She’s energetic. And on Friday’s, she’s in the dining room at Town and Country Nursing Home (Missouri) serving dinner to residents.

I love that she does that. It shows the depth of her caring.

When I arrived at her community I spent some time in her office, learning the issues that were preventing higher customer satisfaction ratings. Basically, it was a conversation about why she had brought me in to present my Kind Dining training.

She was discouraged that her staff wasn’t performing better.

When I asked whether she would be attending my training, she gave me a funny look.

“If I am sitting there, I’m not sure anyone’s going to speak up and be honest,” she said.

I understood where she was coming from, but I disagreed.

“The reason you should be there is so that you can hear what’s going on when they do speak up. And they will,” I assured her.

My mission is to help servers be smarter about their jobs and to find solutions to their communication problems. It takes cooperative teamwork to deliver top-notch service.

I know Cathy was glad she came to each training session and saw what it was all about. She heard from employees, found out where the lines of communication were broken, and discovered things about serving food that she didn’t know.

Kind Dining training isn’t simply a talk. It’s full of hands-on practice, interactive group discussion and thinking about how to apply it.
Afterward, Cathy told me she was ready to make changes.

“There’s things we can do right away,” she said. “We’re going to have a (staff) meeting next Wednesday to talk about what steps to take next.”

Town and Country Nursing Home is committed to improving its customer service through creating a better dining experience for residents.

I know Cathy is going to see improvement. She leads by example every Friday night.

There’s no doubt this training works, and the information in it has
the power to transform community staff to be more empathetic AND
competitive in this changing marketplace.

After I left Villa Crest, a Nursing and Retirement Center in Manchester, N.H., I heard from Sarah, a hands-on administrator who loves her work and leads by example.

Changes were being made quickly from the sounds of it. New checklists were implemented. Entirely new bussing procedures were put in place. Her housekeeping staff asked to participate more in dining service.

“It doesn’t always feel like we are making progress, but we really are!”

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It’s difficult sometimes to make a switch from the status quo. But
unless we are willing to re-examine what we can do better on a daily basis, we can’t expect improvement.

Learning to identify barriers to improve service and then addressing them is at the core of Kind Dining.

The people at Villa Crest get it and I am proud to serve them.

She is a teenage girl, who sat at the front table during my Kind Dining seminar. I asked each person to pause and think of one thing they could do to improve their performance and make the experience for their residents better.

That’s when Turtle raised her hand.

“I know I’m slow at serving and with some skills and help I want to improve. They don’t call me ‘Turtle’ for nothing.”

The room fell silent. Eyes widened. Turtle’s co-workers seemed floored that she was aware of the same thing they all knew about her, and willing to admit it.

One of her co-workers spoke up next. “Some residents frustrate me so much I run into the kitchen and freak out!”

That was a Eureka moment! My workbook addresses the icebergs that are part of every work environment — those hidden emotions that lurk under the surface in all of us. To witness these two particular icebergs rise out of the water and begin to thaw was one of the most gratifying experiences of my entire trip to New Hampshire.

It’s those small admissions, and the beginning of communication, that can make a difference in dining service and bring higher quality care to residents. And that’s what I’m trying to do.

Thank you, Turtle.

I share that learning new skills which help us become closer to the people we love, the people we work with, and the broader community we live in, is what ultimately energizes us to be genuine in our relationships and who we are.

I am heading on a 10 day vacation.  I look forward to relaxing in the sun, eating great food, and roaming through beautiful coastline.  The best news is that 4 days after I return, I will be teaching another Kind Dining class in Portland and then heading to New Hampshire to teach my first class  on the East Coast!!!   Thank you for supporting service training. Stay tuned!

This years conference  theme was Communities: Inside Out.  Participants were challenged to rethink their notion of community and be open let go of the past and envision future community models that might better serve the diversity, lifestyles and personal needs of future aging residents.

Communities: Inside Out resonates with me as I believe the key to restructuring for the future begins now, by optimizing the dining experience for residents through educating and training dining servers.

When we rethink how vital their role is to business success; it becomes easy to commit to nurture, train, and change behaviors from the inside out.   Find out more on how to change  server behaviors today, in my next article in RetirementHome.com. Changing from the Inside Out with Best Dining Practices.

As we each continue to recover from “life without Evelyn in it”  I am struck by the personal growth that happens in life during the most challenging of times and circumstances.  I had a friend while living in Alaska who’s mantra became, “What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger”.  He wasn’t much older than me, but had experienced great loss, and yet managed to maintain an attitude of hope and humor.

I’m seeing, that no matter what age we are, life is a continual renewal of learning and searching for our own sense of purpose and meaning. I feel a renewed sense of excitement and hope today.

These are the same behaviors we develop and reinforce in Kind Dining training, modules 1,4,5,6.   Food servers are expected to universally convey feelings of welcome, respect, and to demonstrate proper etiquette around serving meals, but many don’t know how.