Series: Positive Culture

As we are continuing our ACCREDITATION VALUE – MEMBER PERSPECTIVE series, we want to dive into the second item, Positive Culture.

Being pleasant and positive is an important part of attracting, retaining, and consistently delighting members. Creating an environment where this culture of positivity can develop and flourish falls on accreditor management – consistently successful accreditors excel at that challenge.

However, in our fast-moving and ever more complex world, this positive culture must be supplemented by a commitment to member empathy. We collectively must excel at appreciating a point of view that is different from ours or simply not visible to us at the moment. We need to recognize that the issues we encounter in our daily interactions are not caused by people but rather by circumstances beyond their control, such as insufficient training, unrealistic deadlines, and lacking support. The organizational process may make it difficult for the accreditation director to obtain required data or provide access to that data when needed.

Conveying this empathy will go a long way to frame accreditation as a process of mutual improvement and shared organizational and personal growth and an opportunity to achieve a valuable outcome together in an environment built on trust.