Every now and then I come across an idea that enchants me.
The commonality with them all is they appear painfully simple but solve a fundamental issue.
In this case, it’s an idea that manages to resolve youths lack of [safe] accommodation with the elderlies need for interaction and care.
It’s very simple.
There is an old people’s home in Holland called Humanitas that offers students free accommodation if they agree to spend at least 30 hours a month socialising with the older residents.
Everyone wins.
The youth – who have somewhere to live and to learn.
The elderly – who have someone to protect and engage with.
The staff – who get more time to focus on administering better care.
The company – who can offer patients better standards of care at less cost.
The country – who have people who build bridges with generations rather than burn them.
In some ways it’s another example of what I call devious strategy … where you give people exactly what they want in a way that also solves your own personal needs … but this is done with such gentleness and grace that the word ‘devious’ just seems wrong to use.
What it does do though, is remind us great ideas are still their to be found and in the main, the general premise behind them is almost embarrassingly simple.
