Relationships, Relationships, Relationships
At the Certification Council in April, I talked about the seven “P’s” of planning (Prior, Proper, Planning, Prevents, Persistently, Poor, Performance) and how we are using this process to accomplish many of our relationship-building goals for 2012. The board of directors is working as a team to plan and drive efforts that produce results and ladder up to our larger strategic plan to finish 2012 with a list of accomplishments.
While this doesn’t happen overnight, our planning can ensure that our actions can have a long-lasting positive impact on the organization. One goal that we have been working towards is improving the organization’s relationship with our instructors and schools – something that is critical to our success as an organization. We understand that our instructors and schools are working day-in and day-out with our registrants so we want to ensure that these lines of communication remain open - they are our ambassadors and our eyes and ears in the market. By listening more, we can take everything into consideration and work with instructors to determine the best path forward.
Another part of our relationship-building efforts that we are actively expanding are those with our industry partners and other like-minded associations through Memorandums of Understanding (MOU). These relationships specifically help us have a pulse on what is going on throughout the cleaning, restoration and inspection industries. This shared knowledge helps the IICRC provide leadership and promote best practices through advocacy, standards and professional qualifications.
Through these relationship-building efforts, I have realized that there are five “C’s” that will help our organization drive success in 2012 and beyond:
- Communication: With continued communication between the IICRC leadership and our stakeholders – registrants, certified firms, instructors, schools and other partners – success is possible.
- Conduct: Celebrating and respecting each other’s differences allows us to act in a way that helps us make progress, not perfection, together. Since we want to remain a leader in the industry, we must conduct ourselves in a positive way as actions speak louder than words.
- Character: Acting with character takes qualities of honesty and the ability to face challenges head-on. We need to accept when things do not go according to plan and modify when needed.
- Change: Change is inevitable. It’s how we react to this change and modify our future actions that make us successful. If we fail to change, we fail.
- Cause and Effect: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When someone is willing to raise an issue or problem, they must also be able to share a solution or two.