By Jack Cumming
Not long ago, an article of mine spoke of my first encounter with the authority structure common in senior living. The long and the short of it is that residents don’t have much authority no matter how helpful they might be. Since then, I’ve given this surprising phenomenon much thought. I never expected that residents would be so little regarded. This came to mind recently when reading glowing reports on social media of employee training.
Inclusivity
The buzz is about training that goes beyond what’s mandatory for compliance. Most training beyond the minimum emphasizes social interaction. Some of it is characterized as leadership training, e.g., be nice to people, and they’ll work hard and be loyal. Much of it is pure social interaction, e.g., treat people as you would like to be treated.
Residents may be the purpose, but you won’t find them in training programs. Theoretically, the training may be for residents, but almost without exception, residents are excluded. Most residents don’t mind. They don’t expect or wish to have a role.
But some residents could elevate the experience by giving life to the resident experience. Particularly desirable would be training and programs to help enterprises meet the expectations that led residents to move in in the first place.
Hierarchy: Authority vs Substance
Most senior living organizations are hierarchical. Authority increases toward the top. Reversing the training would open the C-suite to learning from the employees and residents, rather than the C-suite training those down the line on how to improve themselves. It’s surprising how often C-suite people think they are listening when what they are really doing is presenting their views of themselves.
It’s not just in the fairy tale that people want to tell the emperor to put on some clothes, so what is lacking is less obvious.
Employee Risk
A recent occurrence can make this clear. Our to-go meals are fixed by day of the week. My wife likes the Saturday morning spinach omelet, so every week she orders it for the next morning. Recently, though, things were hectic on Friday, and she forgot to order the meal. Saturday came, and she realized, so I went up to the dining area to plead for a late order.
I was prepared for a long wait when, abracadabra, an employee brought me the to-go meal all ready to go. I was stunned and asked how it could have been prepared so quickly. The employee responded, “I remembered that your wife always orders on Saturday, so I made up an extra, just in case.”
Now that’s consideration that goes above and beyond all expectations. I was going to put in a kudos so her bosses could praise this thoughtful person as I did. But then I stopped. If I praised her for taking this initiative, the employee might be in trouble for potentially wasting food. We have a dining manager, who is subject to new oversight after the C-suite brought in an outside firm to “improve” our dining.
Flipping the Question
Sometimes, the right thing is the wrong thing in the eyes of those in authority. That’s a lesson that might be trained up the hierarchy in place of training down.
A wonderful, tearjerker of a story makes this point, especially if you’re a Beatles fan. With social media, many times a past event is developed into a made-up story. One such story was inspired by a picture of the Beatles visiting a gravely ill child in 1964. The story is of authority upended, which you can experience by clicking here. It’s well-written and may make you cry … good tears. The Beatles’ visit was against the hospital’s rules.
Unfortunately, this kind of self-affirming authority lives on today and affects the living experience for residents and the work experience for employees. The sad truth is that there are some self-aggrandizing employees who are more skilled at climbing the hierarchical ladder than they are at delivering on the mission.
You Can’t Go Back
Sometimes, I wonder how different these past 19+ years might have been if my encounter years ago with the provider authority structure had been different. Many of the things that I then hoped for have become commonplace in the industry. Others will likely never come to pass. Few organizations, few industries, rise to their highest calling.
Nevertheless, the more one thinks about it, the more obvious it becomes that a circle of peers is better suited to serving those experiencing old age. With the hierarchical structure, executive pretense too often controls instead of what’s best. Often, it’s obvious to everyone but those at the top that the emperor’s new clothes may not be what the emperor thinks they are.
