Jamie Hott had the idea of creating a wisdom tree to engage residents and staff in sharing their ideas, and as a medium for learning.

A simple tree trunk can be posted on the wall, with a station near it supplied with leaves from the dollar tree, a sharpie and sanitizing supplies.

This can be a community-wide project where ideas are added during an entire week, with one person writing one idea each. Following this, the tree can stay within the community for weeks for staff and residents to absorb the wisdom of their peers.

Adding ideas can even be made into a coordinated and engaging activity, versus being passive, by designating certain days of the week to be days where only residents born within a certain decade will add their wisdom. A reward can be given for each resident that participates, like candy. This strategy lends itself to being able to deliver the leaves to residents whose birthdays match the decade of the day to rooms, and then collecting the wisdom at the end of the day to be posted on the wisdom wall.

Check out the original idea here.