Building a Better Future in Senior Living a Conversation on Change & Sustainability with Paige Hoffman

This episode explores the concept of 'slowing down to speed up' as a necessary component in achieving sustainable progress. The speaker shares personal experiences of confronting delays in project implementation, stressing the importance of acquiring skills, recognizing roadblocks, and maintaining transparency and trust with team members. The discussion delves into the internal struggles and doubts faced when timelines are extended, ultimately advocating for the benefits of taking additional time to ensure better outcomes.

00:00 Introduction to Slowing Down to Speed Up
00:26 Personal Experience and Vulnerability
00:41 Facing Implementation Challenges
01:21 Internal Questioning and Reflection

Here is the link to the article that Paige wrote that inspired this conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/navigating-implementation-slowing-down-speed-up-paige-hoffman-gjvwc/

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Transcript

Erin: 0:35

Hi, everyone, thank you for being here today. We have a guest that I'm so excited to bring to you to talk about Change management inside communities that we're all facing as technology becomes more and more prevalent in our industry and our profession. So Ms. Page Hoffman, who is the director of sustainability from Cordia senior living is our esteemed guests today. And she has a title I have never heard before, and it is a director of sustainability. Thank you, Paige. I'm so honored to have you here and, to learn from you. So tell us. What is director of sustainability?

1:17

Thank you. I'm delighted to be here. Director of sustainability, I think, is a 1 person title in the senior living industry right now. I'm happy to change that down the road, but it was created to really address a lot of different issues in senior living or a lot of opportunities in senior living that really all center around. How can we do the best job ever and how can we make sure that we're doing the best job ever down the road? And so it's more or less a change management role. We do a lot of implementation, but we also do a lot of cultural assessments and business line items and checking things out to make sure that every decision we're making is super holistic, which is not a luxury for a lot of senior living communities, right? We're so in the weeds all the time that sometimes we don't have an opportunity to. Zoom out and make sure that the decisions we're making are there to address all of the pillars that we operate on. And so my role does that.

Erin: 2:20

I like it when you say simply holistic. It, the trend that I see is. People are trying the meaningful change makers inside the industry are trying to go from transactional to relationship style to meaningful purposeful, which is everything that our industry is and to hear you say holistic and change. Excites me, really does. So I read in 1 of your articles. that you went to school for sustainability.

2:53

I did. I did. Yep.

Erin: 2:54

What is that? What is that?

2:58

my schooling was about 50 50. half of my sustainability was environmental based, which if you throw the word sustainability into Google, you're going to get a lot of environmental degree, a lot of environmental careers. So it was about 50 percent that and 50 percent long term decision making, business and corporate sustainability. so there was no senior living in there. but there was a lot of how do we make decisions now that are very strategic and are very honest with ourselves? so that we don't burn up what we have now. and we're prepared for the future. when I was finishing up my degree, I happened to get my 1st job at a senior living community. And I was in the business operations side of things. I had worked for a serial entrepreneur and a ton of small businesses. But really, the way that I got the role that I have now was by asking a lot of those sustainable minded questions and saying, okay, I see we're doing this really cool business operation, or we're implementing this change, but. This doesn't feel long lasting to me, or I'm seeing these hiccups. I think more than anything, the pattern recognition that I learned in school is what I take from it now.

Erin: 4:10

Pattern recognition is huge. I think it's the key to everything. If you're inside the community and you hear phrases that should cause a red flag to go up. have heard five other people say that phrase and it eventually left. Like a month after they said that phrase or I've heard this phrase before and that means they want more or they need more Or I need to be asking them questions It's just like a resident who may have a urinary tract infection you see the patterns in their symptoms like pattern recognition is huge and You want to identify them use them and then create them Right? Yes,

Paige: 4:53

and I was maybe a little less skilled at that in the beginning. And so some of it was innate and I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but I knew something wasn't clicking. And my answer was to walk next door to the office next to me, which was my boss and the CEO and go, isn't my role and it's has nothing to do with me. But there's this thing and it doesn't feel right. And, which led me to getting a lot of feedback. Passion projects, which was the evolution of my job. And I got lucky. I could have, walked into the CEO's office and said, something's not right. And been told this is out of your lane, get back in your lane. But I wasn't told that I had someone say, okay, tell me more. What's your, what are you suggesting? And I was able to build my chops a bit more.

