For Schlegel Villages and the team members who work to bring the organization’s mission to life, 2021 has been an important year of both deep reflection and strategic envisioning of the future, all while still navigating the tumultuous water of pandemic. Yes, COVID-19 became the focus when it struck in early 2020 but, as difficult as it has been, Village teams and the organization’s leadership were still focused on achieving goals laid out in the 2016 five-year strategic plan.
Upon reflection, so much has been achieved in the past five years, despite the recent challenges:
- Signature programs and foundational education were created to ensure our core culture and philosophy could be replicated and embraced by every leader and team member;
- Our Retirement Home offerings expanded in multiple locations, creating thriving Village continuums for the community of people who live, work and volunteer within them;
- A quality framework was born, representing our never-ending desire to do things better;
- The Community Hub model began to attract like-minded partners as we expanded this concept at several Villages;
- The spirit of Research to Practice took deeper roots by celebrating and spreading improvements at annual Innovation Summits, while committing to nurture Innovation Teams across Schlegel Villages;
- The Schlegel Story has been told, capturing the family heritage lived by three generations and passed along to all who are welcomed to Schlegel Villages;
- A celebration of our culture change journey occurred to recognize our commitment to the social model of living.
Genuine and Humble; Hardworking and Hands-on;
Caring Relationships; Persistence and Passion;
Positive Can-do Attitude; Creative and Innovative
There has been much to celebrate in terms or recent achievements, but to move forward is to continue to bring the organization’s mission to life in more communities, so a new five-year strategic plan has been developed to look ahead to 2026. This plan, and all the growth in people and space it represents, is rooted in the redefined values that drive the organization.
The first value is Genuine and Humble; the second is Hardworking and Hands-on; Caring Relationships is the third; the fourth is Persistence and Passion; the fifth is Positive Can-do Attitude; and the final value is Creative and Innovative. In a family business such as Schlegel Villages, these values come from within; they have been passed down through generations to become an intrinsic part of the culture of the organization, and they are something the Schlegel family is proud of.
These values “should challenge us every day in what we do when we get up in the morning,” says Brad Schlegel, vice-president of design and construction with Schlegel Villages. “We must think: ‘am I living up to these values and how do I express these values?’
“As we grow, we realize how vital the culture is to the organization and to our success,” says president and CEO Jamie Schlegel. “It's the ethos within which everything happens, and all the innovative programs, all the research-driven innovation, all the excellence that occurs within an organization happens within the culture.”
Jamie, Brad and their brother Rob, who is the organization’s vice-president of finance, credit their father Ron and their grandparents for the drive they have to serve others.
“We had a lot of role models that we've learned from,” says Rob, “and I think that other people see it in us now at the Villages. We had people that were very strong role models for us and it just came naturally to Brad, Jamie, and myself when you have that many strong role models.”
As the organization looks ahead to a period of remarkable growth in a rapidly changing healthcare sector where the demand for not only skilled, compassionate team members, a foundation of firm values is a must. In all they do, the Schlegel family lives these values in the service of others and thus, they are humble role models as well. Please click here to watch an interview with the founders and leaders of the Schlegel Villages organization, and learn where the seeds of these values were first planted.
