Transparency, Trust, and Trying Again

In this episode of Membership IQ, host Sarah Sladek is joined by Susan Swart, a longtime leader in the nursing association world and founder of a niche association management company in Illinois. Together, they explore the unique challenges and opportunities facing nursing organizations today—from engaging younger generations to fostering transparent, community-driven leadership.

Susan shares powerful insights on navigating rapid change, encouraging inclusivity across generational divides, and learning through failure. She emphasizes the value of transparency, experimentation, and empowering frontline professionals to shape the future. The conversation highlights a shift away from perfectionism toward purpose-driven collaboration—where listening, peer support, and human-centered leadership drive innovation in membership organizations.

Transcript

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome back to another episode of the Membership IQ. This is where you go to get smart about membership. And today I am talking with Susan Swart. And Susan, you and I met, oh my goodness, I don't even want to say how many years ago. I was still a young, quote unquote, young professional, a long time ago. And it's been really fun and fascinating to watch your career. You've always had this passion for nursing and nursing organizations. So why don't you just introduce yourself to our audience? Well, I'm glad to be here. I, as you say, I have been doing this a long time as well. About 18 years now. So I do. My niche is nursing. It is who I am as an individual. And I have always wanted to see, no matter the size of the nursing organization, that they excel. Because when nursing organizations excel, that means nursing and patients excel. So that's been my goal. So I've been doing that as executive director for a couple of different organizations and then decided to start my own company. And so now I am what I refer to as a niche association management company that just focuses on assisting nursing organizations here in Illinois. Yeah, so amazing. And a whole heck of a lot of change is happening right now. And tell me a little bit about some of the questions or the concerns that nurses and nursing organizations are currently facing. Well, I think they're really facing pretty much the exact same thing that all membership organizations are facing. There's the challenge to figure out what the different generations are looking for in membership organizations and participating. And because we have so many different generations, it means one size doesn't fit all. So you're trying to figure out pieces for every organization. So that's a challenge. But for nurses, our center is always around health care. So we pay a lot of attention to what's going on in health care, both at the national level and at the state level, because that impacts us. So if decisions are made at the national level, it ends up trickling down and impacting our patients. And that is really the reason membership organizations exist for nurses is to help us figure out how we can, one, move our careers. But our careers are deeply tied to patients having good access to health care. Right, right. So, you know, if to continue on and be able to advocate for great health care and engage younger generations and do all these things and navigate change, you know, I mean, it could be argued that we're always in an era of change. We're always having to evolve and adapt. But it can also be argued that right now we're having to change a lot faster than usual. And it's kind of on the daily. So I'm just curious, you know, how are organizations navigating and leading in this time of change and or how do you advise them to navigate and lead in that time of change? Transparency, we do a lot. I find that we're having a lot more conversations. You used to hold back and wait until you kind of had the message perfected before you went out and shared it. There isn't time for that anymore. So you really have to be quick about identifying things. And then instead of thinking that you always have to have all the answers, I find that transparency is bringing people together to let them play a role in discovering the answers. And that is helping us a little bit with engagement. I wouldn't say we have the science of engagement down, we're still trying to figure that out. But it does help when people have skin in the game, when you're seeking their input, that that has helped. So transparency first, admitting we don't have all the answers and that we're seeking input from our members to try and find that out and non-members. We bring we do a lot of coalition building in nursing, and sometimes that means the person at the table who's giving us the best advice isn't a member today. And we'll work on that in the future, but still make sure they're at the table. Yeah, so I want to push back and challenge for just a moment because transparency is also really, really difficult, I think, in times of great change, because all of a sudden organizations become afraid. I've seen it a lot in health care. They become afraid of making the wrong choice. They become very corporate. So, you know, any tips on how to, you know, not withdraw from conversations and kind of hide in corners or think, you know, hopefully this will pass over. We're not going to talk about things like, you know, we're going to be so careful and so cautious. How do we stay transparent in an era like