Stephen Shields, CEO,and guest speaker at Ecumen’s Leadership ConferenceMeadowlark Hills Retirement Community, Manhattan, KansasEvery year Ecumen leaders from around the region get together for our daylong leadership conference in the Twin Cities. A big highlight is always our annual innovation awards, which grew out of the Ecumen Innovation Station.We also always have fabulous speakers. This year one of the speakers was Stephen Shields, CEO of Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community in Manhattan, Kansas, who spoke on how we the people have the power to transform long-term care from an institutional-laden profession to one that is completely focused on empowering the person (and customer) we serve. Steve just greatly connected with his audience and was a hugely entertaining and engaging speaker.Here’s an interview with Steve at Commonwealthfund.org. While much of the press on Steve is focused on changing the culture in nursing homes (See CBS Good Morning Story), his transformation story applies to any profession seeking and working on big-time change. We greatly enjoyed him.