“See that tape? Pull it all down.”
I recently traveled with a colleague who was seeing some buildings for the first time. He firmly demanded that all tape (yes, Scotch tape) be pulled down from the buildings. I wondered to myself, “How much could there be?”
Well as we walked through the communities, I was stunned how much tape we found on random surfaces. Windows, T-bar, elevators. It had been used to hold up holiday decorations, hang balloons, or post the paper signs that are anathema in senior housing. The community staff were perturbed at first but soon would delightedly exclaim when they found more tape. The funny thing is, in the hunt to pull down all of the tape, those eyeballs discovered a host of other issues to be addressed.
It was never about the tape itself - the goal was a severe and unrelenting attention to detail that can only be obtained when squinting at every surface to spot the milky translucence that is Scotch tape. Never use tape again, it’s temporary and cheap.
So yes, I laughed a hearty laugh when my hotel elevator bank this week boasted not one, not two, but SEVEN taped, printed signs stating “OUT OF ORDER. Please use Stairs [sic] end of hall” in FOUR different text variations. Every customer in that lobby mocked the unprofessionalism on display in that elevator bank. If Marriott only enforced a no tape rule…
I was reminded of Admiral McRaven’s “Make Your Bed” speech to UT Austin students in 2014. “So if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” Not exactly the words one would expect to come from a Navy SEAL and the commander of USSOCOM. Yet here we are today, 10 years later, reciting his mantra to “make your bed.” If you haven’t heard it before, find a moment to listen to the speech here.
Senior housing isn’t special operations. Or is it? It’s a million little things that must each be done right with a fairly high success rate. Or else someone’s life/health is endangered. Or else customer satisfaction falls off and we aren’t doing right by our residents. Or else sales slips and rooms aren’t being leased and we can’t fund doing things well. Or else reputation dips and we can’t hire. Or else…
I once asked a former boss (you’d recognize his name) why he didn’t leave the industry for another, more lucrative product type. His response? “I can’t find this level of complexity and mission elsewhere. And I love the complexity. Figure out how to do this well, and you can do anything.”
As we have skipped across the line into the second half of 2024, may we all embrace the combined complexity of senior housing operations with the simplicity of hunting for tape. Let us remember that every detail matters, and by focusing on the small things, we can ensure the success of our mission. Here's to 2H2024.
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