In the SHS Strategic Plan, we have three strategic priorities: Engagement, Development, and Branding. This month I'd like to talk about Branding. 

 

Branding is the message that our Society wants to communicate about our organization and our members.  Branding is not something that is expressed in words. In fact, the world's best brands are successful through the feelings the brand triggers (okay, I know 'feelings' is a word that makes many engineers uncomfortable).  Brand can be a promise. Brand can stand for values and priorities. 

 

At SHS, we want people to think of us as an organization that is a home for people that are passionate about improving the delivery of healthcare through the application of scientific and engineering methods like continuous improvement and systems thinking. We want our members to feel that SHS is their professional home for networking and development.  We want others to see SHS as that organization that can fill that gap in their professional experience.

 

Each of us has the opportunity to help build the SHS brand by telling others, formally and informally about what we do, as a Society, and as individuals. And how membership in SHS can help others achieve their professional goals. 

 

As an example, several of our SHS members are putting on a  1- day workshop titled Strategic Process Improvement:  Applying Lean & Six-Sigma Tools and Techniques to Achieve Organizational Excellence on Monday, February 11 in Orlando as part of the 2019 HIMSS Conference.  You can tell from the title that the content is all about topics relevant to the work that members of SHS do in their jobs.  It is likely that many of the attendees haven't heard about SHS or the benefits that SHS offers to people interested in such a topic.  These are great opportunities to tell others about the benefits of SHS and to promote the SHS Brand.

 

I encourage each of you to seek out opportunities to tell others about SHS - 1-to-1, in small groups, in workshops, and everywhere else you can.