By Steve Moran
2025 is the year the earliest baby boomers turn 79, which means the long anticipated boomer wave is on us, or nearly so. We have boomers like me making senior living decisions for even older family members. We also have unprecedented options that allow people to stay in their own homes: home delivery of anything you want or need, rideshare, and hundreds of thousands of home care agencies.
The good is that everyone knows what senior living, assisted living, and memory care mean. The bad is that they (mostly) still see them as less desirable options. Here are six opportunities to transform senior living in 2025.
- The Year of Winners and Losers: There is strength in numbers, which is why there are trade associations that bring competitors together to work on common problems and opportunities. The danger is that organizations regress to the mean, which means average but not great.
At the end of the day, each company and each community makes a decision about how good they are going to be.
My dream is that enough organizations, enough regionals, enough executive directors, choose to be exceptional — to the point of creating a few losers that go out of business because the difference between great and ordinary is obvious. - The Year of Leadership: The greatest opportunity, the lowest hanging fruit, is committing to excellent leaders. With almost no exceptions, when a community is failing (I am sorry to those of you who are leading chronically underperforming communities and organizations), when communities underperform, it is because of inadequate leadership.
Inadequate leadership is 100% fixable. Some leaders are simply in the wrong position and should be fired. Others need intensive training (something I would love to help you with). Good leadership training is expensive, but poor leadership is way more expensive. If poor leadership causes a lawsuit, what is the cost of that? If it costs you one resident, what does that cost you? - The Year of the Experience: During my two-month senior living consumer journey I would walk by groups of residents participating in “activities,” and most of the time what would run through my head is, “Shoot me before that becomes the way I spend my final months or years.” Too often they were the kinds of games I play with my fifth and sixth grade church kids.
This is a renewed call to make your life enrichment director one of the most esteemed, highest paid community leaders, not the lowest paid, lowest status one.
Create great experiences, and you will have a waiting list a mile long. - The Year of Transparency: We have a tremendous opportunity to talk to residents and family members about our mission, challenges, how we spend our money, and the trade-offs we make. We don’t want to be transparent, because we are afraid people will think bad things about us.
In truth they already do think bad about us, and they would think better if we were more transparent. - The Year AI Powers Everything: There is almost nothing that can’t be made better by using AI. It will improve occupancy, staffing, dining services, culture, life enrichment, and communication. This will continue to be true each year, more and more, for the next five or 10 years.
- The year residents and family members become the new brand ambassadors: When we get the experience right, when we are transparent, when leadership is amazing, residents and family members will naturally tell others about the amazing experiences they are having.
If you ask them to tell their stories, they will be delighted to do it … for free.
Word of mouth, your website, social media will amplify these stories in ways you cannot imagine.
2025 is the year we can be the preferred way to grow older — or we can get left behind by those who are willing to take bold risks and do things differently.
The choice is ours, and honestly, I can’t wait to see what happens next!
