The human touch: the innovation energy of a Living Lab

Recently, colleague Roderick Martens wrote an article about the energy of innovation: "It is intrinsically high and different because it is new and hopeful and created in a pressure cooker." It got me thinking.

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This year I celebrate my ten-year relationship with MakerLab and MakerStreet. Ten years in innovation: in projects, on the commercial side, and as a managing partner. The energy in this field, beautifully described by Roderick, apparently fascinates me so much that the years fly by like hours. What a stroke of luck.

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The place where I experience that energy most is during our Living Labs. Based on human interaction, the seeds of impactful innovation are planted there. It is a unique, deeply human experience, which feels very different from, for example, the success of implementation.

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Implementation energy

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When thinking about innovation energy, many stakeholders, including those within my team, often first consider the moment when the impact of an innovation project becomes visible to 'the world'. At this moment, all public transport users in the Netherlands are getting to know OVPay. This is a project we had the opportunity to work on for years. As a result, every time we now step onto a bus or train and see the OVPay signs, we 'feel it inside'.

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We experience the same when passing through baggage control at Schiphol Airport or when we think back to the caregivers and care consultants we met at Zilveren Kruis Zorgkantoor. They made us realize that an intake interview should focus on people again, rather than on administration.

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This 'implementation energy' is fueled by the realization of often lasting change, and can therefore be compared to pride. Beautiful and very valuable. However, I still prefer something else.

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Living Labs

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For that 'something else,' we need to dig a layer deeper. To the moment when the seed for that successful change was planted. That moment, often quite early in the project, when a sense of connection began to emerge on a small scale. It is that special energy we felt when we started to understand what was happening, and the directions where the answers to the innovation question could be found.

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Within our field, Living Labs play a crucial role in this. These real-life experiments, in our view, represent the most human and thus genuine form of innovation. This is because they take place in the workplace, in the real world. In a Living Lab, we experiment and validate in the classroom, on the hospital ward, at the station, or on the street. It compels us to truly see and learn from people and all their characteristics.

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Personally, I think, for example, of the tension we observed at Schiphol Airport with a father trying to keep his offspring under control as he unloaded his just-not-well-packed liquids at baggage screening. Was it irritation at his children's behavior? Shame toward other travelers who were bothered by it? Both? The conversation after the check gave context and helped to think out initial solutions.

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I also think of the COPD patient at OLVG Hospital, whom we helped log into the self-measurement app after a consultation. The anxiety we noticed when she doubted the answer to a seemingly innocuous question when logging in. "If I don't get this right, what will that mean for my treatment later?".

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A student at the Hague Montessori Lyceum also flashes by. When assigned a mentor, she reacted with a shrug. Why was that? Two questions later, we knew that in the pupil's eyes it was "not a match," and why she felt that way. The seed for a solution direction had been planted.

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Human contact

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All the above moments revolve around contact. That combination of human interaction and the insight gained from simultaneously observed behaviour. That one comment, someone's posture or facial expression, it can be anything. But it is often the first successful step of an innovation process that still has many more steps to take.

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It is these small moments of insight that release exactly the right energy within an innovation project. Moments we sometimes experienced in passing. From the moment I first experienced this personally ten years ago, to yesterday; it is this energy that I find addictive. So, here’s to more.

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