NATO Innovation Hub

And they're off! With the jumpstart week done, our Project Mercury Innovators Forum @ NATO teams have received a fast-paced kickstart of their innovation journey. We explored deviance, deliberately placed ourselves outside of our comfort zone, thought prismatically and pushed the teams to focus on their problems until it hurt. But above all, we had fun! No learning takes place without fun, and in Project Mercury innovation knows no spectators. Shout out to all teams for bringing their energy and creativity and inspiring us from the very start. Our coaches look forward to working with you for the next 13 weeks. Let's fly this innovation rocket! 🚀

Today our first Project Mercury Innovators Forum @ NATO cohort got a real taste of the star power behind transformative innovation. Air Marshall Johnny Stringer, Deputy Commander of Allied Air Command held a rallying call to action to the cohort, empowering our teams and sharing his own energy and drive to bring innovation forward. The Air Marshal highlighted the importance of communication and outreach, and building coalitions to join the fight for innovation. He acknowledged that achieving transformative change is far from easy, however it is something we must do. We must collect energetic people in focused teams to understand the problems of our organizations. Looking from ‘across the street’ is essential to gain a different perspective and to unlock the freedom to truly understand problems that exist inside the organization. We need new thinking and practice with innovating in community and it is essential to not get ‘lost in the process’ - but to always return to what results we are trying to create. We also need to allow our innovators the freedom to explore the problem space and experiment, to which the Air Marshal offered his personal support. Innovation is not just creative thinking, it’s creative doing. We’re proud and honored by the Air Marshal’s visit, and believe it shows true innovation is supported by the highest of levels, empowering us to grow the innovation community and in turn empower our teams to pick up the challenge! #WeAreNATO #WeAreInnovators

Day one; done! NATO cohort 1 has taken off into their jumpstart to the Project Mercury Innovators Forum course. During the day we had an inspiring lecture by prof. Dr. Jeff DeGraff, after which dr. W. Ethan Eagle🔴🟡 guided the teams through three first exercises: exploring a problem space and watching the weather. Our 30 NATO innovators brought great energy, and we and the coaches are ready to push them further during the next days of jumpstart!

From Poland we move on to Germany… Today we kicked off the next collaboration between NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and the Project Mercury Innovators Forum! Shout out to our very own coaches Bart Hollants & Jeroen Franssen, our previous Project Mercury alumni and coaches (Thomas Belka, Danny Mckenzie) that support us, and our German and NATO AIRCOM hosts at Ramstein Air Base! Our first NATO Cohort will follow the full Project Mercury program, a twelve-week innovation course focusing on fostering the innovative mindset needed to achieve innovation in a military setting. During the Jumpstart, teams will get to know each other, delineate the problem space they will tackle and start to work on developing their innovative capacity to create solutions. We look forward to it, and the exciting journey teams will embark on! #WeAreNATO #WeAreInnovators W. Ethan Eagle🔴🟡 Melissa "Cleo" Smith Kelley Sloan Sawyer Jeff DeGraff

It’s a wrap! The workshop “Innovators on the Eastern Flank” was a great success. Workshops like these are crucial in building the NATO innovation community and expand the NATO Innovation Network. Many thanks to our Polish hosts and the Project Mercury team! On to the next one! #WeAreNATO #WeAreInnovators

And we’re off! NATOs Innovation Hub and the Innovatrium kicked off the workshop “Innovators on the Eastern Flank” in Warsaw today. During the three-day workshop, we will deep dive into innovation, focusing on the eastern flank of NATO, kickstarting innovative and creative thinking under the inspiring leadership of prof. Dr. Jeff DeGraff and his team from the Project Mercury Innovators Forum and our very own coaches Jeroen Franssen and Bart Hollants. With this workshop, the first of more to come, NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) fosters the innovation community in the Alliance. So we can win as a team! #WeAreNATO #WeAreInnovators

***We still have spots open!** "Innovators on the Eastern Flank" A Project Mercury @ NATO Workshop We are excited to partner with Project Mercury Innovators Forum and our hosts from the Doctrine and Training Centre of the Polish armed forces as we practice adaptive and creative thinking, as part of an allied team. Use the link below to register: https://lnkd.in/entiSGuB #WeAreNATO #MilitaryInnovation #IntegratedbyDesign

***REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN*** "Innovators on the Eastern Flank" A Project Mercury @ NATO Workshop We are excited to partner with Project Mercury Innovators Forum and our hosts from the Doctrine and Training Centre of the Polish armed forces as we practice adaptive and creative thinking, as part of an allied team. Share, scan, and register now! Or use the link below: https://bit.ly/3Wc7TGm #WeAreNATO #MilitaryInnovation #IntegratedbyDesign

We are excited to introduce you to ACT’s Innovation Insights – our new innovation newsletter. We intend to provide a number of these throughout the year in order to keep you up to speed on some of our ongoing initiatives. Enjoy via the link below, or subscribe via: https://lnkd.in/g89G7Vbk https://lnkd.in/gEffs392

This year, NATO Innovation Hub hosts the first two Project Mercury innovation deep-dives for NATO personnel! "Innovators on the Eastern Flank" - June 25-27, Warsaw, Poland In Warsaw, we will cultivate our innovative mindset, focus on networking and collaboration and communication and problem-solving skills. The workshop is designed with three audiences in mind: Leadership, individuals or teams working to adopt innovation, and those who are curious or new to innovation. Project Mercury @ NATO, Cohort 1 - Jumpstart July 1-3, Ramstein, Germany The first cohort of the full 12-week Project Mercury program kicks off in Ramstein with a jumpstart week. Project Mercury is built on the belief in the democratization of Innovation: the idea that every organization has within it the ability to solve its own problems. In short, we believe that innovation can be taught through practice. Do you work for NATO, and are you interested in sharpening your innovation mindset? Apply now! More information on these two deep dive events can be found below. (Please note: only open for personnel of NATO entities, applications sent from private email addresses will not be considered.)