ASA Next-Gen Strategic Action Team Looks into the Future During Annual LEAD Strategic Leadership Summit

For the past 18 years, ASA volunteer leaders have gathered at the association’s LEAD Strategic Leadership Summit to review the association’s Long Range Strategic Plan, its continued relevance and to look into the future to anticipate what new disruptors are emerging and what the association should be doing to support members’ success in the future. 

This year, 85 volunteers representing senior leadership, the four ASA strategic councils (Workforce Development, Advocacy, Operational Excellence and Embracing the Future) and special interest division representatives (Women in Industry, Emerging Leaders, Industrial Piping Division, Plumbing Division and Vendor Member Division) gathered in St. Petersburg, Florida to hear from a Next Generation Issue Strategic Action Team that has been meeting for the past five months

That next-gen ISAT team has been looking a decade into the future to identify those forces of change that will impact their firms’ ability to successful compete and to set the foundation of the association’s strategic discussions that took place recently in St. Petersburg.

The ISAT team focused its work on the following challenge: How can the PHCP / PVF distribution industry remain relevant, sustainable, and profitable over the next decade —amid accelerating technology, consolidation, and workforce disruption?  

During its work sessions over the past five months, a clear strategic thesis emerged: Winners will be those who harness inevitable change while keeping distribution deeply human.

Based on the next-gen ISAT presentation in St. Petersburgh, LEAD attendees focused much of their work on a foundational belief for the industry that a shift from a contrasting view of defining people as “our greatest asset” to one of “our employees are our greatest strength” is necessary. 

Viewing team members as assets is the more traditional mindset of seeing people as expendable, transactional, short-term contributors — something no longer viable in a labor-constrained, trust-dependent industry.

Instead, viewing employees as more of a STRENGTH  mindset elevates: • self-realization (helping people pursue their potential) • the ability to thrive (creating conditions where they flourish) • respect • empathy • nurturing • growth • a sense of togetherness — coming together for a common cause • and a human-centric purpose and impact.

This conversation helped the group articulate the philosophical shift required: people cannot be treated as or even called assets, but instead are strengths that can be developed—providing a more wholistic approach of humanity.

This shift to a more STRENGTH focus can be transformational for members in developing their teams, keeping their teams together, and especially in attracting the new teams required for growth and success. 

Based on the work from the strategic sessions and the work at LEAD in St. Petersburg, the association’s four strategic councils will determine how their focus can help advance this new strategic goal and create new tools to support members.