Erin: 5:42

That's so good. Good for you luck and being ready and willing and curious. And your approach is a big deal,

5:53

which wasn't always good. it's an evolution. It's, it wasn't always good. Sometimes I walked out of the office and thought that was not that wasn't great. But yeah, it starts. Nobody's an expert when they start.

Erin: 6:07

No, I have been really, This whole conversation now and what we want to get into and just a sentence that I've really been studying this past few weeks is the process of becoming. that really is sustainability. When I heard you talk about, what you went to school for and, what do you, in order to sustain something, you have to really know what you want, you have to know the vision. And I think too many people. Are stuck in the day to day that you can't really see the end, Or even know what the end goal is. I know that there are times that has been true in my life. And the other aspect is like, when you do see what you want, or, you want this success, we lose sight of the process of becoming. really that's what sustainability is. It is the process of becoming. and in the article that caught my eye about you, I'm like, I need to talk to her because she, she understands change. You know what I mean? I'm like a big resistor of change and she's got it right. you just. It's I don't know. There was just something that just you've got to talk to this woman.

Paige: 7:22

Thank you.

Erin: 7:23

Slowing down to speed up is really just a shorter way to say the process of becoming sustainability. You have to slow down to speed up, stop and smell the roses gain all the skills you can be aware of all the roadblocks. And keep going,

Paige: 7:42

and that it's not a failure. I think that. I wrote that article. After having no choice, but to slow down and full vulnerability and transparency here. I didn't write that article because I thought, man, this implementation timeline is spot on. I'm doing a bang up job. Wow. I wrote that article in doing a lot of thinking about. My God, this implementation is not going as fast as I want, and I have to go back to my team one more time and explain to them why we're going to be four months later than I said we were going to. and they're going and thinking about, okay, how are they going to feel? And is that going to destroy the trust that I've built with them? And is that a failure for me? And are they going to think it's a failure for me? And is it going to be a better implementation because we're taking those extra 4 months or am I telling myself that right? There was actually a lot of internal questioning when I had hit yet another roadblock, which is really just how implementations go. it's just how they go, but I think we've talked before about your known unknowns and your unknown unknowns having roadblocks and having to slow down so that you can speed up the change management process is a known unknown. We don't really know what it's going to look like it's sneaky. We don't always know when it's going to hit. But it'll happen, right? So if we can, we're prepared for this, let's slow down. It's really not the end of the world. We want to do it once, right? We want to bring the entire team with us, whatever that reason is, right? Is it because our training isn't going as fast as we thought? Is it a resources allocation problem? Is the product not ready, right? There are 1001 reasons why we might need to slow down. but the article came from, a bit of self reflection of going, okay, so what are my next steps?

Erin: 9:51

Yeah, I think, when I think about change my relationship with change, I think it's about timing and preparation, and understanding. I think, didn't have a clear understanding of business because I'm a career executive director inside the community. That's what my life was. I didn't necessarily think outside the community. I didn't understand business concepts. I knew regs, I knew empathy. I knew how to get people to move in. I knew how to create teams. I didn't know anything about business. one of the things I think that the industry. doesn't get right is preparing people. For the change and understanding that slowing down will actually help speed up. I was part of, we had coven and then, we had, 3 traumas, back to back. Right from 2020 to 2022. we had coven, which is not going away. Then we had the staffing crisis, which some will say is not going to go away and then we had occupancy crisis. And so if you were a leader through all of those things. like your head is spinning because everything is coming at you in, in, in very different ways and it's heavy and it's fast and it's pressure. And then all of a sudden you've got technology changes and implementations and payroll changes, and implementations with software and it's just I can't, I can't, And it's a fast rollout because. Payrolls involved and all these things and it's just, you want to rebel, reject, be angry, resentment on all those things when preparation could have been different, and that's what I see in your article is the difference in that you actually see that, which is critical,

