At SWAAY Health Live, there was a lot of conversation around branding, trust, and what makes organizations resonate beyond products or services.
One session in particular, “What would Taylor Swift Do? Using Celebrity Comparisons to Define and Energize Your Brand”, lead by Brooke Limoseth and Gwen Cantarera of Nordic Global, made a lasting impression (and no, not just because I am, in fact, a Swiftie). But let’s take this for my own organization.
If CommonWell were a celebrity personality archetype, who would it be?
Oddly enough, I kept landing on some combination of Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves (this one is thanks to Paul Wilder, our Executive Director), and Dolly Parton.
Not because they’re flashy. Actually, almost the opposite.
They’re trusted.
Not trendy-for-a-moment trusted. Not loud trusted. Not “best marketing campaign” trusted.
Decades-of-consistency trusted.
The kind of trust built through showing up, staying grounded, and treating people well over time.
Tom Hanks represents reliability. A steady presence people feel confident in before he even says a word. There’s credibility there that was earned, not manufactured.
Keanu Reeves brings humility. Quiet integrity. The sense that character matters more than attention, and that influence doesn’t need to be performative to be impactful.
And Dolly Parton may be one of the best examples of values-driven leadership there is. Generous. Authentic. Community-focused. Universally respected because she has remained consistently herself while continuing to make a meaningful impact. I mean sheesh, my youngest son is still getting a book once a month from her Imagination Library. A program that brings kids access to reading materials around the world, just a sense of access.
Which, is sort of what we do here at CommonWell, right? Access when it matters.
That combination feels surprisingly aligned with who CommonWell is and who we continue striving to be.
In interoperability, it’s easy to get caught up in speed, scale, announcements, and industry noise. But lasting progress in healthcare is built differently. Our thirteen years in the space speaks for itself.
It’s built through trust.
Through partnerships.
Through consistency.
Through doing the work year after year, even when it isn’t flashy.
At CommonWell, we aim to be the kind of organization people rely on without hesitation:
A trusted connector, bringing together over 90 members.
A collaborative partner, sitting in on numerous committees, advisory boards and more to represent a voice for the Alliance within the industry.
A stable presence in a changing industry, often times consulting with members or prospective members to just clarify and help guide to effective solutions within interoperability whether it be with CommonWell or not.
And a community grounded in long-term impact over short-term attention. After thirteen years in interop, we’ve become a trusted source that focuses on what we do and doing it well, rather than coming up with ‘services’ that fall flat.
Because interoperability only works when people trust the infrastructure, trust the process, and trust each other.
And in many ways, that’s what all three of these personalities represent and what we hope we do too.