Spaarne Labs

Spaarne Labs is the innovation lab of Spaarne Gasthuis, where employees with diverse backgrounds collaborate, from an Emergency Room physician to a lawyer. There is no shortage of ideas, enthusiasm, and dedication. However, in practice, the team encountered several factors that influenced the impact of their innovation projects. For instance, there was uncertainty or different views regarding the added value of an idea. They also faced challenges in ensuring ownership of an initiative within the hospital.

‍

Thanks to MakerLabs' 'Workshop 360°C Value Thinking: innovating for your customer, impacting the business,' Evelien Veldhuijzen and Jornt van Dijk taught the team how to look at value creation within innovation from different perspectives in just one day - thus creating more impact.

During the workshop, we zoomed out one step at a time to see what kind of impact Spaarne Labs was making. We started small, with the target group. Then we focused on operations and finally the organization itself. From these three perspectives, we examined an existing case in the hospital: lost items in departments. Spaarne Labs devised a track & trace system with an app and tags on medical equipment. This resulted in a successful experiment, but the implementation of the solution did not proceed successfully thereafter.

Our physical User Value Cards, with values like 'prevents hassle' and 'reduces efforts,' made things concrete during step one: what value did you think you were creating for the target audience, and what is actually being delivered? It turned out that there is frustration among nurses because they constantly have to search for supplies. An app solved the search problem but brought its own usability issues. A different system, but still a hassle.

In the second part, Jornt and Evelien set up a Business Impact Model. An interesting insight was that Spaarne Labs had a solution, but nobody wanted to 'buy' it from them. One of the success factors for innovations is ownership. Stakeholders within the organization must embrace and implement your idea. In this case, the department manager was an important stakeholder, but they were rarely involved, and as a result, it wasn't on their agenda.

In the end, we zoomed out to a macro level. We had previously asked the team to complete the Innovation Quickscan - our free online assessment tool. Based on the responses, we gained a good understanding of the innovation capacity of Spaarne Gasthuis. To innovate, you need more than just a good idea. You also need a healthy context to develop this idea. Within the team, a valuable and inspiring discussion arose about the influence of the corporate culture and governance within the hospital.

As an innovation lab, you ideally want to make an impact. It can be frustrating when you don't achieve the expected results. The Spaarne Labs team learned to communicate with each other in the same language of value creation, despite their diverse backgrounds, all in just one day. We provided them with inspiration regarding different types of values and ways to make more tangible what's buzzing on the workflooor, both for themselves and for the organization.

‍