Channeling Rowan Gibson at Healthcare Unbound 2012

I recently had the privilege of leading the Innovation Workshop at the Ninth Annual Healthcare Unbound Conference.   Click here to catch a glimpse of the workshop.  Our goal was to spark insight on how to move to the next innovation level or jumpstart ideas by demystifying the innovation process. Gibson and Skarzynski’s Innovation To the Core, was our reference book as we co-created a blueprint to serve as a systematic roadmap.

Both the panel of innovators and the workshop participants ranged from experienced entrepreneurs to individuals recently launching their own companies – CarePlanners CEO, Alan Blaustein is a walking example of challenging orthodoxies, both Dr.’s Shurney and Gurley came with experience from launching their own healthcare companies and thought leadership.  What was most notable was the diversity of physician innovators focused on transforming healthcare hanging in one room.

Understanding that 80% of our brain is dedicated to visual processing, we approached the workshop from a sensory level and used graphic facilitation to record and capture ideas to visualize the workshop conversation as it unwrapped.  The blueprint workshop was divided into the four “interdependent and mutually reinforcing components” that need to to be present for innovation to occur.  While there are numerous models to choose from, most will have an integration of these categories:

• Leadership & Organization
• People & Skills
• Processes & Tools
• Culture & Values

Conceptually, we chose to spend time on the types of  innovation; extending beyond the differences between disruptive and incremental innovation as a key to mastering a robust strategy. We shared Hutch Carpenter’s four quadrant model where he added a focus on technology and market impact.

In recent conversations I have observed too much time devoted to wrangling over whether a product is disruptive or not – it’s good not to have the barrier to innovation the definition of innovation.

The dynamic workshop was rounded out by some incredible social media strategists:

• @audvin Beautiful visual white boards from #hub12 https://t.co/jMLoBIzt
• @audvin Innovation excellence. The plot thickens #hub12 https://t.co/JiUBGMcn

• 2healthguru: RT @CarePlanners: From innovation workshop Alan is co-leading with @thehealthmaven, RT: @audvin: Your innovation blueprint #hub12 https://t.co/ivPHGLIZ

• Docweighsin: 52% of CEOs entrepreneurs r let go by 3rd round of funding-reminds us that Steve Jobs was fired by Apple #HUB12 #innovation

Some shout outs from class participants:

“Innovation Excellence helps you develop an innovation blueprint that focuses on all of the right things, including culture and values,” CEO of Health Tech Hatch, Patricia Salber, MD, MBA

“The innovation workshop offered just the right balance of creative energy, education and interaction with other participants; I look forward to next one,” Lori Petterson, Founder, Collaborative Consulting

image credit: innovationtothecore; rowangibson.com and bhc3.com

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LeAnna Carey is the Healthcare Editor for Innovation Excellence, the principal of TheHealthMaven, LLC, and co-founder of a mobile healthcare company, AuraViva. Lea hosts a radio show and can be found on iTunes where she interviews healthcare entrepreneurs and innovators at https://thehealthmavenblog.com/.