Meet Accra’s New CEO Colin Raymond – Podcast

Jason Dorow
Hi everybody, and welcome to another episode of the champions of home care podcast. David, we have a big guest to introduce folks to today.

David Hancox
We do. It's nice to see you again, Jason, and I hope you're having a great summer. And as you just mentioned on today's episode. We have some really big news to share with our listeners, something that we talked about earlier this summer. But Accra has recently appointed a new CEO. His name is Colin Raymond, and naturally, we thought the best way to introduce him to all of our clients, caregivers and other listeners out there would be to have him on a podcast, so let's welcome him to the podcast, Colin, thanks for taking time to join us. And hey, congratulations on your new role at Accra.

Colin Raymond
Thank you. It's a huge honor to be here. Dave and I, before coming to Accra, I was an avid listener of the podcast, so excited to participate. Thanks for having me on and we're

Jason Dorow
thrilled to have you here, Colin, to get us started. Could you tell us about your career path and how you wound up joining Accra?

Colin Raymond
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Jason, it's a little bit of a non traditional path. I've sort of taken this meandering route to get to Accra, but military service has played a really deep role in my family ever since World War Two, actually. So when it became my turn to go to college after my grandpa, my dad and my brother all served in the Army, it kind of felt like I was joining the family business a little bit. And so I felt called to serve. I felt this strong draw and connection to military service, and I was tremendously blessed to be an infantry officer for a number of years, deployed to Afghanistan. And really came to a point in my military career where, you know, I thought to myself, is this a 20 year thing, or is it not? And, you know, my first 18 months of marriage, I was gone or deployed for 12 of them. So as my wife and I thought about the future and sort of where our life would go, we decided to step away. And as you may know, like being in the military, it's a very, very high stakes type of profession, and I just couldn't see myself doing something that was low stakes. So healthcare, naturally, was on the radar as as a place where I could drive like a really strong sense of fulfillment and and so made the jump into into the civilian world and joined a kidney care company that was primarily fee for service. And my entire career has been in positions of leadership. And so really enjoyed my time in kidney care. Made a bit of a two year hiatus into into primary care and and then sort of the next chapter of my career was back into kidney care, but more into the value based type of environment, and the through line, all through that is really under serving or serving underserved populations, that that was really sort of what made me tick and sort of drew that sense of fulfillment, is when you're leading teams of people that have given a lifetime of work to taking care of the underserved, no matter their health status, no matter sort of their background in life, that's something that feels meaningful. And so I've always sort of pursued types of professions that that were, you know, full of meaning. And one of the things I noticed about about Accra is that, you know, Accra was just so heavily focused on on the home and giving people a sense of self direction to where they could maintain stability. And so that's, that's what brought me to Accra. It felt like the logical next step.

David Hancox
Sounds great. And obviously, also with some of the background that you just shared, it gives some idea of what actually drew you to that home care space, as well as you just mentioned. So I mean, with that in mind, and knowing a little bit more about your background now, what is it specifically that is motivating you about leaving Accra and what do you kind of see as your vision for taking Acura to its next stage of life?

Colin Raymond
Yeah, no, it's a good question, Dave. I mean, home, home is where the heart is. It sounds like a cheesy, cliche thing to say, but people want to be home, right? They don't want to be in a hospital bed. They don't want to be in institutions. They don't want to be in places where their cherished memories and experiences and relationships are not right. And so, you know, Accra is sort of this wonderful organization that has built this unbelievable foundation over 30 years of service to Minnesotans. And so I really think that Accra, in particular, the thing that motivates me the most is just the the amount of potential that there is in this organization that is just this long dedicated history to serving people who who really desperately need the services that are provided through Accra. Um. And the other element that's that's kind of intriguing to me about, about it is that Accra sort of this one. Stop Shop for home care. You know, there are a lot of agencies in PCA, agencies in the state of Minnesota there. There are a handful of of FMS programs. There are a handful of 240, 5b programs. But it's actually quite rare that you have all of those services under one roof. And so Accra, I think, is, is a special place for that reason. Well,

David Hancox
thank I think you're absolutely right and and I think you're you touched on something else that I think is very important, as well as that, to have the variety of services that Accra provides under that one roof is a bit unique. You don't see that in very many organizations, not just within Minnesota, but even nationally. So I appreciate you calling that out a bit with that in mind, and I think about all the different challenges that are being faced right now by individuals who are in that home care space, people who are Medicaid recipients in particular, and 99.6% of the clients served by Acra are Medicaid recipients. So with that in mind, what what are you identifying as the biggest challenges facing home care today? And how do you envision moving Accra forward as it has to respond to those challenges?

