Wonderful, Harrison and everybody. Thank you.
I will have my first talk about an OS for a strategic planning meeting this Friday morning with the head of a large institution with sheltered workshops. The Swiss laws have been changed drastically, giving handicapped people more responsibility for what services they want to buy (the money will go to them instead of to the institutions in the future), and this needs to be implemented by the organisations. This thread couldnt have been timed with more perfection!!! With love, Catherine Catherine Pfaehler Senn lic.oec.HSG Open Space Begleitung Kellersriedweg 8 CH - 2503 Biel +41-(0)32 - 365 68 41 c.pfaeh...@bluewin.ch _____ Von: Harrison Owen [mailto:hho...@verizon.net] Gesendet: Dienstag, 11. März 2008 20:31 Betreff: Re: OS with and for elderly, mental health consumers and others [long] A Mental Health Story I know I have told this one several times, but I cant find what I wrote so here goes again. Seems like there is a large sheltered workshop program in Canada, the name of which has escaped my brain. Their leadership came to an OS training, and upon their return home they tried out OS for their annual strategic planning. To save money they did it in one of their facilities. When things started they found that a number of the chairs had been filled by the clients. There was some discussion as to what to do and the decision was to proceed. Everything worked just like usual, although some of the clients had some difficulty writing their issues, but the staff helped. In short no problem. Many months after the event, the director wrote me a note describing a most unexpected result from the Open Space. They had just finished doing their end of the year financial report and made a most interesting discovery. They were able to provide twice the level of service for the same amount of money. It turned out that half of the services previously offered the clients neither wanted nor needed, but nobody had ever really talked to them (clients) before. So the services were canceled and the money reallocated. Cool! After another year I got another note from the director. They had just completed their assessments of the clients in terms of coping skills (ability to get along in the world). Major discovery those clients who had participated in Open Space (and by that time OS had become a regular part of that facilitys business) demonstrated the highest jump in scores that anybody had ever seen. The director concluded by saying that although she was sure that I had never thought of Open Space as a treatment modality it was in fact the most powerful one they had ever encountered. Way cool! Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ----------------------------- To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ----------------------------- To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
