'Far more to us than anticipated'

[Alan Stewart]

G'day All

Here is a story of what you would well know as 'amazed but not surprised' emerging which you may enjoy.   

The letter below (distributed with permission) is from the CEO of a large aged care complex in Adelaide.
This person is enchanted by what he and many people associated with the enterprise he heads have experienced
from Open Space over the past year.  

He stated publicly last September that, since OST was introduced to the organisation about six months previously, 
a sense of 'all voices being heard' has taken hold and with this a more vibrant spirit was now in evidence in their everyday lives.  

Seemingly one manifestation of this was a 'spreading of wings' exercise which happened at Kalyra Vale, an offshoot of the 
city based facility. It is located in a small country town not far from Adelaide in South Australia.

The purpose for holding the OST day there earlier this year was to invite ideas from the local community about what other
services Kalyra Vale might offer beyond residential frail aged care. 

I wish you a joyful Easter period.

With love

Alan 
Adelaide

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas.  

I'm frightened of the old ones.                      

                                                                     John Cage


Dear Alan,                                                                                                                                       March 20, 2003

 

I would like to share with you a recent experience in our organisation where the Open Space day you conducted for our Kalyra Vale aged care residential facility at McLaren Vale, SA, meant far more to us than anticipated.

 

The ideas generated on the day by staff, residents, volunteers, community members, etc. gave us an excellent and exciting foundation on which to plan our next 3-5 years for Kalyra Vale.  This was no surprise really because we have experienced your approach before and knew that these positive outcomes would emerge.

 

The extra value added resulted as follows.

 

Firstly, a few residents from the adjacent local retirement village responded to our invitation for them to participate in the day, to learn from them what opportunities they would like to see being realised for our aged care facility.  These residents knew little about our operations but by the end of the morning's session they were so impressed with Kalyra Vale and the fact that it was seeking community consultation for its future development, they returned to their village and encouraged others to attend the afternoon session.  This occurred and we now have 12 new volunteers for Kalyra Vale to assist with caring for our residents.  Their latest request is for us to install a gate in the fence between our two properties so that they can access Kalyra Vale easier to undertake their volunteer activities.  As you say, treat people well and amazing things can happen!

 

Secondly, Kalyra Vale was recently re-accredited under the Aged Care Act and, in fact, applied for a Merit Award - something that is not easy to achieve.  One of the key considerations by the accreditors in this regard was how involved the facility's residents were in setting the organisation's vision.  We had an overall corporate vision for achievement by 2006 but could not claim that we had directly consulted with the residents in formulating this.  Sure, their and staff views would have reflected in the final wording of the vision, but direct consultation had not occurred.  

 

However, considering that we were talking specifically about Kalyra Vale for this Merit Award, we realised that the recently conducted Open Space day, which involved residents and their families, provided the ideal example of how they were consulted directly, along with many others, on planning the facility's future.  In other words, this day was setting the vision for Kalyra Vale for achievement over the coming years.  You can imagine how we honed in on this with the accreditors and we could sense that it was being favourably received.  We have still to learn if we will achieve our Merit Award, but I like our chances at this stage.

 

So, one Open Space day has meant to us new ideas, new volunteers and maybe a new Merit Award!

 

Thanks for your contribution to our organisation's development and success.

 

Regards

 

Richard Hancock

CEO, James Brown Memorial Trust



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