Colin Raymond
You know, it's such an important question Dave and myself, being two months in, I'd be, I'd be lying to tell you that I've got it all figured out. So a big, a big part of my job, both now and into the future, is just, is to listen. And so where I'm starting with is actually, you know, visiting some of our clients in the home, right? So I shadowed several of our supervising professionals who do great work out in the community, and some of our clients were kind enough to welcome me in they actually didn't know who I was, but they just knew I was a colleague of the Supervisory professional. So it was a little bit of a an undercover boss type situation. But I think ultimately, what I'm hearing from our clients is that this new environment is increasingly fragmented. It's increasingly difficult to navigate. Some of the challenges that I'm hearing from people are that, you know, it may take however much time to get on medical assistance, but, but then, you know, some of our counties are understaffed. You know, some of our counties, you know, are six months out in terms of getting an assessment done. It may take another three months to get consultation done, and then that's where we reach them, for the very first time, is in the intake process. And so it's really important for us to sort of take this environment where there's confusion and frustration, and turn that into in the very first conversation we have with our new clients, into clarity and hope. Because again, that's a nine month process for some of our new clients that they've gone through, and we have to be highly compassionate in those first conversations to help them navigate again, an increasingly complex and fragmented ecosystem. So the challenges around around home care are similar to the challenges of anywhere else in Health and Human Services and its staffing. You know, fortunately, the thing that I've noticed very early on at Accra is we have this wonderful culture where it's not uncommon for us to have 1015, year veterans at Accra, in a place where it's really common for people to Job hop. You know, every two or three years, I bump into people every single day at Accra who have been with the organization for 10 plus years. And that's that's really, really unique. You don't often find that, and so we're really blessed to have this, this core group of people who have dedicated again, you know, much of their professional lives in the same space to the same people, and that continuity of care for for our clients is really, really important. It takes a lot of trust building in those early years to really feel comfortable, and sometimes, you know when, when you've got rampant turnover in whatever part of the ecosystem, it just creates a lot of frustration and concern. You know,

David Hancox
I don't know if you experienced this in any of the home visits that you shadowed on or not, but we also reflecting on what you just said about the longevity of some of the Acra employees, if you drill that down to the direct care level, we have several direct care folks, PCAs, individual PCAs, who have been with their clients for 1520 I know of one case in particular where the PCA has Been with the same client for over 30 years. Incredible. It just plays to that as you were saying, that continuity of care and that trust and the confidence that comes with that. So, you know, I see that embodied within Acra, as well as not just at the the backroom services or the. The, I don't know what we would more specifically call it, but you know the services that are provided by the QPS or the SPS or folks like yourself or whatever, but on that direct care level, that continuity of care, is really well demonstrated within Acra as well. And it kind of it kind of makes me think of that next question that is in my mind is, with all of that in mind and with the varied experience that you've had in the in your background, what are some ideas that are kind of knocking around in your head that might be, and I don't mean necessarily with Accra specifically, but in home care in general, ways that it home care could be improved, that it could be made more accessible or more equitable for folks.

Colin Raymond
Yeah, no. Thanks, Dave. I mean one thing that I think home care in general, especially through CFSS care coordination at every step in the process of sort of that client journey to make sure that the handoffs between these steps need to be very, very thoughtful, right, that they need to be very, very thoughtful. And we live in sort of this age, right, where expediency is really valued. Everyone wants two day delivery from from Amazon. And for some people, you know, two day delivery was like, that's an afterthought that was like, three years ago. They want same day delivery, right? So we have this, right? This. Need to send really, really expedient communications that sort of get the job done quickly so we can kind of go to the next task. I actually think we need to be a lot higher touch. I would love it if we had, you know, handoffs between steps in the process that involved, you know, the client on the phone with the case manager with the home care agency, right, or the consultation provider with their client after a meeting that also involved, you know the home care organization. So that you know those, those touch points and those handoffs are just seamless and really, really high touch. It's very, very hard to be high touch and high tech, right? Usually, our technology makes things more expedient, but we have to find ways to sort of help with that, because ultimately, you know, the people who we're serving need to have that level of confidence that they understand sort of the next phase in the process. So that's kind of how I think about some of the care coordination, Dave, there are likely many, many other things that we can do, you know, to improve that experience.

