Meet Leigh Ann Barney

Changemakers 2023

By Natalie Mahn on Jun 26, 2023 in Senior Living

Make way for another senior living Changemaker — Leigh Ann Barney, president and CEO of Trilogy Health Services. As a 2023 honoree in the esteemed series, Barney joined Senior Housing News (SHN) to discuss her experiences in the industry, her lessons learned and her best-kept advice for serving the next generation of seniors.

We’re pleased to continue sharing interviews like Barney’s, proudly sponsoring the Changemakers series for the fifth year in a row. Read more about the Changemakers initiative for 2023.

Leigh Ann Barney named 2023 Changemaker

In navigating the many challenges the senior living industry has faced, Leigh Ann Barney has developed thoughtful strategies for how to pivot, change and grow. And according to her detailed interview with SHN, Barney believes more challenges and changes are on the horizon.  

SHN: What are some ways that you think the senior living industry needs to change in the next five years?

Barney: I think a lot of operators are thinking about this right now. Being in the industry for a long time, we all see the shift in clinical needs. People do not want to go into the highest level of healthcare setting if they don’t have to. Senior housing is becoming more clinically focused, and I wouldn’t say even as much from a treatment standpoint although that is part of what we do. It’s also the wellness component. People want us to be kept well as long as possible. They’re much more focused on that. I think as senior housing operators, we’re going to be offering clinical services to help people remain independent. We will try to keep people living the lifestyle they want they want to live for as long as possible, whether that’s independent living or assisted living or whatever meets their needs. Maybe it’s using third parties to help offer those services.

We’ve been talking for years about the boomer generation and preparing for the boomer generation. We’re just now starting to see that changing consumer demand, and there’s been a lot of research done through different organizations to show what this consumer is looking for versus the consumer that we’ve been serving, which is more the Greatest Generation.

As the boomers come along, they want different things in their food, their life enrichment activities, amenities, all those types of things. I think we’ve been talking about it for a long time, but now we’re really at the cusp of it.

SHN: This next one starts with a statement, changemakers tend to be risk takers. Do you agree with that statement? How do you describe your own appetite for risk?

Barney: I don’t know that I think that you have to be a risk taker to be a changemaker.

How I would put it is, I think you can be well-planned for change and try to minimize the risk. That’s probably more how I look at things. If you think about how we do things through our Trilogy Way Council, we’re trying to minimize risk there. Of course, then you get to the decision point and maybe there’s still some risk to it.

I always like to refer back to reading Jim Collins, his book “Good to Great.” He talks about firing cannonballs and the concept of not using all your gunpowder for one cannonball that you fire where you may have a complete miss. In that case, then you need to buy more gunpowder. Instead, take smaller amounts of your gunpowder and go forward with these pilots.

How we do it through the Trilogy Way Council is we test things and see what works. Then you haven’t gone out with one big thing that didn’t work or failed, but you try a lot of smaller things, and then you see what you like and what really works and what serves your needs. Then from there, you put more resources behind that to make it successful. That’s a way that you minimize your risk, but still, you’re always thinking about change and how to innovate.

Read Leigh Ann Barney’s SHN interview

There’s more shared in Leigh Ann Barney’s interview, so be sure to read the rest of her insights.

If you have questions for us here at Yardi regarding our dynamic senior living solutions, feel free to schedule time to connect!