How often do you have a genuine, honest conversation about what you do? It’s hard, given the politics and distraction that often intrude on our day-to-day lives.

An Insight Lab is a way for a non-profit organization or government body to break through those limitations to have the vital conversations about who they are and where they’re going.

Sara Bloomfeld, the director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, recently told Nicole Wallace of the The Chronicle of Philanthropy that the Labs helped her institution have just such a dialogue:

“The great thing about this was these people came to the table with no expectations from us, and we had no expectations from them,” Bloomfeld said. “Their goal was just to be honest and direct and challenging. I think it’s rare that institutions have those conversations.”

Experienced handlers of complex institutions or nonprofit boards may scoff at the idea that it’s possible to develop ideas free of the
usual politics, but it can be done when you bring together a sufficiently diverse group of thinkers and keep them focused on one
big solution. People in the room still feel a sense of ownership, but it’s the idea they own, not their personal fiefdoms.

“If you take a roomful of people who aren’t directly invested in the solution, that don’t have a connection to either the problem or the
solution, you get pretty interesting places,” Labs Dean Jeff Leitner told the Chronicle.

Click here to read the full Chronicle article. For more information on the ideas the Labs developed in conjunction with the Holocaust Museum, click here.