In my 30-plus years of experience in healthcare and senior living, I’ve seen just how challenging it can be to generate growth. From health systems to aging services and strategic planning, I’ve worked in a variety of roles and understand the importance of strong leadership and planning from both the staff and governance perspective. These days I work with boards and CEOs to better align their strategic direction and answer questions such as: How can we grow? What’s the impact we’re trying to make? and What are our next steps? I’ve come up with four strategies that can help a CEO and board fulfill the growth imperative for their Life Plan Community.
1. Determine what growth truly means to your team
Many CEOs know they need to grow and, in fact, it’s on most organizations’ strategic plans. However, just having a mandate to grow doesn’t mean that growth has been defined. I often work with organizations on what I call “strategic planning 2.0,” where we dig deeper to develop alignment on issues in the strategic plan such as managing growth, engaging in partnerships, working with different models of service and serving different incomes.
Growth can mean a number of different things, such as adding services, exploring new partnerships, transitioning to new products, serving more people and so much more. The two biggest challenges that I see frequently are:
- Misconceptions about what growth is, what forms it takes and how the organization can prepare itself for growth.
- Even if growth is part of the plan, there’s often a lack of progress resulting from conflicting ideas about how to achieve growth and what the focus of growth should be.This results in frustration and stagnation on the part of the CEO and the board when opportunities for growth can’t be agreed on, conversations about growth are one-sided or personal interests are advanced by a vocal minority. For growth to truly occur in Life Plan Communities, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page about what they really want or need, thereby avoiding delays and creating change more efficiently.
2. Learn from others with similar goals or senior living growth strategies
Many senior living organizations feel stuck when it comes to growth. Some aren’t sure how to move forward, while others struggle with unrealistic goals or worry about the financial pathway to growth.
A big part of getting unstuck is learning from others and gaining insight into what’s working for other Life Plan Communities. For many organizations—especially those recovering from financial challenges—a good first step is to set small achievable goals and understand what’s realistic. This may mean defining growth as serving more people with existing services—the same type of consumer with more of the Life Plan Community product—or expanding services outside the four walls. Whichever trajectory your board and leadership align around, growth takes time, so focus on practical steps that align with your mission. With the right information and an open mindset, you will begin to see the results you want.
3. Use your strengths to move in new directions
Senior living organizations have myriad opportunities in front of them. However, despite these options, they’re finding that perhaps growing in a significantly different way like middle-market or affordable housing isn’t always a practical option. Organizations, particularly those with high-end developments, are trying to balance their charitable missions with serving a wider range of incomes and may naturally look to grow bricks and mortar to do this.
Instead of focusing solely on building middle-market or affordable housing, I suggest taking a step back and thinking about the impact you want to make.
For instance, building a small affordable housing unit may only result in incremental service to low-income seniors; however, using your expertise in Life Plan Communities to generate additional resources to go toward a partnership with an existing low-income provider may impact even more seniors. And, since many organizations don’t have the skills to launch new services like these or home care, for instance, they can partner with others who have that expertise. Now more than ever, it’s important to stay flexible, think strategically and use a variety of approaches to achieve your goals.
4. Stay consistent and have conversations regularly
Prioritizing consistency is one of the best ways to help any organization grow. Oftentimes, I see Life Plan Communities talk about growth, but conversations don’t build on each other and advance progress. This is particularly challenging in today’s fast-pace virtual meetings and longer times between board or committee meetings. This is why I suggest having a clear growth strategy document that everyone can refer to, keeping everyone connected and reminding them of what they’re working toward.
It’s also helpful as new board members join the organization to ensure that they understand growth as a priority, not the status quo. Regular and consistent conversations about senior living growth strategies are needed to keep everyone on the same track.
Get more Life Plan Community growth tips from senior living leaders
To fully understand senior living field trends and strategies for growth in Life Plan Communities, I encourage you to watch the fifth annual A Look Ahead: Making Growth Happen webinar. Along with a strategic panel of leaders, I elaborate more on practical tips to help support your organization’s growth.
Contact me or my colleagues at Love & Company if you have specific questions or would like personalized advice on senior living growth strategies; Love & Company is always prepared to help. Reach out to their team at 301-663-1239 and keep an eye out for more upcoming webinars.
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