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“I love change, but I don’t like change for change’s sake. I like thinking about the why around what it is that we’re trying to achieve.”
That quote comes from Brandon Ribar — CEO of Sonida Senior Living, one of our amazing clients — in an interview with Senior Housing News (SHN). Ribar is an honoree in this year’s Changemakers series, which spotlights innovative, dynamic leadership in the industry.
We’re proud to join SHN in presenting the 2024 class of visionaries, sharing the insights gathered during their in-depth interviews.
In leading one of the nation’s largest senior living organizations, Ribar has extensive knowledge to share — including his growth strategies, focus on employee feedback and more. Get a snapshot of his interview below.
Meet Changemaker Brandon Ribar
SHN: In what ways do you think that you’re a changemaker?
Ribar: I put culture first and believe that Sonida is going to be successful only based on whether or not we have the best people working with us at Sonida. I continuously push not only the industry, but our company to bring people into the industry and to elevate people from within who really want to push hard to deliver that change.
Where I’ve really pushed hard for change is in the types of people that we surround ourselves with, but also how hard we push to be something that’s special and differentiated in senior living. That’s what I love to bring to the discussions that we have and to not accept that what we do today is anywhere near good enough. We have to be better and better every day.
SHN: Can you talk about a time when you try to execute a change and things didn’t go according to plan? How did you pivot and what did you learn as a leader?
Ribar: I’ll go back to making decisions that I fundamentally believe were good ones but skipping the step of ensuring that the people that were really responsible for the day-to-day execution were involved in that development. I pivoted by immediately ensuring that it had nothing to do with me being the generator of the idea.
It was really their idea. I was simply a conduit that brought to them options to think about. When people really feel like it’s their idea and their model that’s changing, then they will go full speed ahead. They’ll be excited about it.
SHN: Choose one artist, scientist, thinker, entrepreneur, or other person living or dead to help change the senior living industry for the better. In only a few words, who are you choosing and why?
Ribar: Steve Jobs is somebody who saw beyond what people thought that they needed, and he created products and services that people gravitated to because they were something they hadn’t thought about. That level of innovator who just has an ability to understand the customer and to develop things beyond what the customer thinks they need, that is senior living.
Another person is Taylor Swift. If Taylor Swift did her concerts and her songs from senior living communities and told people about how cool of an experience it was with residents and sang all day about senior living, we’d get pretty good exposure and build our reputation that way. Jobs innovates, and then Swift’s going to sell it for us.
Learn more from Changemaker Brandon Ribar
Don’t forget there are more insights from Brandon Ribar — read his interview with SHN.
If you’d like to explore the Changemaker interviews we’ve highlighted recently, visit our blog home page and social media!
