In December 2021, I was approached by a hospital in The Netherlands. The question was if I could support them with building an innovation lab. 

Initially I was a bit hesitant. I’m a consultant and not a constructor. Also, often these innovation labs are more lip service than actual innovation. 

After various chats, it became clear the lab was intended to break down silos and enable people to innovate: right in my alley off ‘People Driven Innovation’! And from my practitioner and consultancy experience, I could add value by making it a working space that supports innovation activities instead of just making it look nice.

And so, all of a sudden, I was an Innovation Constructor working with painters, carpenters and electricians.  Still mainly concerned about how the end results would actually answer to the goals of the hospital, but sometimes actually building a prototyping table or custom lamp. I’m really enjoying this combination of working with my brains and hands at the same time!

In short, we’re building a space to intrinsically attract employees and create these unexpected encounters. That’s also where they can invite guest speakers to inspire or have people pitch their ideas at the end of the cycle. That cycle is represented in other rooms where every room represents a step in their innovation process. A room with a round table to bring together different views and detail the problem statement, a room with tools and materials to build a prototype, a (clean) room to interview end users about your (by then prototyped) idea. 

We’re getting closer to the delivery and I expect to share more in the next newsletter!