We are all surrounded by language that sounds right. Vision statements, value frameworks, strategic pillars. Phrases that work in boardrooms and annual reports because they are carefully constructed and then polished and polished again.
But those do not always translate down to the ground floor where they meet the Veteran heroes we serve and the families who love them. Their lived experiences and perspectives can be entirely different.
So what do our resident Veterans and their families really say about life at our State Veterans Homes when they know their responses are anonymous?
To answer that question, we at HMR Veterans Services embarked on a journey to understand their viewpoints, and do so without any ability to manipulate their words.
Each year, we work with an independent partner to collect satisfaction comments from residents and their family members. This year, instead of just summarizing those comments through the narrative approach we usually employ, we processed them by generating a word cloud based on word frequency and unedited feedback.
When we step back and look at the results, certain words dominate:
- Care
- Dignity
- Respect
- Team
- Friendly
- Compassion
Those words are not ours. They are spoken by our Veteran residents and their families. That distinction is critical.
The resulting word cloud does not persuade or interpret. Rather, it aggregates, reflects what people actually said, and analyzes repetition to determine prominence.
Our word cloud is earned: it reveals how the Veteran heroes we serve and their families experience HMR when no one is guiding the response.
That absence of control—whether no editorial judgement, or no opportunity to elevate the flattering and soften the inconvenient—is exactly what gives this initiative its value.
Aggregating unfiltered feedback requires both confidence and humility. Those are not opposing forces: leaders can be confident enough in the underlying work to visually present the results, while recognizing the possibility that they will have to practice humility and confront problems if the dominant words are not what they were hoping the project would produce.
The image accompanying this article is a visual summary of 2025 as experienced by those we serve at HMR. It reflects the daily discipline of clinicians, care teams, administrators, and associates across our communities. It also illustrates the consistency of expectations throughout all the regions we operate in, as well as our systems, accountability, training, and leadership.
Most of all: though, the word cloud reflects HMR’s culture.
At some point, every leader encounters the question: Do we trust the language we craft about ourselves, or the language others use when describing us?
The former preserves control while the latter requires courage. And in my experience, organizations that improve are the ones willing to look in the mirror first, then build from what they see.
