The Carlton Way: 2009 Cultural Change

A Case Study for Carlton Senior Living

Written by Tim MacDonald, Vice President; Resident Relations; Carlton Senior Living

Our Vision
The vision for The Carlton Way was to be created out of the hearts and minds of the company leaders to become the best provider in customer service. We selected Source Potential to provide us with consulting for our company’s culture change and project manage our learning deployment.

The first step was to include the entire Carlton Senior Living management team and key community leaders in a two day Executive Retreat at the Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay, to focus upon customer service experiences. Source Potential designed the path and philosophy for our company’s executive leaders to create a new framework  for exceptional customer experiences.  This approach not only ensured each executive had key buy-in from the start, it also eliminated the process of selling a program that our “Home Office” created and mandated for all employees.

Leadership Evolved
Creation of the Vision, Mission, Values and Intent statements were created from the exercises at the Executive Retreat. Next, these key principles were refined by The Carlton Way Steering Committee that Source Potential managed for our organization.  Leadership started evolving throughout the organization at every level as a result of steering committee’s work! Staff leadership is a cultural change for the company and for the first time, we were able to put a solid framework around “leading at all levels” as a result of implementing The Carlton Way.

Staff Results
Staff members are feeling included in something much larger than themselves. They are recognizing that the company is investing in their human talent and as a result they are responding. They feel they can contribute in new ways by having influence in helping others be successful. The teams at each of our communities are growing stronger and communicating in better ways with The Carlton Way.

Learning Development and Coaching
The culture of our organization is rapidly changing with The Carlton Way. The leadership learning sessions developed by Source Potential have created new methods and ideas of “how” to provide exceptional customer experiences at Carlton Senior Living; both with internal and external customers. Each leader is developing abilities to reframe customer expectations and put these into opportunities as ways to explore their potential for performance. Source Potential facilitated learning sessions for all employees to create positive customer experiences with one another as well as with our residents and families. These learning session opportunities for both our leaders and employees, give our organization the ability to focus on “people” rather than the “company.”

Providing Tools for Living
In the communities where the Executive Director has fully embraced The Carlton Way, the affects are far reaching. The positive results are being realized with staff moral, resident satisfaction, occupancy rates, profitability of the community and overall community performance.

The Carlton Way is a living project. The program changes as we move through each leadership learning session and with the hourly staff sessions. Source Potential continues to adjust the approach and customizes the material used so we can gain further insight into our results and where our new target goals should be. 

The Carlton Way is by far one of the most successful programs we have implemented and continues to add value to every employee in our organization. Creating exceptional customer experiences is becoming a natural way to do our business…thanks to our partnership with Source Potential!