Paige: 11:55

I completely agree with the caveat of, I think people want to rebel and reject the change either way. And that's not a bad thing. It's just human nature I talk about these things and we launched them and. and I do take a slower approach, and I think it's important to bring the human element in and to really make sure we bring our teams with us. The natural reaction to change for almost everyone. It's panic, right? It's and that's when things are going really well, and we don't have staffing or occupancy crisis, and we don't have cobit as a pandemic. It's just. We don't like change. It's uncomfortable. Our brains are not designed to embrace change. mine might be the exception because I love it, but most people don't and that's not a bad thing, right? It's what helps us survive. what I think that we forget is that when someone like me comes in and disrupts the organization in the name of change. And in the name of innovation, that seems really exciting to me, and it can upend other people's worlds and it might. I'm going to say this loosely just be their job, right? Because some people really can leave it at the door. most of us cannot, it's still upends your world when you are underwater and in the weeds, and then there's this big change and we're asking you to do homework and organization and. Every technology change comes with a back end of cleaning up, right? Things we haven't done. Well, and you're doing everything you can to just get by, right? You're just trying to scrape by. So you're going to do everything I've asked of you and nothing more. And you're going to feel exhausted and overwhelmed and unsafe and a little unsure of. Who this page girl is coming in, asking me to change all my processes. And is that because I'm doing a poor job? Is it because I'm am I getting replaced? Is technology taking my job? There's all these uneasy questions and they're all really valid. so part of slowing down is. Doing the homework as the implementer or the change manager to understand why and how and what and really create roadmaps. That makes sense. But the next part of slowing down is telling your team and communicating all of those things. Let's be really transparent. Here's what a good implementation looks like. It's still messy. Here's why we're not doing it. We're not doing this because you're in trouble. This is part of business management and we're making these things. And here's how we, here's how we guarantee we'll support you. so sometimes slowing down for me doesn't make sense, but slowing down for my team makes sense because their workload is too big and that is just as good of a reason. It just depends on the property or the community and, but what I can guarantee you is that if I move on with the project and all of my stakeholders are drowning, we're not going in to implement it. Well, and in 90 days, nobody's going to be using it. So it will truly be in vain.

Erin: 15:14

Yes, I have seen. Through my work here recently, where there have been people who bought into a product. And didn't implement it, didn't follow up, just said, here you go. And it just stayed in a box. It just literally stayed in a box and no, we were paying for something that no 1 used.

Paige: 15:42

Yes, just very common,

Erin: 15:45

Change has to have a facilitator change has to have the process, right? The buy in the, the communication piece. And I love the fact of slow down to speed up through communication. you have a process that you do where you are communicating, you understand communication to the level of even if there's no progress, you communicate, no progress or a little bit of progress. And where a lot of people won't do that, but you see the value in that, and I have to say, from a receiving end of that, I see the value of that, too, oh, there's no progress, so I'm not creating anything in my mind that is untrue, because we know we all have to make meaning about everything, so talk about the value that you see in that and why you see that value.

