By Steve Moran

Trash-talking.

While out walking my dogs this morning, I was listening to Adam Grant’s podcast, WorkLife. His guest was someone who wrote a book about trash-talking (primarily in sports but not exclusively). It is something we often see in the sports world, and for the most part it seems to make these high-level athletes perform at even higher levels.

It seems counterintuitive to creating a good work life, but not so fast.

It turns out that trash talk can create a positive, heightened sense of competitiveness.

We Are Too Nice

One of the things that is unique to senior living is that we are, for the most part, almost sickeningly nice and cooperative with each other. Being nice is a high-value attribute. We work hard to not say bad things about other people, about other companies, even when they are direct competitors in the same marketplace.

I know many feel really good about this, but I find myself wondering if it is doing real damage to the industry, to individual companies, to team members, and most importantly to older people.

Bet you’re mad now …

Going Mean

I am going to go a little mean here because it is the single best way to make the point.

• On July 9, 2024, Brookdale reported their end-of-June 2024 at 78.2%.
• Only July 11, 2024, National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) reported the average occupancy rate in the 31 primary markets they surveyed as being 85.9%.

That is a whopping 7.7% difference.

Now Let’s Put Some Dollars to This

Brookdale at any given time has more than 11,000 units unoccupied. At a modest $3,500 average rent, that is more than $40 million per month, or close to half-a-billion dollars per year.

If they were to simply get to average, they would need to fill another 3,800 units, which would represent $13,300,000 per month, or close to a quarter-billion dollars per year.

Does leadership care? I am sure if you asked they would say yes, but in reality, there seems to be little change in how the company is operated, suggesting they don’t care that much.

Another Way to Think About It

Being comfortable with all of us getting along and all of us being more or less average is terrible for everything. Who wants to work for an average company? Who wants to move into an average senior living community? Who wants to move their loved one into an average community?

Let’s Kick Their Ass

In my dream world for Brookdale, which honestly would have me leading this effort, I would task the team to kick ass on the rest of the industry. I would focus on what it took to be the very best. I would start by rallying the entire team to be the best by having the highest occupancy. I would be looking for ideas to grow faster. I would be talking to industry professionals who are crushing it and who could help us get to the top.

Every time there was an occupancy victory, I would be telling that story.

I believe with the right leadership, my leadership, someone’s leadership, they could make up the 7.7% occupancy difference to get to average.

And then use the next year to get to 95%, 98%, or 99.5%. And then I would continue working on things like length of stay, Google reviews, resident satisfaction, team satisfaction, family satisfaction (does anyone actually measure that?).

And what would be amazing is that if Brookdale did that — I know they won’t, but if they did — other companies would start to pay attention, and they would push for the same kind of occupancy excellence.

This would lead to hundreds of thousands of older people living out their best lives in senior living. It would lead to happier team members.

It appears you will never have to compete with Brookdale, because they seem to not care. But it does not mean that you cannot decide to be better than everyone else, with:

• Full occupancy
• Through-the-roof resident satisfaction
• A consistently full staff
• Increased length of stay
• The highest consumer review scores
• People telling amazing stories about your community

I am NOT holding my breath while waiting for the call from Brookdale. … I don’t want to pass out.