INSIGHT LABS · 2009–2014

Where Breakthroughs Begin

Most organizations that come to me with a hard problem have already tried the obvious approaches — hiring consultants, enlisting experts, benchmarking peers. Insight Labs started with a radically different premise: the people most likely to crack your toughest problems are experts from other fields who have never thought about those problems before.

Over five years, I convened nearly 50 labs in a dozen cities, enlisting more than 600 scientists, artists, executives, and academics to rethink strategy for organizations including NASA, the US Department of State, Harvard Medical School, TED, and Starbucks. Our work together was featured on public radio, in a couple of books, and in Fast Company, Forbes, Inc., and The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Thank you to the generous thinkers listed below and to my colleagues Andrew Benedict-Nelson and Howell J. Malham Jr. for an great adventure and some important work.

International and Human Rights

  • Topic: How might we redesign international organizations?

    Location: Charlottesville, VA

    We thought with: Gustavo Argueta, Jim Coan, Lisa Dewey, Daniella Foster, Magdalena Gawronska, Cristi Hengranes, Maria Leissner, Nicholas Hornor Ma, David Martin, Josh McManus, Marti Morfitt, Art Murray, Kimberly Manno Reott, Bill Sherman, Tomicah Tillemann, Matt Van Itallie, and Alan VanderMolen

  • Topic: What's a more effective way for the US to invest in emerging democracies?

    Location: Palm Springs, CA

    We thought with: Stan Crock, Andrew Davis, Denise Dillard, Annalisa Enrile, Michael Fee, Sonny Garg, Nancy Giordano, Tom Higley, Rachel Kleinfeld, Tom Lutz, Ian Mitroff, Kerry O’Connor, Aaron Schoenherr, Tomicah Tillemann, Rogayeh Tabrizi, Russ Taylor, Horace Trujillo, Ted Violini, and Jim Young

  • Topic: Now that we've memorialized the Holocaust, what comes next?

    Location: Washington, DC

    We thought with: Sara Bloomfield, Adam Frankel, Jim Hamilton, Lisa Kimball, Jason Loewith, Dan Lurie, Lorna Miles, Toby Moffett, William Noel, Sarah Ogilvie, Tim Pidsley, Allan Platt, Barbara Kline Pope, Trooper Sanders, Nicole Wallace, and Jill Weinberg

Government and Public Policy

  • Topic: How does NASA get Congress and the public to be more supportive of its mission?

    Location: Hampton, VA

    We thought with: Mary Boone, Nigel Cameron, Steve Craft, Ed Healy, John Hellerman, James Jorasch, Stephen Jurczyk, Rita King, Jim Newcomb, Steve Sanford, and Brian Timpone

  • Topic: How do we integrate art therapy into military medicine?

    Location: Bethesda, MD

    We thought with: Arthur Bloom, Frank Boruch, Fred Foote, Julie Garrison, Inge Guen, Jamie Lee Henry, Ellen Hoffman, Ermyn King, Sean Lynch, Moira McGuire, Bill O’Brien, Michael Orlove, Seema Reza, Judy Rollins, Micah Sickel, Marina Veralis, and Melissa Walker

  • Topic: What's the big breakthrough that dramatically reduces energy consumption?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Eyal Altman, Ryan Blitstein, Mickey Brazeal, Touré Claiborne, Lisa Collings, Manny Flores, Brain Granahan, Sean Hogan, Jim Jacoby, Alejandra Mejia, Lindsay Resnick, and Anthony Star

  • Topic: How do you stress-test a bold new public program before it launches?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Kapil Chaudhary, Andrew Davis, Jeff Esser, Jim Jacoby, Biju Kalathukal, Michael Latiner, Elizabeth Morris, John Myers, Ginger Ostro, John Peterson, John Samuels, Chris Sorensen, Jeff Temple, Rufus Williams, and Erik Zimmer

Health and Medicine

  • Topic: How can mobile health clinics become hubs for reforming the health care system?