David Hancox
Well, you know, I interesting to you hear you use the phrase high touch, because I think I agree with you 100% what you described. And I think when you when you have that kind of approach, or that high touch, those best practices become part of your culture and become part of the embedded, you know, procedures that happen on a regular basis that also leads to a higher degree of self direction by clients, by the individuals who need and use the services that are provided by Accra. And the more engagement that you can have in self people self directing those services, the better outcomes you have, because they have more at stake as well. They're more participatory. They're more engaged in that decision making. And I so I'm really, really, really happy to hear you talk about that. I think those are important. And it is very easy, as we know, in any home care or health care circumstance, it's very easy to become so enamored with the process that we sometimes forget about the people, yes, the procedure that it has to be paid attention to. It's the process, and we forget, yeah, the end user is actually, you know, the individual with the disability or their family member. And that there's a saying that came out of the self advocacy movement in England originally, but it's now widely used here in the United States as well as in the saying is nothing about us, without us. And I think what you described in that high touch kind of approach really does a lot to engage the individual in self, directing their own care, so it really puts them in the room when those things are happening. So and I think that

Colin Raymond
I'm sorry, totally agree, Dave, one thing I was going to add is that I was actually in our Mankato office a couple of days ago. And, you know, one of our, one of our staff, you know, mentioned that other organizations that she worked at, you know, there was just this over emphasis on metrics and scorecards every single day we were, you know, she was just shared with me that she was being inundated with all this information and kind of these metrics, and she was sharing with me that that Acra seems to have this sort of compassionate approach, right? And it's, it's less heavily influenced by sort of these things. Things and and I totally agree, like they're behind every metric. There's a human being, right? And so we can never be in the business of driving metrics. To drive metrics. There's that there's a human element to everything that we do. And so it to me that's incredibly important to sustain

David Hancox
Well, you know. And I thank you for sharing that. And I, I think that, again, that high touch approach gives a little bit of an insight into some of your core values, I think, as well. So could you just talk for a couple of minutes about what you would identify as the core values, or the principles that you would really like to see Accra live by? Yeah,

Colin Raymond
and you were actually in the supervisory meeting that we had with all 70 of our of our managers across Accra. So I'll kind of summarize them again. But for me there, there are sort of three leadership pillars that I hope our leadership team at Accra can can live by. And the first is service before self. I think it's radically important in any work that gets done, in in home care, that we think about the people that we serve first. So to me, that that means clients and caregivers first. It means, you know, Accra employees a close second, and they're, they're almost neck and neck, and I'll share why in a minute. And we have to put ourselves, you know, at the bottom of the list, we have to put ourselves, have to put ourselves a distant third. And whenever we get those sort of priorities out of whack, or we, you know, we put, you know, the distance between those priorities gets, gets muddled. You know, we lose our true north, and so we have to have this orientation of service before self is sort of the first element. Now, self isn't off of the list, because if we burn out, then we're no good to anyone. So we have to think about self care, and we have to think about all those different elements as well, but it's a general orientation about how we engage with the work. The second is Extreme Ownership, and this kind of comes from my time in the army, but it's this idea that we should be giving away more than our fair share of the credit and accepting more than our fair share of the responsibility when things don't go well. So when things are great, we give away more than our fair share of the credit, and when things don't go well, we accept more than our fair share of the blame. And if we do that, then it's a lot easier to be sort of problem, or, excuse me, solution oriented versus problem oriented. And the last piece, and I'm excited about this one too, because I think the team is very, very hungry for this, is this idea of relentless growth. And to me, if I'm the same person tomorrow as I am today, I'm probably already behind, because this industry is moving so fast that it's already moved faster than me, if I haven't skilled myself better in sort of a new way every single day. And so every single leader at Acura, I think, needs to have some kind of a professional development plan, and that can look different to different people. Right? It might be, it might be listening to the champions of home care podcast is kind of professional development for some people. For a nerd like me, it's usually reading books, but there's not a right answer to it. Some people want to go back to the schoolhouse and get an advanced degree, and so I'd love to see you support that. But ultimately, if we're going to serve at our highest level, we have to be relentlessly focused on our own professional growth. So those are just a few of the values that that are very, very important to me.

