New ideas to help cancer patients
THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY TAKES A NOVEL APPROACH TO EXPANDING ITS OFFERINGS
Since its founding in 1949, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has helped fund research for nearly every major innovation in the treatment of blood cancers. In the past few years, LLS has focused on its own innovation as well, working to create a culture that embraces fresh ideas and experimentation. This forward-thinking approach earned the nonprofit a spot on Fast Company’s list of Best Workplaces for Innovators. Ryan Hatcher, vice president of strategy and innovation at LLS, explains how the organization’s focus on innovation is transforming its culture and its services.
1 How does LLS think about innovation?
We recognize our employees offer a diverse set of perspectives and expertise. We want to tap into all of it to better serve a diverse group of blood cancer patients. Going back to 2020, our leadership made a commitment to intentional innovation— we believe that this type of effort has to start at the top to be successful. Since then, we have been working to create safe spaces for people to try, succeed, and at times fail. Embracing failure is a big part of our approach. As long as we learn something from it, then we’re moving in the right direction.
2 What does that look like on the ground?
We have an end-to-end innovation lifecycle, including an innovation lab where we invite a broad mix of people to tinker and use different methodologies to get ideas to the finish line or to the marketplace. We also have events like the Innovation Jam, a two-stage internal innovation engagement that began with an open call for ideas that would both serve patients and grow revenue. The winning idea for the Innovation Jam came from a registered dietician in LLS’S nutrition services. Food is an important medicine for cancer patients as they navigate the effects of the disease and side effects from treatments. Every year, more than 1,000 patients and caregivers call the LLS for help with nutrition. The dietician suggested we go beyond information to offer nutritional meal kits delivered directly to patients, caregivers, and their families. For the second stage of the Innovation Jam, cross-functional teams self-formed and participated in a two-day design sprint where, based on the winning idea, they designed different types of nutritional meal kit offerings. Through that discovery and design process, we realized that oncology nutrition was a much wider-aperture opportunity and began to partner with a student consulting group called Net Impact from UC Berkeley. They helped us identify some additional areas where LLS might be able to play in the oncology nutrition space. Now we’re testing a suite of ideas and solutions.
3 What has the organization learned from these experiences?
We want to create a community of innovators—we want people to not feel like they are just here for the role that’s listed in their email signature. Bringing together a diverse group—cancer survivors, patients, medical experts, diverse professionals, and students—to innovate enables us to unlock some perspectives that we otherwise have missed. Ultimately, we’ve found that we are living our truth in terms of the growth we aspire to, while also accomplishing our mission of serving patients.