The most innovative people, the most creative teams, the most innovative associations don’t eliminate constraints. They embrace them.”
Jacobs illustrated this idea with a story from a recent photography expedition to the Arctic. Armed with every possible piece of camera equipment, she believed she was fully prepared to capture a once-in-a-lifetime shot of a polar bear. Instead, when the moment arrived, she found herself unable to rise to the occasion.
“I froze not from the cold, but because I had too many options,” she recalled. “I was paralyzed by indecision.”
Too many choices left Jacobs unable to act effectively, and she missed the shot. Meanwhile, another photographer on the trip, limited by a recent injury, operated with far fewer options but captured the expedition’s standout image. That experience sent Jacobs down a research rabbit hole to explore why constraints seem to fuel creativity rather than hinder it.
What she found reinforces an important principle for association professionals: boundaries create the conditions for innovation.
Find the Edges and Find Your Creativity
Jacobs cited research showing that when boundaries are clearly defined, people are more likely to explore and take risks. Without those boundaries, they tend to stick to familiar patterns. The same dynamic, she explained, plays out in associations, where teams often repeat what they’ve always done, not because they lack ideas, but because they lack clarity.
To help organizations operationalize this concept, Jacobs introduced a simple framework: the why, the what, and the how.
Why: “We often jump into the work that we need to do without actually clarifying the why for our team, members, and prospects,” Jacobs said. “We stick with our mission and vision, but we don’t know the why.”
What: “We all have constraints on time, resources, money, and technology,” Jacobs said. “But we can put in our own boundaries and say, ‘What are we going to do? What are we not going to do?’”
How: This, Jacobs said, doesn’t need to be decided right away. The how only comes after you’ve solidified your why and your what. Too many organizations, she said, let worries about execution distract them from creating unique and helpful solutions.
Too often, Jacobs noted, organizations reverse that order, jumping straight to solutions like launching new apps or adopting emerging technologies without grounding those decisions in purpose or parameters.
She pointed to Bank of America’s “Keep the Change” program as an example. With a clear goal of helping customers save money, the organization set boundaries of using existing technology, avoiding changing customer behavior, and keeping the solution simple. Within those constraints, the team developed an idea that aligned with both customer needs and business goals.
For associations, Jacobs emphasized that this kind of clarity is essential. “Membership grows at the speed of clarity,” she said. And that clarity is what I often see organizations struggle to develop. Boundaries create focus; focus creates clarity; clarity creates action.”
The Innovation Zone
Beyond setting boundaries, Jacobs urged leaders to rethink who contributes to innovation. Decision-making is often concentrated among senior leaders a few levels removed from members’ day-to-day experiences. But some of the most effective ideas come from staff operating closest to members.
Jacobs shared an example of a frontline staff member who suggested a small change to a new member onboarding process. By testing the idea through a simple experiment, the organization uncovered a more effective way to engage members, resulting in an insight that might never have surfaced otherwise.
“I wouldn’t have come up with that idea,” she said. “We need to decentralize the decision-making process and make it easy to run small experiments.”
Jacobs’ example underscores a broader point: Good ideas already exist within organizations. The challenge is to create systems that make it easy to uncover these ideas through experimentation — but that requires the right culture.
“For this to work,” she said, “you need to create a culture where this can happen. Here are the four different cultures I typically find that people fall into.”
- The fear zone: No boundaries, no experimentation
- The wandering zone: Lots of ideas but no focus
- The comfort zone: Clear boundaries but no experimentation
- The innovation zone: Both clear boundaries and active experimentation
The last zone, she said, is where growth happens.
Achieving that balance requires intentional leadership. Jacobs suggested practical steps like conducting quick “boundary resets” in meetings and encouraging leaders to be the last to speak, creating space for ideas from across the organization.
She closed with another photography story, this time from the opposite end of the globe in Antarctica. Surrounded by photographers capturing the same dramatic scene, Jacobs realized she was simply following the crowd. By setting her own boundaries — avoiding common angles and distractions — she shifted her perspective and captured a unique image.
The takeaway for associations is straightforward. In an environment filled with endless possibilities, the temptation is to chase everything. But sustainable growth doesn’t come from “taking more shots;” it comes from doing the right things within clearly defined parameters.
When organizations clarify their why, establish meaningful boundaries, empower contributors at all levels, and commit to experimentation, they move into what Jacobs described as the “innovation zone.”
And in that space, associations aren’t just taking more shots — they’re capturing the ones that matter.
To learn more about taking smart risks to grow your association, listen to Sheri’s Association Adviser Podcast episode.
Photo courtesy of inspiring.team/Shutterstock.com.