One Solution was founded to help humans more rapidly solve problems.
Accelerating Change for Organizations is a new organizational transformation model we’ve developed after a decade of work with organizations and businesses.
Whether working with non-profits and NGO’s, the United Nations, or multi-billion dollar corporations, we’ve found that showing people a new way of understanding the mind so they can connect to their innate well-being, resilience, and capacity for new ideas is the quickest and most sustainable way to shift your organization’s culture, output, and ability to make a bigger impact on the world.
Organizations we work with call us their secret sauce, their keys to the kingdom, and their unfair advantage. Let us show you why.
As a long-time UN Policy Advisor and Capacity Development Advisor (with UNDP), I have worked with many of the most severe problems humanity faces today by providing support to leaders in governments and aid agencies. What has become evident is the main problem all these leaders face originates in the mind. Helping these leaders shift their mind-sets has proved to be the most effective way to bring about real and lasting change. That is exactly what One Solution focuses on – how to see our challenges in fresh new ways no matter how difficult they seem. This is by far the most promising approach I have seen so far! - Tore Skatun | International Development and Humanitarian Professional
People & Culture
Every organization, whether a small non-profit, the United Nations, or a multi-billion dollar corporation is only doing as well as the people inside of it are doing. We help organizations with their personal and collective mental health, resilience, creativity, and wellbeing to foster a sustainable, impactful and healthy company culture.
Output & Results
No matter the size of the organization or its challenges, the quality of thinking and performance of individuals has the greatest impact on organizational success. We help the people in your organization radically improve their state of mind so your organization can improve its efficiency, effectiveness, and ultimately its output and results.
ESG & Community
No organization operates in a vacuum, everything we do impact our families, communities, and society itself. We connect your organization with on-the-ground grassroots social impact projects to engage with transformative co-learning experiences for your employees, leadership, and stakeholders.
I love the way every point in this course is so simple, ordinary and easy to see when it’s pointed out. It really does help you see through all the ‘junk’ of made up complications and focus in on what is actually happening (in whatever situation you want to improve) and feel empowered to make a positive change. Thanks you guys!!
“I already feel like squealing with excitement at the possibility that we can make a practical difference, with love and fun not by force or manipulation”
Really helpful, guidance about listening, not getting distracted, showing up with an open mind and following in order is always useful when learning anything. Especially when you’re learning on your own without the physical teacher and timetable to keep you in line!
“These interviews are really valuable. Hearing how individuals have been impacted by the simplicity of knowing where their state of mind comes from, experiencing the resulting clarity of mind and implementing that within their organization is so helpful”
“Without overthinking it anymore, I could just see how that conversation evolves..I put together a power point presentation which I want to share with my colleagues. I’m excited to see what insights come from the rest of this module.”
“This is just what I need right now!! I’m in the very early stages of finding a way to introduce this into my workplace, one office among over 140 that is apparently ‘dictated to’ by ‘the powers that be’ in their ‘ivory towers’… Watching this intro talk got me thinking that I can simply approach my bosses and tell them I want to help improve the current situation.”
1. We don’t do cookie-cutter programs and we don’t work short term. We understand that no organization is the same, and no sustainable impact ever happened with scratching the surface. While we have scalable content and training modules, our process and delivery are tailor-made.
2. You are indirectly and directly part of building a better world. Not only by building a healthier and more sustainable organization but by working with us you directly fund social impact projects like The Rebels for Peace.
3. Usually organizations hire several different consultancies and contractors to solve the separate issues they are facing. People-problems seem different from business results or corporate social responsibility. Not to us. Since our approach goes directly to the source of those issues, all boats rise with the tide. This is cost-efficient and mitigates confusion and “change-fatigue” in your organization
4. We are your partners and on your team – that means that figuring out how to change hearts and minds goes from your plate to ours. We don’t add more stuff for you to do – we remove things and make them easier. We are just as committed as you are to your culture, results, and impact.
5. We don’t require the implementation of new practices(like yoga, mediation, mindfulness), policies or “beliefs’. In fact, we are known for not adhering to any particular practice. Our approach is simple foundational and approachable, and can be molded for each person in an organization.
Let’s integrate our teaching into what you’re already doing to support your people. Learning about the mind and change applies everywhere.
Reach people across your organization and around the world with our flexible In-person, Hybrid and Online delivery options.
Our training deals with something that happens every minute of every day so you’ll learn by applying it to your own human experience.
Change is neverending so we offer Facilitator training to support the ongoing delivery of Accelerating Change within your organization.
Mara Gleason Olsen, Co-Founder and Director, has enjoyed working with all walks of life throughout her career, including MIT-trained physicists, UN directors, US Marines, NHL players, Microsoft managers, prisoners, the Chicago PD, and teens from Southside Chicago and Gaza. Prior to founding One Solution, she co-founded and directed One Thought, a NYC and London-based company that trained hundreds of organizational leaders from around the world. She’s also the bestselling author of One Thought Changes Everything. Mara graduated with a Master’s degree from Columbia University in 2006, and currently lives in Chicago with her husband and co-director, Eirik, and several plants that she works hard to keep alive, despite their frequent travels.
