Why the best investment in innovation might be your team

Both leaders agree that organizations get the most value when they fully embrace this experience. Learning Lab workshops aren’t lectures or off-the-shelf training sessions. Instead, facilitators tailor each engagement to the partner’s needs, guide participants through proven innovation frameworks and encourage teams to challenge assumptions, explore new perspectives and work through real business problems together.

“Take full advantage of this amazing tool and facility,” advised Reusch. “The people at 1819 can improve your team collaboration, efficiency and productivity.”

Elliott believes the biggest factor in a successful Learning Lab session isn’t the framework; it’s the mindset participants bring into the room. “Go with an open mind, a good attitude and a little humility,” she says. “The real value comes when teams drop their badges, loosen their grip on ‘how we normally do things’ and engage honestly. Nick, Rebecca and Kurt are excellent at helping everyone get there and challenging mindsets in the kindest, most professional and most meaningful way.”

The Learning Lab team is intentionally industry agnostic, allowing them to ask fresh questions and introduce methodologies that help organizations uncover opportunities they may have overlooked, whether the focus is on customer experience, innovation, strategy, process improvement or team development. The goal remains the same: to equip participants with practical tools they can immediately apply back at work.

“Our mission is to help our corporate partners grow by maximizing the value they get from the partnership with the 1819 Innovation Hub,” Sargent says. “Sometimes that means connecting them to a researcher, a student or a new technology. Other times, it means helping their teams step back, challenge how they work and discover new ways to solve problems together. The Learning Lab is a powerful example of that mission in action. We’re helping our partners develop the skills and capabilities they need to turn innovation from an idea into impact for their business and the people they serve.”

That approach has made the 1819 Learning Lab an ongoing resource rather than a one-time experience. U.S. Bank is already planning its next engagement. “This team is the kind of partnership that evolves with us,” Elliott says. “Which is exactly what innovation teams need.”