Starting your accreditation process – Tip #2: Get Organized
There’s a lot to do when getting organized to start a big project like this! The ones we’ve highlighted below are those we’ve found to be most frequently overlooked.
- After you figure out who will be on your accreditation team, and establish roles and responsibilities for your team members. Figuring this out in advance will help you avoid stepping on toes, or missing important tasks because you assumed someone else was handling something they didn’t know they were supposed to handle!
- If you are the only person on the team – get HELP!
- Make sure the person in charge of the team has a Type A personality — he or she must love to make lists, keep spreadsheets updated, and have an unnatural affinity for post-it notes and office supplies.
- Establish a project timeline and milestones so you can measure your progress. If you’ve never worked on a large, long-term project before, consider investing in a project management book (read it – don’t just buy it!) to familiarize yourself with basic concepts.
- Figure out how you’re going to handle the technology side of things – store all your documents in one place, make sure everyone has the access they need, decide how to name your documents and handle version control. This might be a good time to check out our AccreditStation™ product (hint, hint).
Look for more detail on these topics in the coming weeks – we love to rattle on about the importance of organizational skills and project management!