Meet Glen Lewis, CEO of RoseVilla, a single-site persevering with care retirement group situated in Portland, Oregon. The group, which was based in 1960, prides itself on “breaking the mould of conventional senior residing,” with Lewis main the cost.
From its Rosebud Preschool program — a Reggio-inspired intergenerational preschool — to its method to DEIA [diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility], training and sustainability, RoseVilla has solid an ongoing path towards optimistic change for its total existence — and it isn’t slowing down.
On this Changemakers interview, Lewis discusses his change philosophy, in addition to the place extra change is required in senior residing as a complete. He talks concerning the modifications RoseVilla has embraced throughout his tenure, in addition to his recommendation to operators taking over new modifications and challenges themselves.
In what methods do you assume the senior residing business is altering proper now?
I believe it’s altering in numerous methods, however I additionally imagine it’s altering a bit of too slowly. I typically discuss to our management group about this. I examine senior residing to the early arc of change in know-how — these preliminary shifts between one iPhone to the subsequent have been gradual. However over time, these modifications accelerated, and now every launch brings amplified performance.
That’s how I see senior residing. The expectations of incoming residents — these arriving in two, three or 5 years — are multiplying rapidly. Their wishes are altering quicker than we’re adapting. So sure, we’re seeing modifications: new enterprise fashions, evolving companies and product design enhancements. However I typically ask, are we altering quick sufficient? And truthfully, I don’t assume we’re.
In what methods do you assume senior residing operators want to alter to satisfy the wants of the incoming era of older adults?
I believe operators must ask themselves the powerful query extra typically: “Would I transfer in and dwell right here at this time?” I ask myself that on a regular basis after I stroll our campus. And whereas there are areas I’d completely dwell in, there are others that also want redevelopment.
Future residents could have totally different expectations than these presently residing with us. It’s about extra than simply the bodily atmosphere — it’s about engagement, autonomy and objective. They’ll need to dwell in communities that mirror their values and permit them to contribute meaningfully. That’s the shift operators must embrace.
A typical problem operators point out is educating potential residents and their households. How can the business enhance on this space?
One highly effective approach is to develop into extra open and built-in into the broader group. Too typically, operators deal with the campus as closed — only for residents and their households. However after we usher in preschools, host intergenerational packages and open our campuses to golf equipment and public seminars, we create significant interplay between generations.
Take our local weather resiliency summit, for instance. Our residents organized it, inviting folks from different communities and the general public. That sort of occasion challenges the outdated notion of senior residing. It reveals that necessary, forward-thinking conversations are occurring right here — conversations you would possibly anticipate on a school campus. Initiatives like our Rosebud preschool additionally interact households and reshape how folks take into consideration these communities.
How can senior residing organizations change the general public’s notion of what senior residing is?
We have now to be keen to take dangers — to interrupt the mould in what we construct, how we function and the kinds of packages we provide. Initiatives like our sustainability work and our preschool are examples of that.
However taking the chance isn’t sufficient. We additionally want to inform the story. It’s mission-driven for me. I need folks to be drawn to senior residing — not simply to dwell right here, however to work right here, associate with us and see us as a group asset. That’s why we share what we’re doing exterior our personal circles, even presenting at conferences unrelated to senior housing. It creates crossover curiosity and shifts perceptions.
Are you able to share some current efforts you’ve led to alter the business for the higher?
Positive. One is our 25-year resiliency motion plan, which we created with residents, architects and workers. To my data, it’s the primary of its type in senior residing. It focuses on making our campus extra resilient and self-sustaining within the occasion of a pure catastrophe — transferring past fundamental emergency plans into true resiliency.
We’re additionally beginning a 25-year sustainability motion plan to develop into essentially the most sustainable senior residing group within the U.S.
One other instance is our know-how incubator. We partnered with three startups which might be introducing senior-focused applied sciences. Residents and workers use these merchandise, give suggestions and assist enhance them over six to 9 months. It’s mutually useful and helps us keep on the forefront.