    Location: Boston

    We thought with: Rachel Bellow, Jennifer Bennet, Jordan Brown, Loren Deutsch, Taz Hussein, Libby McDonald, Caesar McDowell, Nancy Oriol, Colin Polsky, Michael Schaeffer, David Silverstone, Garrett Ulosevich, Anthony Vavasis, Marco Werman, and Marcus Wilson

  • Topic: What can institutional fundraisers learn from political campaigns?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Alice Archabal, Lindsay Landsberg, Patrick Magoon, Jonas Paretzkni, Duane Spivey, Tom Stat, Tom Sullivan, and Linda Wolf

  • Topic: How can challenger foundations stand out from the big-name players?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Ed Blake, Nicholas Gracilla, Michelle Janetis, Ryan Noel, Nicole Plenge, and Julie Sacks

  • Topic: How do we increase patient agency in an evolving health care system?

    Location: New York City

    We thought with: Jeremiah Barondess, Bob Battista, Jed Beitler, Ron Brazell, Kevin Callwood, Victor Chan, Gopal Chopra, Karen Freidt, Ed Frenkel, Jim Golden, Chris M. Kelly, Dale Mann, Joe Shields, Bruce Tizes, Eric Weinstein, Al West, and Bob Zimmer

Higher Education and Research

  • Topic: How does social work gain the prominence it deserves?

    Location: Los Angeles

    We thought with: Maria Aranda, Ron Astor, John Brekke, Carl Castro, Annalisa Enrile, Marilyn Flynn, Cory Garfin, Anthony Hassan, Michael Hurlburt, Michalle Mor Barak, Larry Palinkas, Betsy Phillips, Renee Smith-Maddox, Dorian Traube, Jason Ulaszek, Suzanne Wenzel, Jim Wind, and Leslie Wind

  • Topic: How do we scale entrepreneurship?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Ethan Austin, Jim Banister, Liora Bresler, John Clarke, Ray Crossman, Raj Echambadi, Harry Epstein, Lee Fisher, Rich Gamble, Melanie Goldish, Al Herbach, Jim Jacoby, Murray Lamond, Ruth Lednicer, Pablo Montagnes, Tracy Samantha Schmidt, and Dan Sinker

  • Topic: What’s a better model for supporting emerging artists?

    Location: New York City

    We thought with: Bethany Bristow, Nancy Cook, Alison Curry, Joe Diaz, Joel Goldblatt, Monica Herman, John Lee, Bill Moggridge, Maria Popova, Alex Provan, Meredith Rosenberg, Michele Senecal, Kelly Stoetzel, Brian Waniewski, and Amy Wilson

Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

  • Topic: How do we get more companies to adopt policies that promote flexibility?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Mike Aitken, Ryan Blitstein, Kathleen Christensen, Steve Edwards, Jim Jacoby, Gaye van den Hombergh, Fabienne Munch, Johari Palacio, Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, and Ryann Whalen

  • Topic: What’s the secret to large-scale collaboration?

    Location: Palm Springs, CA

    We thought with: Doug Abrams, John Bates, David Bill, Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, Darren Cooper, Keita Demming, Scott Erickson, David Hochman, Chris Kerr, Raghava KK, Christian Long, Marco Mena, Rithesh Menon, Jo Ousterhout, Dominic Randolph, Casson Rosenblatt, and David Zafrilla

  • Topic: What is the larger purpose of a foundation?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Yariv Becher, Nora Moreno Cargie, Helen Doria, Brittany Martin Graunke, Tracie Hall, Tera Healy, Jim Jacoby, Stephanie Pace Marshall, Fabienne Munch, Aaron Renn, Gary Slutkin, Alycia Sutor, Kay Torshen, and Chuck Vecoli

  • Topic: How do we integrate empathy into schools?

