Photo Friday: Walls, Ceilings, Closet Doors – the things social innovators shatter.

The demolition of the interior of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health (@KPTotalHealth) began this week, to prepare for the next version that we call #CTHNext. The sledgehammers that we wielded caused me to reflect on the work and people we’ve been involved with to date who also shatter things:

• The patient community, led by people including Regina Holliday (@ReginaHolliday), who walks through (and paints) walls and started The Walking Gallery of Healthcare when she was told she could not put art on these walls
• The women of the Richmond shipyards, who were told “you may make a welder, but you’ll never be one,” and then became journeyman welders, getting paid the same as their male counterparts (Photo Friday: Yes they could shatter glass ceilings. Meeting the women of the Kaiser shipyards | Ted Eytan, MD)
• The LGBT and specifically the transgender person community who came to have dinner with us in 2013, to celebrate their total health with us in 2014, and their doctors, nurses, and therapists who met for the first time in December, 2014

More than a few people have remarked that they didn’t know why a facility refresh would be needed – everything already looked beautiful.

That’s true.

A social innovation center, though, always needs to provide an environment for people to think differently.

The people who take “no” as a question need a place to be where things are never done – always a new conversation, idea, connection to a person or community that you never envisioned before. That’s where we come in. 

So to all of you, know that we are not done. See you in the Fall 🙂 .

You can see an animated version of us at work on the Center for Total Health Blog.