We've got a fun challenge coming up in the next couple months. Another membership organization has selected our team to help them rename.

The challenge? They've got a four letter 'acronym' with letters that no longer represent what they actually do. At one point the letters were an initialism (like "GE" stands for General Electric) but the way in which the group described themselves has changed (as if GE changed its description to Mostly Lightbulbs And Electronics but neglected to move away from "GE".)

The biggest hurdle in most naming cases like this is to make the membership a part of the process. How do you make 5,000 members feel like a part of the process and still end up with a singular name that meets the needs of a diverse organization? If you neglect to bring the membership along for the ride you can end up with a revolt or a failed vote. If you do bring the membership along you can end up with factionalism as various constituencies lobby for their own approach and views.

Our approach is to involve the membership from the very beginning. It was the membership that asked for the new name here - and we're going to listen to everyone that wants to participate and guide us in the crafting of the new name. Rather than ask the membership to suggest the names, we ask for their input as to what they want the name to do for the organization. Sure, we'll take name suggestions too, but we want to be sure that any name we consider will meet the needs of the membership as a whole. By keeping the goals of the name distinct from the name candidates we enable the membership to make an informed choice when making a vote. The impulse to pick a horse and root for it to win gets pushed down by the more objective decision to determine which horse best fits the job at hand.

You don't want to choose a racehorse when the job at hand involves plowing the field.

Thankfully, in our experience we find that memberships are very good at making decisions like this when presented with the facts and context they need to make an informed decision. It's only when you don't give them the tools to evaluate the names and the opportunity to affect the outcomes that you end up with major problems.

Our friends over at ZilYen brought us into this project and we're looking forward to working closely with them to develop the final pieces of the brand they've already begun to solidify. And a big howdy to the project leaders at the organization (Jill and Lander) as well. We'll see you in a few weeks!

Tate Linden (and team) Stokefire Consulting Group 703-778-9925