Building Innovation Capability
for an Incubator Program through Experiential Learning
Incubator Bootcamp
Challenge
Train a new team into a design-thinking Incubator Program that requires changing mindsets and behaviors for a confidential healthcare company.
Outcome
An experiential learning Incubator Bootcamp focused on embracing a role-based model and practicing empathy.
Opportunity
How might we immerse new team members and partners into the Incubator experience?
Role
Curated and designed the Bootcamp experience and activities. This was work done while at Gensler with the Innovation team and client.
Incubator Phases
1. Identify and Understand Opportunity
After completing the Incubator program’s Discover Phase, we needed to train and tell the story of the purpose of the Incubator to new teammates and internal partners as the Empathize Phase began.
The Incubator’s focus was around designing a product that would help manage the lifecycle of sutures within a hospital from ordering, storage, picking, usage, and disposal. The current challenge was the mismanagement of sutures led to hospital waste and patient safety. To orient new teammates, we designed activities to share the current project journey and the mindset and ways of working when entering the Incubator.
Bootcamp Goals:
Enable participants to experience the Incubator
Share Discovery outcomes
Introduce the Empathize phase an related activites (i.e. Empathy Mapping)
Teach the role-based model of the incubator itself
2. Design an Incubator Bootcamp Experience
To immerse participants in practicing initial empathy, we designed an experience of role-playing different user groups (Stock Manager, Stock Assistant, Circulating Nurse, Scrub Nurse) based on our previous Discover insights and asked team members to fill out an empathy map. We also had an internal expert demo various suture techniques. The bootcamp experience is split into modules and alternates between topics of content, and cultural norms and behaviors.
Bootcamp Agenda
3. Activate
We implemented a one-day Incubator Bootcamp Experience.
1. Break the Ice
Participants get to build psychological safety and
trust with each other
Introduce: Create Band-Aid that represents you and share back to introduce yourself
2. Incubator Journey
Introduce Incubator Journey and concepts to
new participants
Share information: Review Incubator framework and outcomes from the Discover phase
Collect Feedback: Participants write down on post-its: I like, I wish, I wonder
Discuss: Rapid-fire Q+A session
3. Doer Culture
Confirmation of cultural expectations through co-creation
of team principles & patterns
Introduce: “Doer” culture
Co-create: Split into teams and come up with 3 rules the team should follow to make doer culture actionable
Share-out: Groups share back rules
Synthesis: Create collective Rituals, Rhythms and Recognitions for the team
4. Suture Demo
Understanding of how sutures are used in the OR and the nurse and surgeon roles with handling sutures
Empathy 101: Introduce Empathy Map Framework
Wound Closure 101: Overview of different types of sutures and DermaBond
Suture Demo: Practice how various suture techniques
Empathy Demo: Empathy Map for Surgeon
5. Role-Based Model
Learn the different roles and understand each participant’s role within the Incubator
Share information: On role-based, strength-focused model in connection with Empathize Phase
Create: Make a button that represents your role
Relate: Share roles and previous experience in relation to approaching the Prototype Phase
6. Practice Empathy
Develop preliminary understanding of the different key personas and their actions and feelings
Suture Journey Demo: Act out the current journey of sutures within an OR and pain points based on prior user research
Role play: Teams split up into various phases along the journey. At each phase, one person per team role plays their user (Stock Manager, Stock Assistant, Circulating Nurse, Scrub Nurse)
Practice: Each group fills out an empathy map “say, do, think, feel” for, and rotates around each station