    Location: Half Moon Bay, CA

    We thought with: Molly Barker, Frank Barrett, John Bielenberg, Henry De Sio, Lionel Felix, Ellen Filvaroff, Lennon Flowers, Greg Galle, Hilary Hoeber, Jim Jacoby, Alex Kauffmann, Nina Rappaport Rowan, Rae Richman, Julie Samuels, and Jason Ulaszek

  • Topic: What's wrong with our conception of social entrepreneurship?

    Location: New York City

    We thought with: Ashley Albert, Sunny Bates, Jeremy Block, Lara Galinsky, Alexander Grashow, Jim Jacoby, Anya Kamenetz, Linda Kay Klein, Raghava KK, Min Lieskovsky, Jimmy Lin, Steven Mazie, David Silverstone, and Reuben Steiger

  • Topic: How do we get more people to invest in social good?

    Location: Half Moon Bay, CA

    We thought with: Jennifer Anastasoff, Frank Barrett, David Boyer, Brendan Boyle, Hal Brody, Gabby Culver, Ellen Pritchard Dodge, Penelope Douglas, Kelsey Forest, Jim Jacoby, Paul Lamb, Marc O’Brien, Kacy Qua, and David Silverstone

Business and Professional

  • Topic: How can organizational strategy and disruptive creativity co-exist?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Derek Bonney, Sean Cannon, Dawn Clark, Jim Jacoby, Chris Hacker, Cheryl Heller, Susana Martins, Josh McManus, Robert Nashak, Greg Parsons, Barbara Pollack, Michael Slaby, Bill Sleeth, and Elliott Stixrud

  • Topic: How do we make design more humane?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: George Aye, Louise Belmont-Skinner, Baltazar Castiillo, Kelly Costello, Randy Guillot, Jeff Hancock, Deb Johnson, Jason Kriegler, Todd Kuiken, Trung Le, Christian Long, Sarah Malin, Frank Maugeri, Ryan Spencer Reed, Lincoln Schatz, Tanarra Schneider, John Syvertsen, and Marnie Breen Vosper

  • Topic: What’s the future of law firms?

    Location: Chicago and Washington, DC

    We thought with: Jason Bovis, Jen Bullett, Tim Corcoran, John Hellerman, Angela Hickey, Tasneem Khokha, Deborah Knupp, Michael Moynihan, Bryan Schwarz, Sam Shipley, John Simpson, Andrew Smulian, Alycia Sutor, Ian Turvill, and Jennifer Whittier

  • Topic: How can live events compete in the digital age?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Patrick Fitzgerald, Jill Herbert, Sherrif Karamat, Tony Lorenz, Jim Jacoby, Brad Lewis, Deborah Sexton, Duane Spivey, Jake Trussell, Bill Utter, and Jeff White

  • Topic: Is there a better way to influence policy than lobbying?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Jason Busch, Carol Colleta, Jon Denham, Mark Goodman, Jim Jacoby, Galen Mason, Alex Perry, Liz Roch, Nick Rosa, Duane Spivey, Jennifer Amdur Spitz, and Doug Whitley

  • Topic: How do we create a greater role for ethics in the business community?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Maureen Beal, Jim Jacoby, Dan Meyer, Nicole Plenge, Robb Powell, and Jennifer Stephen

  • Topic: How might the legal profession do more good in the world?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Jennifer Bluestein, Kelvin Chin, Tammy Cowser, Scott Curran, Thad Felton, Jeanne Hammerstrom, Paula Holderman, Tasneem Khokha, Deborah Knupp, Tracy LaLond, Deborah McMurray, Greg Miarecki, Michael Moynihan, Aric Press, Bryan Schwartz, Karen Schweickart, Coco Soodek, Alycia Sutor, and Tim Tosta

Arts, Culture and Media

  • Topic: How do we make the ways we experience contemporary art as interesting as the art itself?

