Innovation Safari Takeaways

Maura Shea (center left) of the ID Action Lab for Food Systems talks to a healthcare care leaders on their innovation safari

Recently the AllianceChicago, Center for Care Innovations, and ILN Coaching & Consulting gathered 80 medicaid leaders and innovators in Chicago to strengthen their design muscles and explore the most pressing FQHC challenges. The 80 were immediately split into small groups and sent across Chicago to explore how other industries tackled complex challenges. Called the Innovation Safari*, it has been a long-time staple in my practice and remains a powerful tool to unlock and unleash creativity and problem-solving.

Here are some of the safari takeaways extracted by participants:

• System Thinking methods can be powerful for healthcare delivery

• Include many more and diverse stakeholders for more robust understanding and solutions.

• Minimum Viable Bureaucracy - have just enough innovation process to make things work, but not so much as to make it cumbersome.

• You must be “in it” to understand it, so get your hands dirty!

• Engage stakeholders and users more creatively to unlock deeper knowledge.

• Without alignment from top to bottom, “big change” cannot happen.

• Acknowledge that we can’t prevent every bad experience and can’t always make everyone feel better, but aspirationally we can try. (realism meets aspiration) 

* a heartful thank you to United Airlines, John Deere, Illinois Institute of Technology, UIC Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design, Gardeneers, Northwestern University - Master of Science in Engineering Design Innovation (EDI), Plant Chicago, and Transparent Partners, who opened their doors for this kind of powerful learning.