David Hancox
You know, the second point that you talked about it and sharing the celebration of the successes, you know, making sure that that gets spread far and wide, reminds me of one of the Golden piece of advice that was given to me by my grandmother years and years and years ago. She said, you know, David, always remember that there's no telling how far you can go in life if you don't care who gets the credit. And I just think that is so true, because it I mean, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep your eye on the prize, which I think is part of your third point there is that constant pursuit of excellence is keeping your eye on that prize, but that pursuit becomes so much more intentional if your focus is not necessarily on getting the recognition for that, if it's just in the pleasure and the joy of the work and the success that you have with your colleagues and the care recipients and so forth. So that I those three values, I think, and I do recall you sharing them in the managers meeting of the Supervisory meeting, and being so impressed with them, because every one of those three is so very, very intentional. And I think that in in this endeavor that we're all involved in, I mean, it's, I hate to call it. I've been at this a long, long time, and I I still don't think of it as a job, because I just enjoy it so much every day, so But I thank you for sharing those. I think those are really valuable. And I think a lot of our listeners already know that that. Um, are they and they've met, or in some way, they've heard from our former CEO, John DOM, and while John is no longer the CEO, he's not going away, as we know he's will continue to serve as the executive chairman through the end of the year. But this kind of a transition. I mean, John has been CEO since 2011 you're only the third CEO of this company that's been around for like, 35 years. So I think it might be interesting for our listeners to kind of hear how this transition is taking place, how you and John are working together to make this kind of a seamless I mean, I see it every day, but our listeners obviously don't have that, that privilege, so I wonder if you might just talk about that for a little bit how you and John are have been working together to make this as seamless a transition as possible.

Colin Raymond
Yeah, Dave, the truth is I'm very spoiled. I am incredibly spoiled in that usually leadership transitions don't go this smoothly. Yeah, they don't have the kind of alignment that John and I have and the working relationship that we have and the support that I'm getting from from this transition process. And so, you know, you read books about, you know, these types of transitions that are, you know, rife with politics and all this stuff. And really, nothing could be further from that in my experience over the last two months. And so, you know, the working relationship with John has been great. He has been very, very, very open to the idea of me sort of setting, setting pace. He's provided me, you know, lots of great guidance and sort of feedback on some strategic ideas for for Accra. And ultimately, I think that's sort of a testament right to his thoughtfulness over the past few years of really thinking through, you know, how can Accra be set up for success for the long term? And it takes an incredible amount of wisdom to be forward thinking and to know that, hey, there's a point at which I need to start fading away, and there's a point at which I need to pass the baton. And so it's not just the last two months, but it's actually over the course of a couple of years that John has been kind of preparing for this handoff, and it really shows in how smooth it's been. I really have been the beneficiary of a ton of support and guidance and and really, sort of my my introduction to Accra has been smoother than I could have, could have imagined. And thanks to John,

David Hancox
yeah, and it's, it's interesting to hear you describe it in that way, because obviously I've had a very privileged to have a bit of a unique observational post, to kind of be a half a step behind the two of you, but watching the transition and playing a part in to it in some degree, but it's been, really, I would echo exactly what you've said, how smooth and seamless the transition seems to have been, and how compatible the new leadership team is with the exiting leadership team and and I think, really, I would anybody who's listening to this podcast, our clients, or the direct caregivers or others, I'm sure some of them could be sitting at home thinking there's been a change. Really, I didn't even know that, because it's been so smooth. You know, personalities and new directions, but it has just been so smooth. One of the things I wanted to kind of close with, and you mentioned in your opening remarks, you mentioned your wife and your marriage and that. And I think it's always nice for our listeners and our clients, our customers, if you will, to have just a little bit of an insight into the human side of their leaders, right? So I don't want you to get overly personal, but maybe just talk for a little bit. I know you're a family person, so maybe just talk for a little bit about your family composition and so forth. Sure. No. Thanks. Thanks for the chance to be delighted to do so. We're a family of six. My wife and I have have four kids, and they range in ages eight to two. So it's, it's a boisterous household, three boys, one girl. They all played perfectly together, never argue, never fight. So it's Shangri La at your house, right?

Colin Raymond
That's right, yeah, you know, I used to have this, this, this sense, you know, before I became a father, that, you know, my family was going to look like the the von Trapps, and like I'd blow a whistle, and like, you know, all the kids so far from reality, but, but the truth is that, you know, our house is filled with a lot of joy, a lot of laughter and and we're, we're big into the outdoors. My wife and I have a have a bucket list goal of hiking every national park in the US and I. I'm like, maybe 17 national parks into it. She's got a few more than me. And so we've got a long way to go, but we really enjoy the outdoors, you know? We really enjoy sort of spending time in nature. And so that's a little bit about us well,

David Hancox
and then spending time in nature that kind of lends itself to the von trop family as well. So yeah, that's great. Christopher Plummer, swagger going on there. Colin, thank you so much for taking time to spend with us today and to record this podcast with us. I know that our listeners are going to be thrilled to hear from you and to hear your voice and your thoughts that you've shared. Is there any parting comment or message that you would like to share with the listeners?