And at last, whereas many organizations are pulling again from DEIA efforts, we’re leaning in. We’re conducting a full evaluation in partnership with consultants to make sure we’re constructing a tradition the place everyone seems to be seen and revered.
Is the senior residing business transferring rapidly sufficient to alter within the methods it must?
As a complete, no. And I believe our clients are telling us that. You may not see it in occupancy numbers — many communities, together with ours, have ready lists. However that may lull us into complacency.
The following era of residents is used to autonomy and tech-enabled comfort — whether or not it’s ordering meals in an airport or checking right into a resort with an app. They’ll anticipate the identical ease and freedom in senior residing. Lots of them are nonetheless working once they transfer in, however most of our areas aren’t constructed for that. We’re solely simply beginning to speak about issues like flex workspaces.
Past know-how, they need values alignment. They need to go away a legacy. And I’m undecided we’re providing them sufficient methods to do this but.
Are you able to share an instance of a change initiative that didn’t go as deliberate? What did you study?
Completely. One instance is our try and restructure our waitlist at Rose Villa. We had a standard system: a flat $3,000 payment and a sequential listing. Nevertheless it didn’t account for product preferences or permit for deeper engagement.
We created a tiered system with the highest tier dedicated to transferring inside two years and giving a better deposit. The concept was to construct higher relationships and put together folks extra meaningfully. Nevertheless it sparked numerous pushback. Individuals have been emotionally connected to their place in line — it felt like a ceremony of passage.
In hindsight, we didn’t do sufficient resident engagement beforehand. We didn’t understand how private that waitlist spot was. We needed to pause, take a step again and rethink. In the end, we launched the brand new system a couple of months later with higher suggestions and a greater final result.
What’s the most important change you’ve made in your profession, and what did you study?
Transitioning from the resort business into senior residing. I spent 17 years in hospitality and had no plans to alter. I had assumptions about senior housing and wasn’t .
However I used to be recruited by Aegis Residing, and the tradition drew me in. I took the leap — moved my household from Portland to Seattle — and joined an assisted residing and reminiscence care group in a extremely regulated state. It was an enormous studying curve.
I felt all the things was on the road, and that strain pushed me to study and adapt rapidly. It was the most effective choices I’ve made.
When you might wave a magic wand and alter one factor concerning the senior residing business, what would it not be?
I’d change how regulatory businesses method their work. I want each regulator requested themselves, “Would I need to dwell on this group beneath these guidelines?”
Security is necessary — however so is high quality of life. Rules typically focus strictly on compliance, not on whether or not residents be at liberty and autonomous. We have to stability security with the human expertise.
What fictional character would you enlist to assist change the senior residing business for the higher this 12 months?
I’d enlist assist from the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. Senior residing is at a crossroads and operators are reassessing roles and easy methods to accommodate a brand new era of residents.
“Which approach can we go?” “What path is the most effective path ahead?” Very like his steerage to a misplaced Alice, the Cheshire Cat’s knowledge cuts by the confusion with a easy but profound reply: That relies upon. “The place can we need to get to?”
As senior residing operators, if we don’t have a transparent imaginative and prescient of the place we need to be, then the trail we take and the selections we make develop into increasingly irrelevant. We’ll ultimately get someplace, but it surely will not be the most effective place for our group, group members or residents.
Nobody needs to sail on an aimless ship. Individuals want objective and path. Fairly than asking, “Which path can we take?” ask, “The place can we need to be in a single, 5, 10, 20 or 30 years?” If we all know the place we’re going, we’ll know easy methods to get there.
Fake the senior residing business is a streaming service. What film or tv sequence greatest describes the business proper now?
What’s Subsequent: The Future with Invoice Gates, a NETFLIX Documentary. Professionals, tech gurus and different changemakers be part of Invoice Gates on this sequence to speak concerning the challenges our world faces and progressive options that promise a greater future. In our personal business — and residing in our communities — we’ve got a few of the brightest minds exploring, innovating and advocating to make senior residing higher and make the world a safer, extra equitable place.
