Forum recap | Change management: best practices for championing the new operating model
People, process, and technology: How Windsor’s team turned centralization into a company-wide movement and rewrote the playbook on organizational change
In their presentation Windsor Communities didn’t just present a case study, they did what few companies are brave enough to do in front of a room full of their peers: open the hood, and show their full change management plan detailing how they moved to the new operating model. For context, Windsor is the 20th largest owner-operator on the NMHC top 50 list with 56,000 units, and they recently earned the #1 resident satisfaction honor with Grace Hill’s Kingsley Index for the fourth consecutive year.
Led by Tom Sloan (President), Kyle Audet (SVP, Operations), and Katie Davis (AVP, Operations), the session was part playbook, part therapy, part masterclass on how to guide a multifamily organization through massive change—and bring your people with you.
The first step: Living in “why”
For Windsor, the centralization journey didn’t begin with systems—it began with storytelling.
“We were scared to death,” Sloan said, recalling the early days. “We actually hired an executive coach… and she kind of grabbed me by the lapels and said, ‘You need to live in why for the next year.’”
They took that advice seriously. Rather than starting with tactics, the team developed a vision built around outcomes for three stakeholders: team members, residents, and investors. That vision—”by investing in people, process, and technology, our associates, customers, and investors will thrive”—became the foundation for Windsor 2025, a multi-year operating model transformation.
The team aligned every decision—tech stack, staffing model, KPIs, even career paths—to a clear standard: if it doesn’t improve the employee or customer experience, it’s not worth doing.
“Don’t bother if those things aren’t going to happen. We’re busy enough, and we have plenty of things to do,” Sloan said.
This shaped every layer of the transformation, from peer advisory groups to pilot sites to KPIs. For Windsor, change wasn’t just about building a better model — it was about building a better experience for the people running it and the renters living in it. “We talk about co-authoring a lot,” Sloan said. “One of the early commitments we made to the teams was ‘no surprises, you won’t get a memo that says your job changed. You’re going to co-author the new change.’ And that’s hard, and that takes time.”
“We talk about co-authoring a lot. One of the early commitments we made to the teams was ‘no surprises, you won’t get a memo that says your job changed. You’re going to co-author the new change.’ And that’s hard, and that takes time.”
— Tom Sloan, President, Windsor
A few years into their business transformation, here are some key outcomes:
- 75 centralized, mostly remote roles created
- 410 on-site roles restructured
- 25% reduction in on-site staffing from 2024
- 5% drop in overall turnover
- Extremely low attrition among centralized roles
Now that you know what they achieved, let’s dive into how they got there.
The blueprint behind Leasing 2.0, Maintenance 2.0, and centralized support
Windsor’s transformation wasn’t about trimming around the edges—it was a full redesign of how work gets done across the company through three key operational pillars:
- Support Services: Centralized admin and sales support
- Leasing 2.0: A new vertical with area leasing consultants, sales managers, and a VP of sales
- Maintenance 2.0: Flexible staffing, centralized tech, and cross-site collaboration
Rather than the traditional or status quo multifamily operating model of forcing every team member to be a generalist, Windsor created specialized roles, matching people to their strengths and supporting these roles with modern tech.
Centralized support services: offloading admin, unlocking potential
At the core of Windsor’s centralized operating model is a robust support services function—built to take high-friction, low-reward admin work off-site.
“Traditionally, [on-site associates] have had many different tasks they’ve been responsible for,” said Audet. “We really want to support them with specialized support—deposit accounting, resident payment support, lease processing. All these different things require a specialized skill set.”
In the new model, centralized roles are remote, tightly focused, and designed for efficiency. The payoff is twofold: better compliance and happier teams.
“We’ve seen really tremendous uptick in our late fee collections, our general fee compliance,” said Audet. “And very low turnover on the centralized team… Folks really love those jobs. They’re energized by those jobs.”
Leasing 2.0: designing real careers in sales
Historically, leasing roles were a launch pad—or a detour. High-performing salespeople often had nowhere to go except into administrative-focused roles that pulled them away from what they were best at: selling and working with people to build relationships.
Windsor flipped the script.
“We actually created a full sales vertical all the way to a VP-level role,” said Sloan. That included Area Leasing Consultants, Sales Managers, Area Sales Managers, and a new VP of Sales.