Colin Raymond
No, just a just a word of gratitude. I'm truly humbled to serve Accra as its next CEO. It's a tremendous responsibility, because Acra has just come so far, and there's still so much potential for this organization to do good for many, many people. And so we actually had one of our responsible parties talk about recently the greater good that she is able to do for for her child receiving services because of the work that folks at Accra do each and every day. And so I'm just really committed to that greater good. I'm thrilled to be a part of it, and I'm really looking forward to the future. So thanks for giving me an opportunity to chat today. It was really fun.

David Hancox
Well, it's been a pleasure. And again, thank you so much for joining us today and and I have to say, as one of those individuals who's going to be part of that exiting group, what a pleasure it has been to have had the privilege to work with you these few months and for the next couple of months as well. And I wish you all the best of luck with your leadership of Accra. I have every confidence in the world that it's going to go well. So continued success to you and to Accra, and I'm here if you ever need me,

Colin Raymond
be careful what you wish for. Dave. Well,

David Hancox
you know, it's funny. I said that once before, years ago, I had served on the board of a center for independent living, and I'd done my two consecutive terms. I couldn't serve for a third term, and on my at my last board meeting, I said, Love the organization, love what we do, love how we do it, you know, if I can ever be of help. And six months later, they called me and they said, Well, your director just left. Can you come in certain and I was there for 17 and a half years as Executive Director. So your guidance, be careful what to ask for is well taken. I That happened to me once before. I don't anticipate it happening here, but you know, yeah, anyway, thank you, Colin, so very, very much for joining us today and again. Best of luck. Best of luck. Thank you so much.

Jason Dorow
Great pleasure. Thank you. Colin, well, another fascinating conversation, David, and hopefully inspiring for or builds confidence with a lot of the Accra caregivers, clients and other folks listening out there that Acura is going to be guided by such an outstanding leader with a great mind who's rooted in tremendous values between we talked about service, accountability and relentless growth, just a great foundation that sounds like Colin is helping you and the rest of the team lay at Accra. I

David Hancox
think you're absolutely right. And the one thing that I would like listeners to hopefully take away from the conversation that they just listened to is the fact that you hear Colin talk about his varied background and the different services that he's been involved in, and all in that healthcare world in one way or another, and the incredible sensitivity that he seems to approach his jobs with the authenticity and the intentional. I guess I should say intentionality for which he approaches that, and those are the things that have really impressed me about his leadership style to date, and I know will continue. So I hope that our listeners, you know, feel that sense of confidence in his leadership, because I think the next phase of Accras life is in good hands and will continue to be incredibly successful. But you have a couple of updates to share, don't you?

Jason Dorow
Yeah, we got a few things in the news and views. Do you want to start us off and tell us about the big milestone with the Americans with Disabilities?

David Hancox
Yeah, let me just talk about that, because it's really, it's it really fantastic. You know, we just had the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act that took place on July 26 and you know, as many of our listeners know, this is a landmark civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability and ensures equal opportunity for people with disabilities in various areas, like employment, transportation, public accommodations. How? Seeing, etc, the City of Minneapolis held a celebratory event yesterday, on July 30, from five to eight at the Minneapolis Public Service building downtown. And the event was designed to include a disability pride flag recognition and also story sharing and a panel discussion took place. So that was really, really, very, very exciting. And I think you have something you wanted to share about the Parks Service.

Jason Dorow
Yeah, we shared a similar update to this in a previous episode. But the Department of Natural Resources in Minnesota keeps expanding on the accessibility upgrades at state parks, which is such an awesome initiative. So the latest one is at William O'Brien State Park along the St Croix River. Some of the additions they've made there include a new canoe and kayak launch, larger swimming beach, two new accessible restroom buildings, as well as new All Terrain track chairs. And we've talked about those track chairs before, how they're available at a lot of different state parks, so folks who need them can get out and explore spaces within the parks that otherwise are unreachable. So there are new accessible routes to the picnic shelters and water's edge and lots of new opportunities out there at William O'Brien State Park along the St Croix.

David Hancox
That's fantastic. That's fantastic, and I hope people take advantage of that. So thank you for sharing that, Jason and you know to our listeners, thank you again for tuning in for another podcast, the champions of home care podcast here and Jason, why don't you, as you always do, please remind us and our listeners of where they can follow and review the champions of home care

Jason Dorow
podcast. Just head over to Spotify Apple podcasts or YouTube and search for champions of home care podcast, and you'll find

David Hancox
us there. Great. Jason, thank you. Another really good podcast recording. I thought this one was particularly enjoyable.

Jason Dorow
It was excellent. Thanks. Dave, all right, take care.