Paige: 16:47

it's totally valuable and it's something I still struggle with. people are meaning making machines, right? we genuinely do make meaning out of anything. me included, and I learned this 1, the hard way, because. As a person, I've always been an over communicator, right? So I've, I want to make sure everybody is good and understands and somewhere along the lines. I lost a bit of that. Hopefully to brevity, but not probably always. I found that as somebody who's doing these long term change management projects, it can be really boring to get the same update for 6 months in a row. And it can feel like nobody cares. And from the change management side, I had. Previously found myself skipping those updates week by week because I didn't really feel like I had anything valuable to say. And I, why would I send an email that says no, no news today? Same thing. This is a six week goal and I'm sending a weekly update. What I learned the hard way was that by not sending an email to someone who was feeling a little bit unsafe and a little bit panicky. But hadn't totally explained that to me was that they knew that this big change project was looming and they didn't have clear understanding of what that meant for them. And so in those 6 weeks where I was working diligently behind the screen and thought, great, this isn't anybody's task. This isn't affecting anyone negatively. They don't even have any work to do right now. They were feeling like, oh, my gosh, when is my world going to explode? And so each week they mulled over it and they almost created and this is when I say they, it's happened a few times in the past. And at previous employers is I would not hear anything. And on week 5, they send me this. Panicked email that feels a little bit shocking to me and in those 5 weeks, they've been creating work for themselves because they're trying to make sense of the change. So they've added on. they've added onto their plate. they've lost trust in me because I've not been transparent about where we're at. they've added additional stress and they're probably doing their management duties a little less well. They're emotional toll is through the roof, right? And it used to be my thought that they should come to me, but how do they know? Why on earth would they if I wasn't clear on my end? so now I send an email out and sometimes if I'm feeling like I've sent the same thing 3 times, I'll say that. I know I've said this before, but I want to reiterate, I'm still working on X, Y, Z, nothing for you to do at the time. And I promise you, I'll give you a 2 week notice before something comes up that will involve you. I'm just updating you no changes now. And what I found is those people who were maybe labeled my difficult colleagues who came to me with a lot of resistance and who would give me. Panicked emails, but only two weeks before go live, started responding to me and saying, Oh, great. I can take this off my list. Thank you. Which was an opportunity to connect with them. So we've done a few things. They've given them permission to take it off their list. I've done a better job because I've communicated where I'm at. We've got more dialogue and I've, I'm creating a relationship with this person who I, in the past, haven't really had a reason to talk to. And. Now, when I do go in and I shake up their processes, because it's coming, we will know each other as humans. And when I tell them, okay, this is going to be a hard week, they'll know what to expect from my working style. but again, it came from trial and error, right? It was okay. That didn't work this time. And I induced some panic in a few people. How can we not make that happen moving forward? Because it wasn't good for them. And it wasn't good for me.

Erin: 20:57

Yeah, it invites connection. think the more over communicative that a person can be from a higher level position, In a positive way, or in a neutral way, right? A neutrally positive way, just giving you feedback. the more grace there is in the relationship. even just no progress email is an emotional deposit. Maybe it's only a dollar or 25 cents in the emotional bank account. But what you're doing is telling somebody I don't have to worry about that yet. Yep. You're creating space for something else.

Paige: 21:34

Yes.

Erin: 21:35

And I can't speak for every leader, but I do know that being an executive director, or any other community leader is all consuming. It's all consuming because you have so many people coming at you for various different reasons. There's so much emotional output going on just given somebody the permission to say, this is doesn't need to be on your radar just yet, but it's out there and it's coming. Creates peace and calm. that is a piece that I wish a lot more people knew and understood. And I know that it takes a lot of work on your part to send an email that says no progress,

22:15

I wouldn't say it takes a lot of work. I think it changed. It takes a change in habit. It's just 1 of it's like creating communication norms at an organization, right? It's like a lot of work. Here's another big change. But once you get used to the fact that, I just send this out on Tuesdays. I send it out. It's 15 minutes. I've got a spot where I jot updates down messy and ugly and my own, and I just take those and I put them in a quick email on Tuesday afternoon. It's done. Then it's really not that hard. I think the battle is getting over the should I, shouldn't I send it. It's true. If I just always send it, it's not that big of a deal. And then the team is used to getting an email that says still working on this. but then they're good. they know that if it changes, they'll get an email because they always get an email. So I would say it's not so much, but it's hard to get started,

Erin: 23:10

but it's a good pattern. It's a good pattern to have. I like the topic learning from the unknown rather than the unknown, which we all fear the unknown, but how can we, and I suppose we're answering that, through this conversation. But for us to understand, it's the unknown that scares people. It's not, and I guess this goes hand in hand with communication, right? And the no progress. If we understand fundamentally that the unknown is what scares people, the more you know, the less you resist or fear the change. Unless you're just a resister. Yeah,

