Articles
The Journal on Active Aging brings articles of value to professionals dedicated to older-adult quality of life. Content sweeps across the active-aging landscape to focus on education and practice. Find articles of interest by searching the article archives in three ways: Enter a keyword in the articles search bar; click on search by topic; or type a keyword or phrase in the general search bar at the top of the page.
Topic- Management
Crisis management: when bad things happen to good companies by Michelle Moore
Do you ever feel that the decisions, words and actions of your industry and your company are under a microscope? That minor mistakes or unpopular policies—which a few years ago were known only to your immediate and innermost circles—now spin out of control splashed across Facebook, Twitter and even the evening news? Have you ever lost clients, seen sales halt or watched your stock plummet as a result? Welcome to navigating business communication in the 21st century. Surviving this strange new dynamic is not for the faint of heart. Today, thanks to a media that never sleeps, a small molehill of a problem can become a crisis mountain before you’ve had your first cup of coffee. That is, unless you have some serious crisis-management savvy.
moreManagement
Six simple questions to make you more productive by Debra J. Schmidt
In his book Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins talks about the power of questions to shape and direct your attention and focus. Your brain doesn’t like to leave questions unanswered, so whenever you pose yourself a question, your brain quickly goes to work to try to provide you with an answer. To help you to steer away from distractions and accomplish more, you can ask yourself these six questions throughout the day. They will help you to direct your attention, your focus, and your thinking towards your top priorities.
moreManagement
Outcomes tell your wellness story by Patricia Ryan, MS
Hardly a day of work goes by anymore without hearing the word outcomes. Managers and boards of directors want to know if the wellness program is getting results, as do the older adults who are thinking about joining your program or moving into your community. If they spend the money on wellness, what will they get in return? Outcomes help answer this question. An “outcome” is an end result, often quantified as a number. For example, the number of participants or the percent of leg strength gained following an eight-week exercise class, or the “percent satisfied” score on a survey. Outcomes have been a cornerstone of the medical model, where the results of tests and examinations are charted to guide care decisions. For the same reason, outcomes are valuable for the wellness model. Program outcomes are the tool used to make sure a program is effective for the older adults being served.
moreManagement
Partnerships present opportunities to better serve constituents by Marilynn Larkin, MA
Partnerships can provide a wealth of opportunity when minds and missions meet. Active-aging organizations are increasingly turning to partnerships—a major trend in the industry—to expand their services or business. In a landmark book on public-private partnerships for public health, Harvard professor Michael Reich, PhD, acknowledges that such partnerships are promoted on the assumption that they would “enable different people and organizations to support each other by leveraging, combining, and capitalizing on their complementary strengths and capabilities.” Interviews for this article suggest similar assumptions help to drive partnerships in the active-aging arena.
moreManagement
How to bring green dining to scale by Laura Lukas, BA
Going green. Some say it’s easy; others say it’s hard. I don’t think I could qualify it either way—it’s probably best to say that it’s a journey. When you decide to make your organization more eco-friendly, it can be quite an undertaking, especially if you are strongly rooted in unsustainable practices. The transformation won’t happen overnight and your decisions will not always be simple. However, making the transition to eco-friendly practices is definitely doable.
When you start to look at your organization through “green” eyes, the first challenge often is deciding where to begin. Green dining is a good starting point; you can save money while clearly doing good for the environment. In addition, your customers—be they residents in active-living communities, visitors to seniors centers or health clubs, or guests at special functions and events—will appreciate the difference.
Management
How and why to get your green team together by Ken Kramer
Since our inception in 1975, Givens Estates has understood the importance of being good stewards of our environment. One might say it was simply an unwritten philosophy. We knew environmental stewardship was important but it had never been put into writing. In 2003, we rewrote our mission and philosophy statement to include wellness, and so it only made sense to include “environmental” as one of our seven dimensions.
If you have ever read a self-improvement book, I am sure it had a section that said to write down your goals, because if you don’t you will never achieve them. We were committed to environmental wellness and we knew it had to be a part of our written wellness philosophy statement. That way, it would always be before us.
