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Blog Contact Us Hit enter to search or ESC to closeMenuWhat We Do Our Work The Team Tool Kit Welcome Welcome We’re inspiring creative thinking and fostering collaboration to ignite fresh solutions and novel ways of doing things. Welcome Welcome We’re inspiring creative thinking and fostering collaboration to ignite fresh solutions and novel ways of doing things. The Independence Blue Cross Center for Innovation Independence Blue Cross is always looking for innovative ways to engage with our community, members, customers, hospitals, physicians, and other business partners. It will take all of us to change the way health care is conceived, delivered, and experienced. That’s where the Independence Blue Cross Center for Innovation comes in. To drive this change, we use design thinking to foster the innovation process, encourage collaboration, and inspire creative thinking. Our team can facilitate design-thinking workshops, human-centered innovation training, and behavior and growth-mindset workshops to help spur new, fresh ideas and bring them to life. What we do Driving Change Connect Research opportunities and challenges by talking to stakeholders and digging into facts and supporting trends. Cultivate Design solutions by using the insights gathered and getting inspiration from other industries and parts of the world. Create Test and pilot solutions with users to assess validity and impact before developing an implementation plan. Our Work Innovation In Action Our Innovation Team are experts in using a human-centered approach to solve problems. Here are some recent case studies that highlight how we’ve helped other organizations find the right solution. YMCA Read More Innovation Challenge to Improve New Member Retention The Greater Philadelphia YMCA Association Office reached out to Independence’s Innovation team to lead a full challenge to generate ideas around ways they could better retain new members. We used our entire suite of design tools with a group of nearly 40 high-performing YMCA employees from across 17 locations. Over the course of four weeks, consisting of four in-person half to full-day sessions, the Innovation team led the group through the design process. The group used scoping tools to understand the details and depth of the problem they were charged with solving. They also learned how to gather insight around their problem, generated lots of ideas through the use of multiple tools that support expansive thinking, and practiced reductive thinking to highlight their best idea. Finally, they learned the art of storytelling and effectively pitched their top ideas to executive leadership. Following the challenge, the Association piloted their top idea in two YMCA branches. Since the completion of the pilot, this idea is now being implemented in all 17 locations. PGW Read More Idea Session Around How PGW Can Be a Better Corporate Citizen to Improve Their Reputation and Increase Customer Satisfaction Around 25 people from multiple areas of PGW attended a one-and-a-half day session to come up with ways the company can improve their reputation in the community. Participants completed scoping exercises with PGW’s Director of Community Affairs to understand what they are currently doing and what would be within scope for future projects. They then used tools to examine what other companies are doing for this purpose. Finally, in small groups, the session participants came up with lots of ideas to address this challenge. Out of this session came a program called PG Works and Plays, a volunteer program in the community in which volunteers wear PGW-branded clothes. Another outcome of this session is that PGW is now piloting Paid Volunteer Time. HATBORO-HORSHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT Read More Idea Session With the School District Wellness Committee to Develop a Wellness Plan For Next Year Representatives from district schools and local community organizations came together to craft a wellness strategy for the following year. First, group members individually came up with many high-level ideas. Then, they grouped similar ideas and built out each cluster to a full-blown idea with details on how, when, why, and where their idea could work. Finally, they prioritized their ideas and identified easy versus heavy lifts. After talking with stakeholders, the Committee decided to implement two ideas in year one — a social media campaign around healthy living and a full day, district-wide wellness fair. FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA Read More Idea Session To Design a Dedicated Teen Space at The Fumo Family Library in South Philadelphia The Independence Innovation Team facilitated a half-day session for the branch manager and nearly 20 teens from local schools to come up with ideas around how this space could be utilized and what it would look like for the students who would use this corner. First, the group learned how to think more expansively and flip any assumptions they were making about what the space should or had to look like. Then, through a post-it exercise, the students individually envisioned their new space and captured how they want to feel and what they want to do in that area. They also researched how color and design influence a space. Finally, with top tips from the Innovation team, the students processed that stimulus, sketched their ideal Teen Corner with detailed design and color, and presented their ideas to library staff. Who We Are Agents of Innovation Nate Gach Director of Innovation Nate is the Director of Innovation at Independence. He leads our intrepid team of design thinkers and creative problem solvers and has a blast doing it. His experience includes roles ranging from Human Resources, to Strategy, to Process Improvement, and Product Development. The consistent thread in Nate’s career has been collaborating with diverse teams to identify unique and innovative solutions to complex issues. Kristen A. Logan Lead Innovation Consultant Kristen is a multidisciplinary strategist with a passion for problem-solving. She takes an inclusive and holistic approach to designing a solution. She engages the focus audience early and often throughout the process and quickly iterates until the final solution. Lori Radford Senior Innovation Consultant Lori gets to live her personal mantra — we rise as we lift — every day as part of the Innovation team. Lori has a passion for empathizing and helping others, and this role gives her the opportunity to do just that — whether it’s coaching someone through a problem, working through departmental challenges, or leading someone through a self-iteration process. Jaimie Yakaboski Senior Innovation Consultant Jaimie has a passion for research, seeing each opportunity as an adventure - searching for insights that can then be pieced together to form innovative solutions. Having spent the first four years with Independence as a UX Designer, Jaimie’s transition to the Innovation Team felt like a natural next step in their career to be able to expand on the design process and apply new and innovative ways to approach problem solving. Jaimie looks forward to encouraging and inspiring teams to collaboratively tackle any problem they may be facing. Leannie Custodio Senior Innovation Consultant Leannie is a dynamic Design Strategist with a passion for driving innovation through empathy, effective communication, and creative problem-solving. With a decade of experience, Leannie has a proven track record of tackling complex challenges, streamlining processes, and delivering exceptional results. Her expertise in human-centered design enables her to craft tailored solutions that meet the unique needs of her clients. Her ability to navigate ambiguity and provide meaningful insights has helped countless clients unlock their full potential. Join her on a journey of transformation to achieve new heights of success. Nick Olejniczak Innovation Consultant Nick takes on the role of Producer in most things Innovation related. His...