Resistance Is Where Resilience Begins
Anniversaries encourage us to look for milestones: the first client, the first international partnership, the first moment an idea became a sustainable organization. Five years since launching Global Navigators, I find myself thinking less about the moments when the path was clear and more about the moments of resistance. Those moments were rarely comfortable, yet they often taught me the most: where to listen, where to adapt, and where to keep going.
For organizations working internationally, resistance is not a detour from the work. It is part of the work.
This is especially true for associations. Global growth often begins with a compelling idea: expand the mission, reach new members, build new partnerships, serve a profession more broadly, or create new sources of value and revenue. But between the idea and the outcome, there is almost always resistance.
Sometimes that resistance appears early. A board may question whether international expansion is the right priority. Leaders may debate which markets matter most, whether the organization has enough capacity, or how global work fits into the larger strategy.
Other times, resistance appears later, when the strategy is being put into practice. A promising market may respond slowly. A partnership may take longer than expected. A program that works well in one country may not translate cleanly into another. Local stakeholders may be interested, but cautious. Staff and volunteers may discover that the operational realities are more complex than the original plan suggested.
These moments can feel like setbacks. But they are also helpful waypoints.
The challenge is knowing whether to persevere, adapt, or stop. That decision should not be driven only by enthusiasm, and it should not be driven only by frustration. It should be grounded in evidence.
Do we truly understand the need? Do we understand the opportunity from the perspective of the people we hope to serve? Have we listened to local members, partners, volunteers, customers, and stakeholders? Are we offering something that solves a real problem, or are we assuming that what works at home will work the same way somewhere else?
Research matters because it helps an organization interpret resistance. Sometimes resistance means the timing is wrong. Sometimes the need is real, but the model needs to change. Sometimes the opportunity is smaller than expected. And sometimes resistance is simply the natural friction that comes with building trust in a new place.
That trust is often the most underestimated part of international work.
People are not simply waiting for a new organization to arrive. They may have little awareness of your association. They may already have local organizations, networks, or providers that serve similar needs. Those groups may have fewer barriers because they understand the market, the language, the relationships, and the history.
That does not mean there is no room for an international association. It means the association has to earn its relevance.
Flying in once a year is rarely enough. A conference, delegation, or annual visit can create visibility, but visibility is not the same as trust. Trust is built through consistency and it grows through follow-up, responsiveness, shared work, and the presence of people who understand the local context throughout the year.
That presence can take different forms. It may be regional staff, local volunteers, trusted advisors, consultants, chapters, affiliates, or strategic partners. What matters is that the organization has people close enough to the market to hear what is being said, understand what is not being said, and build relationships between major events.
Local partners and volunteers play a huge role in resilience because they help an organization read the room. They can explain why something is not progressing. They can identify where credibility already exists and they can help distinguish between a weak idea and a strong idea.
They also help associations balance a consistent global mission with meaningful local autonomy.
A mission should travel. The purpose, values, standards, and core promise of an association should remain recognizable across markets. But the way that mission is delivered may need to change. Local autonomy does not mean losing consistency. It means allowing the mission to take shape in ways that are relevant to the people and places the organization wants to serve.
In one region, education may be the right starting point. In another, convening leaders may matter more. In another, partnership may be more effective than launching something independently. The strongest global organizations are not rigid. They are clear about who they are, but flexible about how they show up.
This is why international work can make an association more resilient at home as well.
Association business is not easy. Member expectations are changing. Revenue models are under pressure. Competition is growing. Volunteers have less time. In that environment, global work is not only about expansion. It can also be a way to strengthen the organization.
International engagement can extend the mission, diversify perspective, create new relationships, and in some cases open new revenue opportunities. It can also challenge assumptions. It forces an organization to ask whether its value is truly clear, whether its programs are adaptable, and whether its mission is strong enough to connect across different contexts.
But global work has to be treated as a long-term commitment, not a one-time initiative.
The organizations that succeed internationally are not the ones that avoid resistance. They are the ones that learn from it. They do not pull away simply because the first, second, or third attempt did not work. They study what happened. They listen more carefully. They strengthen local relationships. They adjust the approach without abandoning the mission.
That may be one of the most important lessons of the first five years: resilience is not just the ability to keep going. It is the ability to keep learning.
As we look ahead, I am more convinced that resistance should not always be seen as a closed door. Sometimes it is a signal that the work needs more time. Sometimes it is a reminder that trust cannot be rushed. Sometimes it shows that the mission is right, but the method needs to evolve.
Five years in, I am grateful not only for the milestones, but for the resistance that shaped them. The clear path moved us forward. The difficult moments made us better.
For any organization entering its next chapter of global work, the advice is simple: keep at it. Listen closely. Build locally. Adapt thoughtfully. Stay mission-driven.
The resistance may be where the resilience begins.
Leadership Voices
By Peter O’Neal, FASAE, CAE, M. ASCE
CEO, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
“Going global taught us that you can’t boil the ocean, and you certainly can’t expand everywhere at once. It has to be intentional, focused, and grounded in data. We encountered the most resistance from volunteers who were worried that ‘U.S. resources’ would be diverted to others. There was also resistance around cost, time, and the longer horizon required to see a return on investment.
What helped us move forward was being clear from the beginning about what success looked like. Data should drive the decision to persevere, adapt, or stop, but that only works if you establish meaningful KPIs, track them consistently, and update them as conditions change. We also underestimated just how much time it would take to build trust across countries and regions. Group-to-group relationships mattered, but the real progress came through one-on-one, person-to-person relationships.
Balancing a consistent global mission with meaningful local autonomy is difficult. You need a broad structure that gives regions and localities real choices, while still protecting and advancing the global brand. Local partners, volunteers, and regional staff are critical to that resilience; their combined support is not optional, it is essential. International work can make an association more resilient at home by broadening the membership perspective and ensuring that more diverse professional voices are heard, but it also brings real financial challenges.
My advice to any organization entering its next five years of global work is to be disciplined. You cannot go global all at one time. Use data to decide which regions to focus on, define the KPIs you will hold yourself accountable to, invest deeply in local relationships, and build a model that protects the mission while giving local voices the ownership they need to succeed.”