If we could bottle an organizational elixir that drives positive financial and operational outcomes, aligns leaders, and also sparks joy, I think all of us would invest. For healthcare companies, making regular, intentional use of this tool could become an organizational superpower.
Reflecting on our work at Spring Street Exchange throughout the past years, I’ve been struck by something almost magical—that this elixir is already at our fingertips. One of the most powerful ways to align leaders on challenges and opportunities and foster effective teamwork is a tool that remains dramatically underused. It’s low-cost, high-impact, and uniquely capable of providing energy, connection, and even smiles. That tool is creative collaboration.
Creative Collaboration
Creative collaboration is a process where individuals or teams work together to generate innovative ideas, solve complex problems, or develop new approaches by combining diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences. It often emphasizes open communication, shared goals, and cross-discipline insight, creating an forum for creativity to rise to the surface. Unlike traditional collaboration, which is more task and target-oriented, creative collaboration explicitly encourages exploration, informed risk-taking, and out-of-the-box thinking.
We use scenario planning and strategic visioning as means to bring creative collaboration into our strategic work with clients. Whether it’s a cross-sector scenario planning event or an internal session with leaders from diverse functions, magic happens when people come together to explore ideas or to address a problem, need, or goal.
The brain's role
Many executive teams hold regular planning, strategic, and operational meetings with tight agendas and a specific time allocation for each topic. The rapid-fire path through the vast array of issues is practical for status reports and quick decisions, and it is often necessary for busy teams. This activity engages the Executive Control Network (ECN) of the brain, which facilitates thinking focused on narrowing options to bring resolution to issues.
However, to think strategically and creatively, we need to engage the Default Mode Network (DMN), which is most active during rest and unfocused states. Accessing this brain function requires stepping back from the deadline-mindset to invite in divergent thinking. It is more difficult to find time and space for this type of cognitive activity because of the busy calendar tha most executives have and also because of the brain's tendency to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty.
With the urgent-issue-overload faced by many healthcare leaders, allocating more time to address issues can feel like time that is not available. Yet, failure to take the critical step backs will, by default, lead a leadership group to remain in react and respond mode, and rarely engaging in proactive, preventive, and strategic problem solving. WIthout divergent thinking, there is not a path off of the treadmill.
Scenario Palooza, our recent scenario planning roundtable:
One stand-out example of this is the Scenario Palooza, a scenario planning roundtable we held earlier in December with 20 executives from across sectors in healthcare. We set out with a bold challenge: to design new sources of revenue to advance the strategy and sustainability of a fictional integrated delivery system. Over the course of 1.5 days, these leaders engaged in three rounds of scenario planning that led to a final presentation of a pitch for the new service.
Experiential engagement, a dynamic form of creative collaboration, often drives more meaningful and lasting change than logic and planning alone. While presenting a well-reasoned rationale for change is valuable, it can feel abstract, overly intellectual, or disconnected from daily reality. Experiential engagement shifts this dynamic by encouraging individuals to discover the "why" and "how" of change for themselves through processes that are tangible, interactive, and personal. By engaging people in an exploratory scenario, participants are more free to think differently and drive toward more impactful ideas.
Stepping away from daily demands for exploratory sessions such as this one can feel like a luxury. Yet, by the end of the event, participants reported that this type of perspective and activity wasn’t just time well spent—it was mission-critical. They recognized how easy it is to continue to step forward in familiar lanes even when clear analysis and environmental indicators are suggesting that this will not be a sustainable path.
Report Outs
While we can't step out for 1.5 days on the regular, taking larger blocks of time for greater exploration, problem-solving, and creative thinking is something that is imminently possible with proactive planning. When we do this work wtih clients, there is always a feeling of energy and relief.
In fact here are some quotes from participants in recent scenario planning sessions we have facilitated:
Strategic thinking like this needs to be just as important as metrics like stars and membership.We need to be moving beyond routine goals like percentage growtho focus on bigger picture thinking
– Health Plan CEO
We have time carved out for strategy, or we call it strategy, but we needto shift the focus from report-outs to forward-looking discussions about where we’re going, not just where we are today.
– Health Plan COO
I’m now convinced we need to embed a framework into our infrastructure that allows us to think more proactively about innovation, new opportunities, and long-term success. We can’t keep pushing this off to cover sometime in the future.
– Health Plan CEO
This has been so powerful - we need to take this approach and this way of thinking deeper into our organization.
– FQHC CFO
Making the magic
The methodology used during our use of creative collaboration has been refined by the career experiences of our team in healthcare strategy and almost a decade of Spring Street Exchange as a company driving transformation with executives, boards, teams, and other groups. Our process has been honed to inspire bold thinking and focus on practical outcomes. In our experience, effective use of creative collaboration includes:
Data-Driven Insights: Grounding the sessions in robust analysis and data ensures that discussions are focused and relevant. It helps to align participants in a common understanding of the challenge and goals.
Purposeful Structure: Intentionally constructing work sessions or scenarios with clear inputs, assumptions, and desired outcomes. Creativity for its own sake is unlikely to generate the desired business outcomes.a
An air of play: We need people to let down their guard and suspend reality for long enough to explore the conceptual shifts. Carefully designed on-ramps into the creative work help to expand the boundaries of traditional thinking.
Follow-up and sustainability. A one-off session is unlikely to drive change long-term. Participants need to see the fruit of their brain power lead back into their own work and the organization's performance. It also needs to be repeated to develop muscle memory and experience for when and how to use creative collaboration.
A Commitment Forward
As complexity and uncertainty increase, creative collaboration could become the differentiating skill set. This type of engagement has the benefit of being both leavening and energizing while also being the most efficient path to alignment and growth.
I'd love to hear how you are using creative collaboration in your own work and am happy to share our experience. The pressures and opportunities have never been greater. For those seeking to extend their company's mission into the next era of healthcare, this type of approach is mission-critical. Let's talk!
I hope that many of you are having a chance to step back over the winter break and holiday season. I look forward to connecting with your refreshed creative spark in the New Year!
Until then, sending wishes of warmth and peace,
NW