Maintenance 2.0: modern tools for a critical team
Maintenance 2.0 includes a rollout of centralized vendor management and invoicing support, along with new software to support mobile-first inspections, staffing visibility, and future AI integration.
“We want those folks out in the field dealing with issues,” said Audet. “We don’t want them sitting behind their desk working through POs and invoices.”
Building real feedback loops—not just suggestion boxes
The team built a multi-layered feedback ecosystem designed to surface insights, foster alignment, and—importantly—act on what they heard.
“When you think about a feedback loop, it’s definitely not like this,” said Davis motioning in a straight line. “It’s like this,” she said, making a twisty loop with her hand. “But the point is, you talk to people and you circle back. That’s the kind of loop we’re focused on.”
Windsor’s model is built on five interconnected components:
#1 Alignment committee – Composed of executive leaders, SVPs, and national representatives, this group set the tone for the vision, cadence, and expectations of the Windsor 2025 rollout.
#2 Core groups – Regional leadership teams aligned around each initiative and drew insight from associate surveys to identify friction points and opportunities.
#3 Six peer advisory groups – These groups were made up of top performers across roles—top sales agents, assistant managers, property managers, service managers, divisional managers, and regional maintenance leaders—who met monthly and served as co-authors of change.
The Peer advisory groups were integral to the Windsor 2025 initiative. To frame their role as a part of the peer advisory committee Davis told them “‘We’re going to tell you really hard things, and sometimes you can share them with your coworkers after this, and sometimes these are just thoughts we want to explore with you, and we need you to keep them to yourself. Can you do that?’ We promise in return, you can tell us exactly how you feel and why this will work and maybe why this won’t work.” The advisory group co-authored the story with her and the Windsor team.
“They helped us write the new job descriptions, line by line,” said Davis. “They identified the high-value activities for their new roles. They helped us build the enablement dashboards. They reviewed KPIs for bonus plans… They really pushed us.”
“They helped us write the new job descriptions, line by line. They identified the high-value activities for their new roles. They helped us build the enablement dashboards. They reviewed KPIs for bonus plans… They really pushed us.”
— Katie Davis, AVP Operations, Windsor
In short, they didn’t roll out new jobs to their teams—they built those jobs with them.
#4 Pilot sites – With new tech and structures rolling out market-by-market, small group pilots allowed Windsor to test assumptions, iterate fast, and gather hands-on feedback before wider implementation.
#5 On-site communication network – Role sponsors, town hall meetings, SharePoint libraries, newsletters, and even Teams chats made up the final distribution layer—ensuring the messages from leadership didn’t just cascade, but land.
“We did leadership calls. We did national Town Hall calls. We did the same presentation 45 times in some cases,” Davis said. “We told the teams, ‘We’ll do it for 5 people or 50. Just tell us what you need to hear again.’”
What made it work was the relentless follow-through. Every listening tour, every advisory call, every pilot site was connected to a transparent action plan.
The team would listen to feedback and take action simultaneously. “I take all the notes, and start assigning them to people,” said Davis “You might not even be at the meeting, and you’re going to get an assignment from me. Then we track those items, and report back.”
This wasn’t just process for process’s sake—it built trust. “If you’re going to ask your teams what they think, make sure you’re ready and prepared to do something with it. Because their feedback is so valuable,” said Davis.
“If you’re going to ask your teams what they think, make sure you’re ready and prepared to do something with it. Because their feedback is so valuable.”
— Katie Davis, AVP Operations, Windsor
What’s in it for your teams—Making the business case personal, not just practical
Windsor’s leadership recognized that traditional business case framing—efficiency, policy compliance—wouldn’t inspire.
“People aren’t going to be jumping up and down saying, ‘Yay, efficiency! Yes, compliance with policy!’” said Audet. “So we really broke it down into what’s in it for them.”
“People aren’t going to be jumping up and down saying, ‘Yay, efficiency! Yes, compliance with policy!’ So we really broke it down into what’s in it for them.”
— Kyle Audet, SVP Operations, Windsor
Additionally, after switching to Funnel’s renter-centric® CRM they had new metrics, and data that they’d never had visibility into before to guide their performance and KPIs in carrying out their initiative. From the clarity that this new reporting structure guided the Funnel team then narrowed their focus to a small number of KPIs for their newly created roles.