    Location: Oaks, PA & New York City

    We thought with: Paul Addis, Joe Ballard, Tim Best, Roxanne Mankin Cason, Byron Glaser, Lauri Glenn, Erika Heilman, Troy Henikoff, Alan Jacobson, Gretchen Johnson, Tom Kaiden, Venessa Miemis, Jeff Pohlman, Leah Popowich, Catherine Price, Joaquin Roca, Dan Rothenberg, Joe Shields, Ivy Silver, Lee Skolnick, Lee Stoetzel, Maida Swenson-Fortune, Matt Wallaert, Paige West, and Stephanie Wolcott

  • Topic: How do you get a radio audience to follow you online?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Daniel Ash, Steve Edwards, Andy Hopson, Jim Jacoby, Torey Malitia, Gary Mitchiner, Paul Rand, Jill Seltzer, Bill Sleeth, Duane Spivey, and Wendy Turner

  • Topic: How do we make art as important as science or math in schools?

    Location: New York City

    We thought with: Marilia Bezerra, Robin Bronk, Michael Chung, Tim Daly, Alex Goldmark, Joshua Goldstein, Caroline Hirsch, Ayanna Hudson, Jim Jacoby, Ari Kuschnir, Chris Milne, C. Z. Nnaemeka, Kelly Page, Alison Watson, and Eva Szymanski

  • Topic: How do we restore the importance of the humanities?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Mark Achler, Keira Amstutz, Geoff Banks, Cate Belling, Anna Belyaev, Andrew Benedict-Nelson, Vicki Bohlsen, Alison Cuddy, Mae Hong, Jim Jacoby, Tim Jahnke, Liam Krehbiel, Amanda Lannert, Ryan Lewis, Kristina Valaitis, and Emerson Spartz

  • Topic: What is the heart of the theater scene?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Ryan Butts, Deb Clapp, John Tae Kim, Katy Klassman, Deborah Knupp, Dan Lyne, Mark Roth, Duane Spivey, and Chuck Vecoli

  • Topic: What's next for diversity in classical music?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Robert Blackwell Jr., Paris Braxton, Justin Carr, Julianna Cole, Jim Hirsch, Silvia Rivera, Duane Spivey, Byron Stewart, Decature Tounsel Sr., and Jonathan Williams

  • Topic: How do we attract funders to a new kind of art?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Malik Gillani, Lisa Goldman, Jamil Khoury, Seth Kravitz, Vicki Levine, David Ormesher, John Peters, Duane Spivey, Arun Srinivasan, and Michael Sullivan

  • Topic: How might classical musicians best serve the public good?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Cory Garfin, Jeff Hancock, Jim Newcomb, David Ormesher, Ken Robinson, Eric Snoza, Melissa Snoza, and Margaret Vimont

  • Topic: Can world peace be achieved through music?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Tim Conlin, Dan Fietsam, Saya Hillman, Jaye Hilton, Ed Kaczmarek, Tasneem Khokha, Heidi Massey, Wendy McGregor, Duane Spivey, Scott Stephen, Wendy Sternberg, and Angel Ysaguirre

Education (K-12 and Youth)

  • Topic: Why isn't the school reform movement gaining traction?

    Location: Los Angeles

    We thought with: Eileen Bartholomew, Susan Crown, Liz Dwyer, Sarah Elizabeth Ippel, Jim Jacoby, Rachel Kropa, Sharon Ann Lee, Christian Long, Marc Martens, Seth Matlins, Dan Schnitzer, Yosi Sergant, Jacob Soboroff, Darnell Strom, Bruce Tizes, Nedra Kline Weinreich, and Stefan Weitz

  • Topic: How do we make children's play important again?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Jane Beatty, Bill Bonner, Melissa Flaxbart, David Gamperl, H. John Hair, Maggie Hendrie, Jeff Kline, Tony Maiore, Mary Ann Mahon-Huels, Hector Perez, Kelly Ramos, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Meagan Smith, Duane Spivey, and Andie Thomalla

  • Topic: How do we attract new funders without losing the fun?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Holly Birnbaum, Bryan Campen, Lindsay Gaskins, Andrew Hobgood, Jim Jacoby, Katy Klassman, PJ Loughran, Mari Luangrath, , Mara O’Brien, Patrick Shaffner, Kait Steele, and Dennis Wiafe