that? Well, the groups that I'm talking to are really the nurses boots on the ground a lot, the ones actually providing the care. And we spend a lot of time talking about not having to be perfect, right? Not always having to have all of the answers, but you have to still have the conversations. And I would say that's probably not is embraced as much in the larger realm of health care. When you're talking about big systems, they tend to approach things differently. But my role is to empower nurses to help drive those changes. So if I can encourage them to continue asking the right questions, giving them just enough information so they can go back into those systems and continue to ask the questions. I have been known to say, don't stop you. The question you ask today may, you know, it may not be right today, but if you ask it tomorrow and you find different words to ask it, it'll be a little more acceptable. And eventually you'll find the right words at the right time with the right individual and it'll click. And so we just keep encouraging people to not stop asking and seeking solutions, because burying your head in the sand is not a solution. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. No, it really isn't. And silence is an answer. It's consensus. That's one of my when I'm talking to students, I'm always saying, you know, you can think you can sit there on the sidelines. And I don't have an I'm not going to discuss this, but being silent is consensus. Yeah. Inaction is an action. Right, right. Yes, it's definitely it's it's challenging. Not everybody is comfortable with that. So it's about encouraging them to become comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Yeah. I always remind them how, you know, we interact with individuals that they're most vulnerable. So we also have to be vulnerable as a profession and be willing to put ourselves out there because our patients depend on that. Absolutely. When we talk about things like transparency and we know that's so incredibly important, especially the younger generations. And you mentioned earlier that, you know, that's one of the challenges for nursing organizations is bringing in the next generation. And we know that historically nursing has had this saying of, you know, nurses eat their young. So I'm curious to know, where are we now in this generational trajectory? What are some of the trends you're seeing within nursing organizations when it comes to new generations coming into the fold? Any new trends happening right now? I think we're getting more comfortable, those of us who kind of are in the middle of the generations, right? I'm an Xer, so I'm kind of in that middle and I'm getting more comfortable and encouraging others to get more comfortable to push back. To encourage individuals who think you need to just stand off to the sidelines for a while before you let them get involved, is pushing back. Creating peer networks. So certain events, certain conversations are led by their peers versus it being someone like me coming into the room and providing all the information as the quote unquote expert. Is giving someone that is in that same age bracket the information, allowing them to lead the meeting. So we're doing a lot more of that. And a lot, again, a lot more of just being comfortable pushing back. We've got to develop allies that recognize that everybody brings value to the table. And so I'm seeing a lot more of that in nursing. It wasn't that way when I first started. And it was something that irritated me. And I was bound and determined to not repeat and cause that same angst with other people. Because I wasn't a newbie when I went into nursing. I was an older individual. But I was still always the youngest in the room and kind of put off to the side until I proved myself. And I just I just hated that feeling. And so I went about my career of creating instances and opportunities to show people that that wasn't the right way to do things. And that is so important to have more more leaders focusing on that community building and bridging those gaps. And I think it's taken some time. It's taken education, information to understand that things aren't how they used to be. But also the way things used to be weren't necessarily healthy, you know, and they weren't necessarily creating healthy, happy work environments. So so when you think about that concept of community building, bridging gaps, creating cultures of belonging, what do you see on the horizon here? Whether it's in nursing organizations or just as a whole, what what are some tips you'd pass along to help organizations prioritize community building? Creating as many opportunities as possible. We are. But at the same time. Trying to take a few minutes. That you can't be slow, but you can't fast track, because at the end of the day, whatever you're doing, you've got to be able to track the data to know what is what works. So trying to be fast enough and responsive enough, but we are putting every possibility, you know, individuals say we want to try this. OK, what does that look like? How do we do that as quickly as possible? And then not being afraid to fail. I mean, that's the other piece is sometimes we think if you put something out there, it's got to be perfect. And so we've tried a couple of things that, you know, brought in a few people, but the larger group in that generation or in that area didn't embrace it. So saying, OK, we tried it. We're going to figure out we've got a few new