By Carolyn Shomali, PAR 

At a time when much of the conversation in the association community centers on AI—both the excitement around its capabilities and the trepidation over its potential to unseat parts of the workforce—there’s a new book that explores a business approach focused on something equally critical: the intelligence of an organization’s people.

The Octopus Organization by Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner builds on an analogy first introduced by Phil Werner and Jonathan Brill and offers a fresh perspective on the structure of growth-oriented business cultures. It’s one that may particularly resonate with associations today. The book challenges the longstanding “machine” metaphor used to describe companies—designed to create efficient and predictable outcomes—and instead proposes a new one: the octopus.

Octopuses are highly intelligent sea creatures with three hearts, eight arms, a soft body that allows them to move through tight spaces, and a remarkable ability to adapt to their surroundings. They live and thrive in a complex world.

Machines, by contrast, are rigid and process-driven. They operate on predictable inputs and outputs designed for efficiency and risk reduction. They function in a complicated world.

But there’s a difference between complex and complicated, and an acknowledgement that the world in which organizations operate in today is complex, not merely complicated. Complicated environments can be managed much like a machine through process and precision. But a complex world requires us to sense, learn, and adapt in real time much like an octopus.

When organizations face a complex world with a machine-like mindset, they narrow their focus to their own limited perspective, expecting precise outcomes when so much more possibility exists.

The Octopus Organization model offers a design for moving more fluidly through uncertainty, something all associations face to varying degrees. And for associations that are already structured like many-armed creatures—think membership, education, partnerships, volunteers, and boards—it’s a model worth exploring.

A common challenge for associations is silos. But what if we saw it instead as an opportunity, with each arm empowered to sense and learn from the audience it serves and ultimately adapting for the benefit and well-being of the entire organization?

Becoming an Octopus Organization isn’t a linear process—it’s a mindset shift guided by three key principles.

1. Make Changes With People, Not To Them

As organizations adapt to changing environments, the people implementing those changes must be part of the design.

“If your people aren’t identifying what’s holding them back or suggesting solutions and experimenting to achieve them, then you’re not evolving into an Octopus Org,” the authors note.

This idea is especially relevant for associations. It’s also a point emphasized by upcoming PAR RevUP Summit keynote speaker Rhonda Payne in her work on change leadership:

“Too many association revenue leaders treat change initiatives like a project plan with a tactical rollout when it’s also very much a people process,” Payne says.

The people driving change are often closest to the core business challenges. When leaders understand that change triggers human emotions, they shift their focus away from operational steps (like a machine) and toward the people who will bring that change to life (and keep the octopus’s hearts beating).

2. Entwine learning and impact

Octopus Organizations don’t rely on multi-year initiatives to achieve transformation. Experimentation is part of their DNA and it happens continuously.

This approach doesn’t always come naturally to associations. We often overtest or overdevelop ideas before sharing them with members, or confine innovation to a single department rather than encouraging it across the organization.

But the American Geophysical Union (AGU), a finalist for the PAR Pierre Award, demonstrates what’s possible when innovation is woven into association culture. Through its Design Sprints—two-day, cross-departmental brainstorming sessions—AGU staff developed a plan to use Natural Language Processing and AI tools to connect scientists across its vast membership.

Technology made the program possible, but it was employees, empowered to think differently in a complex environment, who sparked it. As Heather Lent, Director of Digital Development, shares:

“We don’t have a lot of bureaucracy to get through. We have adopted this learn, adapt, execute framework.”

3. Do less to achieve more

This principle should resonate with associations that consider themselves short-staffed or resource-constrained. Rather than layering on more, Octopus Organizations simplify.

The American Society for Non-Destructive Testing (ASNT), another Pierre finalist, simplified both for its own benefit and for its members’. After recognizing that 11 membership models were hindering engagement, ASNT streamlined to four—including a freemium option.

The results? More than 2,500 new members and $100,000 in new non-dues revenue.

But the real impact wasn’t just in the numbers, it was cultural. With more than 100 new members joining each month, the organization’s energy shifted, fueled by the success of its innovative change initiative.

“By removing the barriers, they are showing up, and we are delighted,” says Pat White, Director of Membership and Engagement.

Sometimes, progress itself becomes the most powerful motivator to continue innovating.

It’s Not Easy, but Associations May Be Naturally Suited

If your association tends to shy away from process, the Octopus Organization model isn’t permission to eliminate it altogether. Data, insights, and structure are important, and this approach shows how transformative an organization can be when its people are trusted and empowered to move beyond a “this is how we’ve always done it” mindset.

Le-Brun and Werner note that adopting this mindset requires a deep commitment to culture above all else, a heightened awareness of organizational behavior, and the constant questioning of, does this create more value for our customers?

Leaders who assume their teams understand the vision, treat employees like cogs, or undervalue a member-centric focus across all levels will undermine the approach.

The Octopus Organization reminds us that something associations often see as a challenge—multiple arms focused on different elements of their mission—can actually be their greatest strength. When each arm is trusted and empowered to sense the environment around it and adapt for the good of the whole, the association becomes more intelligent, agile, and impactful.

Each arm of an association can sense, learn, and act on what its stakeholders need. Collectively, the organization can leverage the knowledge from each arm to advance the industry as a whole.

If any sector is ready to embrace that kind of intelligence and agility, it’s ours.