  • Topic: How do we overcome cultural biases in philanthropy?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Anita Chandwney, Ratnam Chitturi, Vena Chitturi, Deepa Gupta, Udayan Kolandra, Kevin Nazal, Kaushik Patel, Rishi Roongta, Rohit Sankaran, Shweta Sharma, Parthiv Sheth, Duane Spivey, and Hiren Thakar

Civic and Community

  • Topic: After the city's failed Olympic bid, what's next for youth sports?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Matt Elwell, Melissa Harder, Chris Lind, Scott Myers, Scott Patten, David Perlmutter, Pam Redding, Matthew Rotkis, Steve Schroeder, Matt Sharon, Duane Spivey, and Janice Tennant

  • Topic: Where will the next generation of our civic leaders come from?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Shelley Stern Grach, Sue Hardek, Deborah Harrington, Mark Hattas, David Hernandez, Lance Pressl, Zoe Quan, Coco Soodek, Duane Spivey, Eileen Sweeney, Brianna Sylver, Randy White, and Rob Wolcott

  • Topic: How do we close the gap between the talent employers need and the workforce they actually have?

    Location: Detroit

    We thought with: Shail Arora, Ron Cooper, Shannon Holmes, Linda Kruso, Bruce Macpherson, Joni Nelson, Linda Oliver, Kathy Oswald, Kathleen Owsley, Stephanie Stevenson, Andie Thomalla, and Barbara van Every

  • Topic: How do we build a pipeline of civic leaders who can actually revitalize a city?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Sarah Berghorst, Jobi Cates, Kathleen Enright, Mike Fourcher, Cory Garfin, Jason Bennett Harris, Lila Leff, Jason Marck, Elory Rozner, Tracy Samantha Schmidt, Aaron Schoenherr, Tyrone Spann, Russ Taylor, and Jacqueline von Edelberg

  • Topic: How do you get people to volunteer when everything about how they give their time has changed?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Christine Bork, Carolyn Chandler, Lisa Collings, Colleen Fahey, Elizabeth Kelly, Malou Roth, Alison Scholly, Duane Spivey, and Brooke Wiseman

  • Topic: What would community development look like if we started over?

    Location: Phoenix

    We thought with: Nate Anderson, Dorina Bustamente, Mike Davis, Penny Dolin, Grady Gammage Jr., Tyler Hurst, Courtney Klein Johnson, Aaron Kimberlin, Kimber Lanning, and Chris Petroff

  • Topic: When an organization's origin story no longer matches what the world needs from it, which one do you change?

    Location: Chicago

    We thought with: Lee Bey, Dean Carter, John Clarke, Brian Douglas, Lauren Beth Gash, Debra Nesselson, Deanna Shoss, Howard Sitron, Duane Spivey, and Margaret Vimont

  • Topic: How should voting change for a generation that does everything differently?

    Location: Washington, DC

    We thought with: Johanna Berkson, Lauri Fitz-Pegado, Deen Freelon, Salin Geevarghese, Mitch Jones, Tania Luna, Jesse Nickelson, Diane Primo, LeeAnn Renninger, Dan O’Connor, Jason Oxman, Santiago Ramos, Bert Ritvo, Pierre Schaeffer, Matthew Segal, David Silverstone, Maria Thomas, Tim Tuten, and Paul Zurawski

INSIGHT LABS VIDEOS

Insight Lab with the Academy for Global Citizenship: What if Schools weren’t Schools?

Insight Lab with TED: Finding the Transcendent Interest

Insight Lab with the Illinois and Indiana Humanities Councils: Change the World to What?

Insight Lab with Starbucks: Scaling Imagination

Insight Lab with the University of Illinois: Turning Everyone into Entrepreneurs

Insight Lab with Boeing Global Corporate Citizenship: Blessed are the Grantmakers