“It’s generally four or so KPIs for each role,” said Audet. “Each one needs to be impactful.”
Those KPIs became the basis for a total revamp of bonus structures. The results were immediate.
“When we originally rolled out, tasks generally weren’t getting completed. You bonus someone on it, and now we’re at 90-plus percent for completion of those tasks,” he said.
“You bonus someone on it, and now we’re at 90-plus percent for completion of those tasks.”
— Kyle Audet, SVP Operations, Windsor
“We had a leasing associate that got $20,000 in leasing bonuses last month for one month,” Audet said. “If you have motivated, true sales professionals having the ability to work across sites and go to where the opportunity [or available inventory] lies is hugely impactful for them. If you’re just working at one site, you’re 1% availability, not a whole lot of opportunity. If you’re a true salesperson, you’re not going to stick around.”
“We had a leasing associate that got $20,000 in leasing bonuses last month for one month.”
— Kyle Audet, SVP Operations, Windsor
All performance pay is now tied to those KPIs. “We’ve reset all the incentive pay based on the KPIs,” said Sloan. “And for the sales side, we’ve come up with a few different programs.”
Among them: guided tour bonuses based on lease value, quarterly leaderboard prizes, and a company-paid trip to the annual Ops Conference for top performers.
Lead with “curious, not furious”
Like any major operational overhaul, Windsor’s transformation had its friction points. But instead of ignoring them—or reacting defensively—the team leaned into their feedback systems with humility and urgency.
“We try to lead with curious, not furious,” said Katie Davis. “So if we see a team that’s well below their peers, from a statistic standpoint, we call them and we’re like, ‘Talk us through what’s going on. Your peers are here, you’re here. We’re curious, not furious—but what’s happening?’”
“We try to lead with curious, not furious. So if we see a team that’s well below their peers, from a statistic standpoint, we call them and we’re like, ‘Talk us through what’s going on. Your peers are here, you’re here. We’re curious, not furious—but what’s happening?’”
— Katie Davis, AVP Operations, Windsor
That mindset showed up not just in one-on-one conversations, but in how the entire organization handled misalignment.
“We had disagreements,” said Tom Sloan. “We have senior VPs in regional roles, and in the past, they ran very different, sort of independent businesses. So the challenge was, how do we get people singing from the same page?”
Windsor didn’t try to resolve every conflict through Zoom. When a region resisted the new model, they responded in person.
“Our Houston teams were like, ‘No thank you. We’ll just do it the old way,’” said Davis. “And Kyle and I were like, ‘No, you won’t—but we’ll be there.’ So a bunch of us got on a plane.”
What they walked into wasn’t hostility—it was energy.
“The Houston teams were immediately excited,” Davis recalled. “They welcomed us with balloons—it was a whole thing—and they did a presentation about all the things that were going great.”
That presentation was part of Windsor’s structured approach to gathering feedback: start with what’s working, then get into what’s not. “It helps us as a group remain in perspective—like, everything’s not going wrong. Everything’s not falling apart,” said Davis. “So tell us about what’s working… and then let’s get into the hard stuff.”
The result of those listening sessions wasn’t just empathy—it was action. “We report back to the SVPs, ‘Here’s what we’re going to tackle—these 18 items,’” Davis said. “So then the whole country knows what we’re working on. And when we go to another listening tour, we hear new things—we don’t have to recycle the pain points that maybe our Houston team already surfaced for us.”
That clarity and transparency helped teams trust the process—even when the changes were hard. As Davis put it, “They’ll tell us great things—why the process isn’t working for them, or maybe it’s a training issue—and we can step in and help them reach their goals, which is attached to their bonus and our goals from an operating standpoint.”
Final takeaway: Change that sticks is co-written
Windsor’s transformation wasn’t just a change initiative—it was a cultural movement fueled by radical transparency, data-driven simplicity, and relentless listening.
As Sloan summed it up “If we go buy new technologies and we introduce them, they have to make the on-site employee experience better.”
“If we go buy new technologies and we introduce them, they have to make the on-site employee experience better.”
—Tom Sloan, President, Windsor
Windsor didn’t just upgrade their tech stack—they redefined what it means to lead change in multifamily, together.
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