Paige: 24:00

I think it's a few things right where the unknown scares us. It's the consequence of the unknown that really scares us and our imaginations are far more exciting than whatever happens in the real world. Every single time, right? So all the terrible things that we expect are almost never I won't say never, but almost never what the outcome really looks like. so that over communication or not even over right? I would say consistent communication, transparent communication gives teams or employees something to lean on and rely on. It gives them a pillar. I know to look here. I know that she'll send me this thing. This is safety. I can count on this, right? So brains really want this is going to happen. This is a pattern. It's safe. The more we do it, the better it feels. So we've got that. the other thing is, if we help our teams feel like the unknown is not even not scary. I would say, if we help them understand that the consequence isn't going to be a negative repercussion, we're going to do our job and a better way to phrase that would be. fostering that culture of experimentation, right? and helping our team see that when we pivot away, because something isn't working, it's not a failure. And when we try something and we decide we don't like it, that is valuable discovery process. It's not a failure and when we are making a big change from 1 system to another, it's not necessarily because the previous system is a failure. Right? and that communicating that and then backing it up when things go sideways helps us be less afraid of the unknown. Because. I know for a fact that if I try something new and it doesn't quite go well, for the most part, my boss isn't going to come to me and go, that was a monumental failure. You're done here. that's just right. That's just not how that works. and if it is, we should talk about your boss. Bye. What she will say is, okay, what did, what did we learn from that? What direction do we want to head in? What are your suggestions to get us there? And that's my responsibility. But if we're fostering that culture within the team, particularly pre implementation or and throughout, that we're going to make all these micro adjustments along the way. know that it feels scary and I recognize and validate that it is a little scary that we're not sure which one we're picking yet. But if we pick one, and it's not our long term solution, it's okay. I think that is not something we've been told as professionals. we can pick this and if it's not the right one, we're going to pick a different one. It's okay for the most part. And when it's not, I'll tell you like, right when there's when we really need the right 1, I'll tell you. But most of the time, particularly with implementations, we're doing our best with the information that we have now. And so it doesn't, we don't need all these forever answers and. It's helpful because you have me. I'm good. That's it. That's my job to worry about. So I'll take that. And next time there's a really big thing. I'll let, but, yeah, I think it's the fear of what will happen to me if this thing doesn't go well and that we can fix with really good safety. And some honest, conversations about what this looks like during the change.

Erin: 27:39

you really hit the nail on the head. I'm sitting here playing back so many things in my life, and I used to say, and I do believe, and I'm just going to add this to it, but the, the fear of judgment, the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, and it's the fear of consequences. really the fear of rejection has consequences, the fear of failure has consequences, the fear of judgment, consequences. And, yeah, I think everything, I think the resisting of a lot of different things, me, was built on the fear of consequences. This isn't going to go well in the next state survey. And I have this, I, I have three near perfect surveys. Like I have a reputation to uphold. It's going to come down, or everybody's going to be so mad at me. all these consequences was really what held me back.

Paige: 28:45

Yes. And it's not it's. Sometimes, right? But even that, not to be the cheesy one in the room, but like, how many failures have you had that weren't recoverable? it, most of those failures brought you a whole lot of, almost all my best lessons, all of the things you've pulled out in the article that you liked came from me messing it up. and that sucked and it wasn't good for the employee and it wasn't good for me, but it's, you move on from that. And so building that, that culture of experimentation, we're going to try this and we're, it's not like laissez faire, right? we're going to try this together and we're, we've got a plan and we're going to make real decisions based on real facts and pull in the data and understand the long term implications. But should we decide in 30 days, this isn't the right tool for us, There shouldn't be a fear of failure that makes that decision to say it's that feels like failure to me, right? To let that fear of failure get in the way instead of going. that's how change management works. Every community is different. Every team needs something different. And if we need to pivot, let's pivot and go this way with strategic direction and a good roadmap and really good plans so that we can then do it well and move on instead of worrying about everything else. And, sometimes managers and directors just need the permission to make a decision right now and be okay with it for right now. because it might be different in 30 days.

Erin: 30:19

That fear of consequences, because it's write down the worst that can happen and then tell yourself, I believe that I can overcome, and it is the way that you make the meaning of it. We all have to make meaning of it. Now that I understand even that fact is a bad survey meant that I was a bad executive director, but this good survey means that I am a great executive director. And so the consequences. Now I have to overcome a perception of judgment, what do you build that

