Clarifying the Future of a Global Professional Community
The Global Advisory Board of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) knew something subtle but important: the organization’s vision and mission no longer reflected where the field — or the association itself — was headed.
A leadership transition had just taken place. The incoming CEO was stepping into a moment that required more than operational continuity. She needed to build trust with the board and establish clearer foundational frameworks for strategy moving forward.
The language of a new vision and mission statement mattered. But what mattered more was alignment and confidence in the future direction of ASAP.
This wasn’t a branding refresh. It was a governance inflection point.
Designing for Alignment
We began with the vision.
After a prep session to clarify guardrails and aspirations, I convened a 90-minute virtual working session with interested Global Advisory Board members and the CEO. Rather than debating draft sentences, the group engaged in structured exercises designed to surface the future state that ASAP is working towards — its desired long-term impact on the field of strategic alliances or its “why?”.
Following the session, I translated the results of the exercises into multiple refined vision statement options. Board members were invited to rank-vote and provide feedback through a survey, ensuring broader participation beyond the live discussion. The final version was word-smithed in partnership with the CEO — precise, forward-looking, and anchored in shared input.
We then turned to the mission, focusing on what ASAP does to achieve its vision.
This phase incorporated new data from recent market research, adding an external lens to internal aspirations. Again, preparation with the CEO ensured strategic clarity before convening the board. Another 90-minute working session invited dialogue around what ASAP uniquely provides in an evolving alliance ecosystem. Who do they truly aim to serve? What capabilities define its role? What’s their secret sauce?
As before, discussion was synthesized into structured options for ranking and feedback, followed by careful refinement with the CEO.
But the most dynamic work emerged during the in-person session focused on core values, the principles for how ASAP fulfills its mission. Board members reflected in table groups on questions like:
What might be implicit in our vision and mission that you want to make explicit in the form of values?
What do we stand for, even when it’s difficult?
How do we want to be perceived by our stakeholders?
Their responses were clustered and synthesized in real time, generating possible value themes. Small table groups selected their top four to six priorities. When we compared across tables, patterns emerged quickly — strong overlap in what members believed mattered most, alongside healthy differences that prompted deeper conversation.
The room shifted from opinion-sharing to consensus-building.
The Real Inflection Point
The most important moment didn’t come from a perfectly phrased sentence. It came during the mission dialogue.
As language was debated, larger strategic questions surfaced and the exercise moved beyond wording into strategy. The CEO and board were no longer reacting to language; they were shaping direction together.
Trust deepened not because everyone agreed instantly, but because the conversation was transparent, structured, and anchored in shared ownership.
The Outcomes
By the end of the engagement, ASAP had:
A renewed Vision Statement reflecting its future-facing ambition
A clarified Mission Statement grounded in both market realities and member value
A collaboratively developed Set of Core Values
Strengthened trust between the CEO and Global Advisory Board
A clear foundation from which the CEO could present strategic pillars for the coming year
The words became scaffolding and the real result was strategic coherence that instilled confidence about ASAP’s direction under new leadership.
Why It Matters
Strategic Alliance Professionals are the bridge-builders inside and between organizations. They are the connective tissue that enables companies to innovate together rather than compete in isolation. When alliances work well, breakthroughs happen — new technologies scale, markets expand, and industries evolve.
ASAP is the professional home where these leaders develop the skills, insight, and relational capital required to make complex collaborations succeed. When the association itself is clear about its purpose, direction, and values, the ripple effects extend outward. Stronger alignment at the center strengthens partnerships across the ecosystem.
In moments of leadership transition, clarity is not cosmetic; it is catalytic.
And in this case, the work of redefining vision, mission, and values became the foundation for ASAP’s next chapter.
