We have taken everything we’ve learned over the past 30 years and poured it into The Springs at The Waterfront. The result is more than just a beautiful environment. It’s full of energy and a great place to thrive. It’s our staff that truly makes the difference.

All I did was contribute my part. I was no superhero and didn’t plan to be. I was just a plain old soldier who was present and did my job for my country.

In A Culture of Promise: The True Story of a Small Company’s Quest to Transform the Senior Living Industry, Stubblefield shares how a promise he made to his grandmother when he was an adolescent drives the culture at his senior living company. It’s a book about promises, with a very human quality to the storytelling, but as Stubblefield recently told me, the “undercurrent to the entire book” is “the relationship with capital and operators.” Call it a business book with a personal touch, or a human story with a business component — either description works.

The one thing that sticks with me, more than any other, is being around my contemporaries who had the same, in some ways, experiences that I had, and all being brought together in a moment where we just all had a blast.

While John Clouse spent 32 years in the U.S. Air Force and once had been at the controls of an F-15 he waited patiently on Tuesday, Aug. 13, for a chance to fly in an aircraft that would give him a new perspective on how it feels to fly. That's because Clouse, who along with his wife, Lin, are new residents of The Springs Living at Sherwood, got a chance of a lifetime.

"Listen, we need to understand our promises to all of our stakeholders, and there are really two categories. The first is the aspirational promise, which is about feelings and judgment. It’s about taking care of our parents, grandparents, and other people’s parents. This type of promise is important but often falls short. We’re in the business of solving problems."

One of the biggest fears most older adults have is outliving their money. To achieve our societal goals on the care of our seniors, we must work with all the stakeholders, governmental regulators, and yes, even politicians. We must look at each resident as someone we love deeply, like my grandmother—just as we would want others to do for us.

The Springs is honoring Orr’s legacy with the Linda Orr Nursing Scholarship, which will be awarded specifically to a nursing student. It is the company’s only named scholarship and the only one that is specifically for nursing. “She had made such a huge impact company-wide,” Jemming said. “It was actually the president of the company that suggested we honor her… by investing in nurses.”

I am proposing we may be limited by lack of clarity between the culture of capital and the culture of operators. Senior housing operators and senior housing capital providers may be like sugar is to salt. Both need each other to meet the needs of the customer, but their composition is vastly different.

Stubblefield said the company’s initial attempt at workforce housing is essentially a pilot program. But he mentioned the company is exploring ways to house more of its workers at more of its communities.

"We don’t build cookie-cutter buildings. There are little things in the design that we’ve perfected over 26 years that we believe in, and that we build into each one of our communities."

Connelly is thinking big about how senior living needs to be reinvented, in order to engage the rising generation of older adults while still serving current residents.

“It's been a tremendous opportunity on the salaried front in particular, to be able to recruit and reach folks from other industries because now, they’re sitting there questioning: Does my job fulfill me?”

The Springs will include the most amenities of any waterfront building, but those amenities will be open only to residents or their guests: an indoor pool, fitness and wellness center, a spa and massage area, a hair salon, theater, art studio, medical clinic, a restaurant, a full bar and secure underground parking.

Like a senior living company would do with occupancy or other sales metrics, The Springs Living used technology to track key indicators of recruiting performance including its total number of vacant positions and the size of its applicant pool.

When it came time to develop the building’s overall aesthetic, the project team chose a Sullivanesque style, which is based on the work of Louis Sullivan (a mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright and an influential figure in the Prairie School movement). They then married it with The Springs Living’s signature Northwest-inspired approach that integrates a modern feel with the casualness of the outdoors. “Basically, it’s sophistication meets nature,” Stubblefield says.

"The greatest change we’ve embraced at The Springs Living is an even greater focus on staff. We are focusing on the attraction and engagement of our employees, who lead the way every day. It’s a 24/7, 365 effort here, and without those people in the communities, we would have nothing. That’s where quality is made, and we have changed everything we do to support that interaction."