Striving for ‘Balance’: Wellington Senior Living’s Word of the Year 2024

At the beginning of each year, Michael Buckley, Arrow’s personal and professional development coach and “The Chief Feelings Officer,” asks each team member to pick a “Word of the Year.”

Michael reminds us that sometimes, we need more focus. Then, other times, it’s more compassion, and at times, we need more fun! In past years, team members have chosen words such as clarity, confidence, intentional, commitment, consideration, and receptiveness.

This year, team members are actively selecting a Word of the Year for themselves and collaborating to create a word for their community. Picking a personal word and community word is a commitment to doing work on themselves and the “we” and “us” work they want to accomplish as a community.

The Wellington Senior Living word of the year is balance.

The significance of the word balance is multifaceted. We will strive for balance in meeting our residents’ needs while also meeting staff’s competing personal and professional needs. We want to create balance in our processes to refine operations and provide residents with the best standard of care and service. Our leadership team wants to create balance in our guidance and mentorship of staff.

Setting an intention at the beginning of the year helps set our community up for success by creating goals and plans for achievement. Setting the intention also creates opportunities for reflection and growth through the year in those instances where we haven’t been able to live out the Word of the Year.

Balance is an easy word to incorporate into the operations of the community. We will seek balance in our engagement, interactions, process development, and implementation. The word balance can be perceived as being personally focused, but striving for balance from an operations standpoint means that we’re creating fair, firm, and consistent standards that align with our company’s core values and are resident and family-focused.

One of the biggest goals for our community this year is the implementation of Lean methodologies for process improvement.

Additional Goals:

• Achieve 100% Occupancy
• Restructure our current processes for resident engagement with the introduction of our “Jolly Squad”
  • Resident-led “community” service group designed to bolster the voice of our residents in community-wide decision-making around:
    • Programming
    • Community Engagement
    • Staffing
    • Process Improvement

Ultimately, we aim to refine our processes to achieve the highest level of resident-centered care and attention modeled for others.

The chosen Word of the Year should inspire the team. If it doesn’t, it means they selected the wrong word. Hold yourself and others accountable throughout the year. Engage with team members about their Word of the Year and keep it as a frequent topic of discussion in your community. Monitor your achievements using your 2024 Word of the Year, and we eagerly anticipate celebrating them with you!