What is your take-away from senior living sessions, new buzzwords, or real and valuable concepts that will improve the lives of your seniors and staff?
One of the realities of the senior housing industry is that we are very “fad” driven in our use of buzz-words. We are routinely adopting and discarding the newest trend in our industry. I remember thinking this when the term “Paradigm Shift” was in vogue. By the time it was being freely bandied about by my colleagues, I felt silly using it myself. Like wearing parachute pants in the 90’s, it was passé. People would snicker. In subsequent years, the next term du jour entered our daily business vernacular…and then left. The cycle continued with Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Emotional Intelligence, Customer Service Excellence, Continuous Quality Improvement, Best Practices, Empowerment, Blah, Blah and Blah. Cynical me.
Cynical, but not a skeptic Now, while I freely admit to cynicism, don’t label me a skeptic. Big difference. I am a full blooded, 100%, Grade-A believer and proponent of the concepts to which each of these terms allude. However, I’ve worked for too many senior housing companies for too many years, where thesewords had the staying power of a bag of pop rocks. An initial burst of flavor, only to fizzle and disappear on the tongue. “Wait, I was gonna eat that! It sure seemed delicious. I’m still hungry.” *Sigh* Whatever the term-O-the day, you’ll hear it at trade shows, in discussions with industry leaders and managers. It will be the new and improved way to do business, and you’ll want to have it. Unfortunately, all too often the language is adopted by companies for the moment, but the concept isn’t given the time or resource to take root, much less to produce fruit. Our staff is hungry for these concepts that nurture and satisfy. Regardless of how we package them, unless the concepts and approaches are embraced by leadership, and given the time, resource and attention to fully develop, they will remain as satisfying as a bag of pop rocks served as dinner.
After a few years of paying attention to this cycle, I found it fun to try and predict the next term du-jour. I was in the front seat on “Employee Engagement” and “Culture.” The more I heard and read the terms being used by other industry professionals, the more I would here myself yelling (in my head), “All aboard!” See, these fashionable terms are not what’s important here, nor the acknowledgment or awareness of the concepts they represent; your company’s willingness to adopt and implement them is. What’s today’s Phrase that Pays? Say it aloud with me…It’s “Emotional Intelligence.” A familiar concept with new packaging. I began training on how to react to emotions in the work place a few years ago. The ability to recognize and control the reactions driven of grief, anger, joy, in both ourselves and in others is a valuable skill. When it’s taught and practiced by an entire team of community employees, it’s simply, powerful.
So now you’re armed with a bit more awareness. What do you do? How can you be sure you’re your company isn’t serving pop rocks for dinner? That answer lies with you.
What will tomorrow’s “hot phrase” be? I’m not certain. But I am sure that what are industry needs very soon is good old-fashioned “Disruptive Innovation.” Yeah, that’s the ticket! What are today’s hot phrase? What are you doing that is disruptive?
I totally agree about industry buzz words. I have always hated “paradigm shift”! However the general concept of emotional intelligence has been around for a long time. I refer anyone who is interested to writings by educator Howard Gardner, who wrote about “interpersonal intelligence” and “intrapersonal intelligence” (among others) in 1983 in an effort to help professional educators understand that children should not be judged on IQ scores alone. Even earlier, psychologist Edward Thorndike wrote of “social intelligence” in the 1920’s.
Laura, you make a good point. I agree that the concept of EI has been around for a long time – in fact, you can make a case that it was initially explained by Darwin, albeit in other terms (social intelligence, etc.). Gartner’s use of the term “business intelligence” furthered the understanding of this concept’s application in the business world – it had been coined back in the late 50’s. All of that aside, it hasn’t been as “mainstream” until the late 1990’s and I contend that only recently has it gained momentum as a viable approach in our industry. It’s fashionable in its use, notwithstanding it’s true value and importance in healthcare. The point of my piece is that many in our industry are using the term (like paradigm shift, et al) without embracing its use. I think the term is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Thanks for contributing to the discussion!