Peer Innovation Labs

Peer Innovation Labs

Peer Innovation Labs are three-hour, online workshops that bring together 5 - 7 organizations facing similar problems. A combination of structured facilitation, collaboration technology, and generative AI enables participants to co-create solutions that no one of them would have thought of alone.

Each Lab is designed for groups of peer entities—such as rural municipalities, food banks, school districts, healthcare providers, electric cooperatives, nonprofits, or other organizations that share common operational or systemic problems and do not directly compete with one another. Because participants operate in similar environments, discussions focus on practical problem solving grounded in real-world experience.

Peer Innovation Labs enable participants to:

• Identify root causes and systemic patterns

• Exchange proven practices and lessons learned

• Generate novel ideas and strategic opportunities

• Explore solutions from multiple perspectives

• Prioritize actionable initiatives

• Build relationships and ongoing peer-learning networks

Following are just some of the many topics and issues that might be the focus of a lab:

• Food access and food systems

• Workforce shortages and retention

• Rural economic development

• Healthcare access

• Housing and infrastructure

• Community resilience

• Service delivery innovation

• Organizational collaboration

• Technology adoption and AI integration