A Culture of Promise

Description
What began as a simple promise became an entrepreneurial journey to change an industry. In A Culture of Promise: The True Story of a Small Company’s Quest to Transform the Senior Living Industry, author Fee Stubblefield encapsulates the best insights on how to build an organization from the ground up and the challenges and opportunities the senior living industry as a whole faces. Even if you aren’t in senior living you will want to read this book because every family and every sector of the economy and government is touched and impacted by our country’s rapidly aging population.

Fee’s passion for building organizations, culture and being disruptive was nurtured in part by his unusual upbringing at a place called Lehman Hot Springs, a small family resort deep in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. Its healing waters and natural setting offers a rich metaphor for organizational culture and business principles that will cause you to think about solving problems in a whole new way. Fee’s promise not to put his grandmother “in an old folks’ home” unlocks the power of having a sense of purpose in serving others and being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Travel with Fee through an authentic 100-year story of discovering meaning and connecting dots of a family’s failures and triumphs. Learn about a new kind of promise, the paradoxical aspirational promise, that is guaranteed to fail but necessary for those who want to accomplishing great things. The investment of time reading this book will be well worth the price of admission as you will get an insider’s view into what it really takes to be successful and make a difference in your corner of the world.

My Take:
As someone who cares for vulnerable populations. I found this title captivating because I'm eager to understand the perspectives on elder care. The book outlines promises, revisits Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and introduces various theories and metrics that guide care decisions and shape organizational culture. It serves as a valuable tool for students of gerontology, organizational studies, and entrepreneurship. Additionally, it benefits advocates for the elderly by providing pertinent questions and considerations.

A CULTURE OF PROMISE by Fee Stubblefield is subtitled "The True Story of a Small Company's Quest to Transform the Senior Living Industry." Stubblefield, who has been involved in developing and managing senior living for close to two decades, repeatedly cites his Grandmother's request to not be "put" in an old folks' home as a motivating force. He notes that the wish (fairly common amongst a certain generation) is negative, fear-based and discriminatory. I liked that he provided some rationale for this concern by pointing to the history of senior living: the first, spanning roughly the 1960s to the early 1990s, is referred to as the Skilled Nursing Home period when the major emphasis was on safety. A second period focused on the "assisted living" concept and lasted roughly through the major disruption of COVID. Change is again necessary according to the author and the pandemic has provided an opportunity to further transform the industry. Describing his investment relationship with Harrison Street Real Estate, he writes at length about the concept of "limiters" and says, "my company was limited by the lack of understanding of the challenges our customers were going through, which created a lack of understanding as to how to meet their needs." So true, especially his emphasis on the value of communication, and a key takeaway that "the employee experience defines the resident experience." He offers charts that look at three dimensions labeled the customer, employees, and investors; then, he looks at three decision nodes: to move/join; to stay; and to thrive. Although Stubblefield references Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it could be fascinating to look even more deeply into applying psychological concepts to his arguments. Stubblefield promotes "high-quality care, support, and love designed for every budget" and I would be curious to learn more about how well the twenty or so properties he operates across at least three states achieve that lofty goal. Even he comments on the "cultural misunderstandings between capital and operations." A CULTURE OF PROMISE is written with an inspirational tone and will hopefully prompt some discussion and even soul-searching in an industry that tends to be very opaque and fragmented (most regulation is by the states). I have recommended this title to the administrators I know in the field. They may also be interested in relevant websites Stubblefield mentions like the National Investment Center or other trade associations. I am curious to see what else (like Here be Dragons about urgent care clinics) Forbes Books is publishing concerning changes in the healthcare arena.

This is a wonderful book. It only goes to show that small companies can think big when their motivation is right.