Afraid of Change?

The rhetoric of culture change has become the catch phrase of all who work in long term care. As an Administrator, the thought of changing the environment and life style for the elders we serve can be a very exciting topic of which we have many ideas. However, the thought of changing our style of leadership can be frightening. Giving up our "control", even adopting new values can be an exhausting endeavor.

However, the argument exists, with proven outcomes; that changing the culture of the building begins with the leadership first adopting personal change from the inside out. For a culture change to occur, the leadership must not only speak of the change, but also role model the change beginning with themselves. Self evaluation is a scary process. Accepting that our current style needs tweaking can leave even the strongest leaders feeling a little vulnerable. It could be argued that this resistance to self evaluate, and change styles could be the reason our industry is faltering with the voluntary adoption of change.

It seems that anytime you get more then three leaders from long term care together; the conversation inevitably turns to the negatives we feel we cannot overcome. Over regulation; unfair process of regulation; inadequate reimbursement; poor public perception; and of course liability. The list is endless. If you ask the same group about positives, they will talk about the "change" the industry has undertaken in the past 20 years, the increased quality outcomes, the change in environments, increased resident and family satisfaction.

When forced, we are able to not only adopt change, but it appears embrace it and make it a positive. I reflect on the change in side rails and restraints that every nursing facility has undergone in the past 15 years; this was an issue where we were given a mandate to change, and we have pretty much accomplished it nationwide. From an outsider's view, it would appear that collectively when we are "forced to change" via a regulatory, financially based negative outcome we respond, and we respond quite well. So why would we expect the public to be sympathetic to us for being over regulated, when the regulations gander an outcome, that by most opinions is a very positive outcome for the lives of millions of American elders?

Please don't misinterpret this; I too feel the extreme frustration of regulations that at times appear unfairly applied, and over used. However, I also feel the frustration of watching many in our industry resist changes to the way we do business, and use the regulations, financing, or other limiting external forces as the reason to avoid even an attempt at change. Perhaps if we were honest with ourselves, the real limiting factor comes from within, it is our own "fear".


Fear? Yes fear. What could we be afraid of? Change. Change in the primal sense of change. I am speaking of doing that deep soul searching self analysis that tells us we could do something different, yet we avoid it because of the "stuff" we fear and wish to avoid at all costs. Could it be that as leaders, we have adopted the "fear change" model because we have observed the perceived failures of others who have attempted change? Or could it be that we fear personal growth and change because it is an overwhelming task and painful?

Either way; our lessons from past history should tell us that avoiding change, is only going to prolong the agony; or worse; the change will be dictated to us via a new regulation or rule. Worse case scenario? Our competition will pass us by and our skills, services or environment will be come obsolete; making that which we fear most an unfortunate reality.