Increased innovation capacity across organizational boundaries in healthcare

Purpose and goal

The purpose has been to develop a capacity-building offering in innovation across organizational boundaries. The project´s four performance goals have been met: The practitioners have good knowledge of methods, models and tools. The managers have good knowledge of project models, management methods and staffing. The practitioners and managers have good knowledge of processes, ways of working and attitudes. The organizations have documented and tested processes, project models and methods for design-driven innovation across organizational boundaries.

Expected results and effects

New about the project has been the focus on innovation across organizational boundaries and the active involvement of leaders. The outcome has exceeded expectations. Three key factors in innovation have emerged: The service design methodology and customer-needs insights forge and strengthen the teams. These factors know no organizational boundaries which disappear when the teams work together. The third factor is the collaboration between leaders which has become a model for the teams.

Planned approach and implementation

The skill training phase has consisted of full-day meetings with lectures and exercises in the big group. The application phase has consisted of work in real innovation projects under coaching, as well as full-day meetings in the big group. The approach with application in real projects under direct coaching has been successful. An insight is that the organization’s expectations on speed and results need to be balanced with the main purpose of skill development and learning. The active involvement of leaders has increased the overall impact significantly.