Design for Hope – #ILN Day 2-3 (Innovation learning Network)

ILN14 - Day 3 - National Defense University 42383
Jackie Lynton, ILN 2014 – Day 3 – National Defense University 42383 (View on Flickr.com)

this is the second of two blog posts about the Innovation Learning Network 2017 In Person meeting in Chicago Illinois, hosted by Northwestern Medicine (@NorthwesternMed) and Salesforce (@Salesforce)

The end of an Innovation Learning Network (@ILNMuse) in person meeting is often more dramatic than the beginning. There’s the customary thank you and robe ceremony (this year, it’s in 360 degrees):

The robe ceremony. #ILN @ILNMuse w @DrLyleMD @McCarthyChris at Northwestern Medicine #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

Next time in the Netherlands

I knew the next meeting was going to be in the Netherlands, but I didn’t know would be at the I’ve-always-wanted-to-go-to REshape Center for Innovation at Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, Netherlands (@reshape) founded by Lucien Engelen (@lucienengelen). Always-wanted-to-go-to because I’ve liberally copied/tried to keep up with Lucien’s pro-patient innovations, most notably patients included.

Hence the Van Halen on the screen after dramatic bicycle ride through the meeting space with Zayna Khayat (@ZaynaKhayat) and Karen Ruiten (@karenvanruiten). This is the ILN….

2017.05.12 Innovation Learning Network, Chicago, IL USA 4692
2017.05.12 Innovation Learning Network, Chicago, IL USA 4692 (View on Flickr.com)

Design for Hope

Chris McCarthy (@McCarthyChris) is now at Hope Lab (@HopeLab) and in his new incarnation spoke of designing for hope.

Design for Hope. #ILN @ILNMuse Innovation Learning Network, Chicago, IL at Northwestern Medicine #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

2017.02.24 Dance Protest Celebrating Trans Youth, Washington, DC USA 01165
Why would anyone want to design against this. Design for it instead. 2017.02.24 Dance Protest Celebrating Trans Youth, Washington, DC USA 01165 (View on Flickr.com)

I identify with this concept in so many ways, because wherever I see the future being born (which is everywhere), I always see hope. It’s a key reason I like to take pictures, to capture and remember it (and the human spirit).

I see people attempt to design around hope or try to design it away, and I always ask, “why would you want to oppose something so unstoppable in the human existence?”

Quick tip: Just don’t do it 🙂

Jackie Lynton

Chris then told us about Jackie.

The photograph at the top of this post is of Jackie Lynton (@JackieLynton), in 2014, at the Innovation Learning Network in person meeting in Washington, DC. I believe she asked me to photograph her next to the image of Colin Powell, which is very fitting if you ever met Jackie.

As Chris relayed to us, Jackie is now fighting for her life.

The international movement known as Change Day was developed (not led) by Jackie:

Lynton sees her role as supporting and taking advice from people on the frontline and says it’s unhelpful when people describe her as the leader of Change Day. “We work in a hierarchical organisation,” she says. “Developing a social movement within a hierarchy is challenging enough. For me to then stand up and say I’m the leader of Change Day totally takes away from the fact that it’s a grassroots movement.”Jackie Lynton, The Guardian, 2014

You know it when you see it. Human spirit.

It is an unstoppable force, it’s beautiful, and we’ll forever be drawn to it and the people who harness it to change everything.

ILN14 - Day 3 - National Defense University 42382
ILN14 – Day 3 – National Defense University 42382 (View on Flickr.com)

Additional photographs below. Click through to flickr to see the equirectangular shots automagically become photospheres.

1 Comment

Ted Eytan, MD