people, bring them to the table and say, OK, how do we change this? That didn't work. We're doing everything from online because some people, you know, certain certain individuals don't have the time or the space. I happen to live in Illinois. It's a pretty big, expansive state and nurses are everywhere. And it can take you, you know, six hours to get from one section to the other. So online is is good. And small community groups within colleges or within institutions, we're just trying everything. So my suggestion with community building, find out, got to figure out how you can ask people what they want without bombarding them with a thousand surveys because nobody wants that. So figuring out that balance, we don't have it perfect, but we keep trying and giving the opportunities, finding out what they want and then building those opportunities, testing them and being willing to put them on the shelf if it's not working. Now, I always tell people what may not what's not working today might work two years from now. So don't lose it. Don't lose all the comments. Don't lose all the research. Don't lose all the data you have from it because we can pull it off the shelf later. But being not being afraid to move on to the next, if it doesn't work. Yeah, I love that. And you and I both have worked with American Nurses Association, and it's been really fun to see this evolution of all of these task forces and groups that are collaborating and co-creating. And yes, just trying things and coming up with new solutions. And I find that there's just so much more dialogue and innovation happening. And to your point, it doesn't have to be perfect, but the fact that you're working on it together is really, really powerful. And sharing with people. I think the other thing is admitting when there's failures and not being afraid of it, not telling people you're going to do something and then be in the midst of it and realize it's not working. And then all of a sudden, nobody hears anything. Instead of just saying, you know what, we worked through the process and after we explored it, now isn't the time. I think sometimes we forget, again, permission to not be perfect, to be human. We sometimes have great expectations. And A&A Proper, that's because I'm part of A&A, always have been, A&A Proper used to think everything had to be perfect. And we're really moving away from that. And I love the energy that that brings, all of those task forces. It is authentic. It's grassroots. It's transparent. And yeah, it's innovative. It's exciting. People feel like they're part of the solution. And that's also really powerful. Absolutely. OK, so before we conclude, I am curious to know if you have a strategy or a success story to pass along to our audience of association leaders who might be grappling with some of these issues that we've talked about, whether it's change or generations or failure, all these things. I think I hinted at it a few minutes ago, and that's in trying to figure it out. You can't forget that you need to have just enough data, just enough information. Otherwise, if you're throwing spaghetti at the wall and things stick, you have no idea what it was that caused the success. And I will tell you, we've been in that position in my in several of my organizations that we've tried a bunch of things and we're getting momentum, but we can't put our finger on exactly which piece worked. So we are trying to be more deliberate with that because you can't keep doing everything. That's the reality, right? Some things have to retire, but when you can't figure out exactly what it was that causes success, that that's angst filling and you've got to figure out where your resources are. So it is my lesson and I'm trying to be more deliberate and trying to put things in place, not slowing down the process, but being more. We're trying to put people in place, but their sole job is to just kind of sit there and be that fact gathering. So you're going to sit and listen to the meetings and you're going to gather some information and then we're going to judge and we're trying to be more deliberate about that. Oh, that's interesting. So you're not just relying on things like surveys and polls and that kind of data gathering, but actually just kind of listening as well. Yes, yeah, it's on the ground and well, and it empowers them, right? They have a specific role. And again, we rely on peers. We put peers with peers and not always think that we have to have all the generations working together. That works great at times, but in empowering a peer to kind of realize that they have a special role. So I think that's a great idea and again, you're trying something new and you're seeing if it works and you're involving your community and that's really what associations are all about, right? It's not supposed to be corporate. It's supposed to be very community oriented. So fantastic. Thank you, Susan. Any closing remarks? No, I just hope that somebody finds a little piece of my information helpful because the stronger associations are, the stronger our communities are and the stronger we are as human beings. So that's what I've always believed. That's beautiful. And in your case, the stronger the communities are, the better the health care is, the quality of life for nurses. So congrats on all your success. Thank you for being on the show today. And for our audience, thanks for tuning in to the Membership IQ. More episodes are coming your way next week. Stay tuned.