Paige: 30:52

back and, what does that mean for my job? And it becomes this big, I would be the first person. So I love outdoor sports, love them. I love being in the back country. That's it's if I'm not here, that's what I'm doing. If I'm not working. And I don't like the what's the worst that can happen game because I tend to be like dying is the worst that can happen and I can go there. and I, it's taught me a lot right about how to approach things with work, but it's similar. How prepared am I for this? Yes. Yes. Those bad things can happen, but I'm in this role for a reason. and I'm with people who have this skill set and we as a team have the skill set to get through this big thing should the worst thing that could happen, I don't like it. I don't even really want to get it time in my brain, but it, but okay. So that's an uphill climb to climb. let's do it. And it's okay. We've got the tools in our toolbox. let's do it. So I've. I probably almost err on the other side. I see the risk. I accept the risk. I know where my skill level is within it, but I'm not giving it any more of my time because the temptation to get sucked into the negative consequences for me is too high. So it's. It's not worth it for me. I will, I'll, we'll have the conversation. I'm not going in blind, but I, I think you have to be careful with that and how that snowballs can be really catastrophic to the mind.

Erin: 32:15

Absolutely. everything is an experiment. I have lost the mindset of consequences. I still struggle with that. Like sometimes I the button. Post and just close my eyes and just pretend that's somebody else, you and everybody else,

Paige: 32:35

what they're doing.

Erin: 32:36

Yeah, and it's it goes back to the process of becoming in sustainability. it just really is in order to become great. You have to be bad. Yes, it's the process and, it's just and you have to accept that you're going to be bad. You expect it. You just expect. No, you expect bad and you commit to getting better, it's a process.

Paige: 33:09

Yeah, all the people we like to follow, who are talking about this thing, they're learning it too. And every time they talk about it or every time they think about it, they're learning the same thing. I think that's my superpower is being bad at things and practicing. It like, out of all the things in the world, I've had to try really hard to be average of a lot of things. It's not an innate, I wasn't a good student. I wasn't a natural athlete. But being willing to look like a novice at anything and act like a novice feel the humility of that allows you to then study like a student and then become an expert and continue to learn and continue to. level up your peer groups so that they're always a little bit more talented than you and you're passing that on, right? There is something so powerful about letting go of the ego long enough to go. I'm just going to be bad at this, but I'm doing it and I'm going to do it with all my heart, really badly. And that's okay. I have so much respect for that when someone's answer is, I just don't know yet, or I know the answer to that, but let me find out for you. but it's also like that during implementations. That's probably the thing I have to say to teams the most. I don't know. I owe you an answer. I'm not sure I'll have an answer this week, but I can, I hear you. That is a valid concern. Let me find out because we're going to learn it together.

Erin: 34:41

I have loved this conversation. I could keep on going. You have given me so many insights, just in my process of becoming, right? to really, when I fear, feel fearful and anxious, I need to write down what am I scared of? and is it the consequence of whatever and then can I overcome it in the spirit of curiosity and experiment? Because life is an experiment.

35:11

And can you tell the person right? Can you if I'm feeling resistant and fearful, what I really should do is go to the person and say, I'm feeling these things. I don't know if they're valid or not. I'm experiencing this thing. how can we get enough clarity on both ends that we are ready to move forward together? that probably clears up. At least half of the miscommunications out there.

Erin: 35:34

Absolutely. And the courage to do that is real because you don't want to admit, but my new favorite word is acknowledgement. It's not enough to recognize it. You have to acknowledge it. You have to acknowledge it to yourself. You have to acknowledge it to the next person. You have to acknowledge it and give it air because. empathy will knock out shame, light will clear out the darkness. don't suffer in silence, heal out loud, Ask the questions, get clarity and move forward. that's ultimately what change management is. and you write about it so well, and I really enjoy your content and, to be able to watch you grow and hopefully the big changes and opportunities for other people to see what you do to have the ripple effect in the community in the company in the industry.

Paige: 36:30

thank you. Yeah, the industry is it's going in such an exciting direction. the implementations are coming, so if we, if to me, success is if I can help other communities start to make those same decisions so that when it's time for me to move into a community, I've got a lot of great options. I will have done my job.

Erin: 36:52

Thank you for being here. Thank you for. Your time meeting me and I cannot wait because we are going to be at think tank together. When you see me, I'm going to give you a big old hug because that's what to do. So I'm hugger. So this is perfect. Okay. All right. So again, this is Paige Hoffman, director of sustainability. Follow her on LinkedIn. you will not be disappointed. Thank you. And for all, and always as my listeners for my listeners aspire for more for you.