Eirik Olsen, Co-Founder and Director, Eirik Olsen became fascinated by the relationship between the mind and human capability after his experience in the military and deployment in the Middle East. He spent the next decade working with individuals, groups, organizations, executives, youth, health clinics, and programs for families and communities. After running a successful consultancy and training institute around the mind and resilience, he co-founded the One Solution Foundation to try to tackle the biggest challenges we face as humanity: conflict, war, climate change, poverty, etc by elevating the conversation around the mind as the missing key to sustainable change. He considers himself a student of humans, creativity, and the mysteries of life and loves the dance between a macro-level vision and on the ground grassroots work. He currently resides in South Side Chicago with his wife and co-founder Mara and his son Teo.
Prince Jimmar is a co-founder of Rebels for Peace and an Artist from Chicago, that's inspired about transforming his community from the inside-out. He leads and facilitates resilience training for youth from 4-8 grade in schools in south-side Chicago, and co-hosts yearly youth leadership programs, teaching aspiring leaders about resilience, wellbeing and creativity. He also has experience supporting youth currently incarcerated in juvenile prisons, teaching the same foundational training. He is a sought after speaker, hosting classes, workshops and inspiring talks to people from all walks of life.
Josh Downing, Videographer, Photographer, is a writer, director and editor originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. After receiving his B.F.A in film production at Oklahoma City University in 2016, he spent the next two years working as a freelance editor in Los Angeles and New York. He has written and directed short films that have been accepted to national and international festivals and, most recently, he co-wrote and co-directed his first feature film, "All We Have is Now." After switching gears to documentaries and non-profits, Downing wishes to use his video production skills to work for his community and shed a new light on important issues that surround the world today.
Aisat (I-Esha) Oladokun, 23, is a recent graduate from Kalamazoo College. She completed her bachelors of Arts in English and Global Health. Her plans are to pursue a Master’s in Public health to impact more communities about the importance of health, especially gun violence that impacts her neighborhood. Aisat is very dedicated to every community that she enters and has a passion for mentorship and facilitating others through workshops. Through her time in college, she was a mentor to incoming freshmen and has successfully facilitated workshops through the Kalamazoo Juvenile Home. As a member of the Rebels for Peace, Aisat is dedicated to uplifting the lives of others and strengthening mentorships through the one tool we all have, our minds!
For over thirty years, Andrew has helped people uncover their true potential through the mind. He's coached Olympic athletes, entrepreneurs, social impact leaders and students. Andrew has seen firsthand how teaching people about the mind allows them to see for themselves the innate powers they already have and is at the heart of all sustainable human change.
With One Solution, Andrew will help grow the reach of our existing programs and develop new relationships with organizations, funders, and allies who can further our mission.
WEEK 1 - THE FOUNDATION OF ACCELERATING CHANGE
Live Zoom Call + Online Content
In week one we'll host a live kick-off event on Zoom with your facilitators and the cohort of peers you’ll be going through the course with. In online content, you’ll explore why the mind is the most natural shortcut solution for accelerating change.
WEEK 2 - THE HUMAN MIND AND THE WORLD
Online Content + Reflection Activity
In this week's online content, we'll explore how the mind affects how we see and experience the world and why that's important when pursuing change. You'll complete a personal reflection on how this topic relates to your own life.
WEEK 3 - CHANGE IN INDIVIDUALS AND COMMUNITIES
Live Zoom Call + Online Content
This week will feature a live session with special guests working on change with individuals and within communities, plus online content where you’ll explore how accelerating change happens in these contexts.
WEEK 4 - CHANGE IN ORGANIZATIONS
Online Content + Reflection Activity
In this week's online content, you’ll explore how organizational change happens with videos from special guests actively working in this context. You'll complete a personal reflection activity to explore how this topic applies to your project.
WEEK 5 - CHANGE IN SYSTEMS
Live Zoom Call + Online Content
This week's session will feature special guests working on systems change, plus online content where you’ll explore how accelerating change happens in this context. You'll complete a personal reflection activity to explore how this topic applies to your project.
WEEK 6 - DEALING WITH OBSTACLES
Online Content + Personal Reflection Activity
This week will feature online content where you’ll explore how to deal with the obstacles to accelerating change. You'll complete a personal reflection activity to explore how this topic applies to your project.
WEEK 7 - BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Live Zoom Call + Online Content
This week's session will feature a live Zoom session and online content bringing together everything we've learned into an applicable and sustainable approach to accelerating change. You'll take all of this and put the final touches on your 90 second presentation for the Showcase Event next week!
WEEK 8 - SHOWCASE EVENT
Live Zoom Call
The Showcase event will feature YOU and the entire cohort sharing individual 90-second presentations on the project you are working on and how you have grown over the past eight weeks. Friends and family will be welcome.