Home Work UZ Leuven

Vision development on the role of hospitality in the Gasthuisberg of the future

Alongside a large group of stakeholders, Shaved Monkey created a workable vision for the role of hospitality in Belgium’s largest university hospital. We delivered a robust internal document that today forms the backbone for the further development of Campus Gasthuisberg.

Client

UZ Leuven

Deliverables

Multi-stakeholder process

Context exploration

Idea generation

Concept mapping

Vision development

Well-founded vision required

UZ Leuven, a prime international destination for medicine, was in the midst of expansion. In implementing its masterplan for the Health Science Campus (HSC), the UZ had faltered with the development of a large retail and hotel complex on the campus. Despite every effort, the project could not get off the ground. It exposed the lack of a shared vision of the role of hospitality across campus. The management and internal steering committee therefore decided to enlist the help of Shaved Monkey to work together on a vision of ‘the hospitable hospital of the future’.

Exploration of the context

In a first phase, we investigated the key drivers that will determine the evolution of the HSC. Through desk research of existing documents and widely accessible future scenarios, context analysis using semi-structured conversations with policymakers, and a multidisciplinary focus group with experts, we identified general trends that will affect the HSC’s future.

Inspiration for the hospital

Based on the information gathered, we further explored the issue with the participants. We looked at how HSC’s humanistic vision in its care, research and teaching could be expressed through the new hospital and related functions. Through a number of techniques using storytelling as a tool, we established group conversations and inspiration. With a broad view of the future, we began dreaming about how we could put people at the centre of the experience of the future hospital and related functions at the heart of the HSC.

Idea generation & concept mapping

To collect concrete ideas, we used the Concept Mapping method created by the US-based Concept Systems. This allowed us to generate ideas online from a wide range of stakeholders. Moreover, it allowed us to map these ideas – and how different interest groups relate to them – through analysis and synthesis tools. This method also had the advantage that traditional group and power dynamics were neutralised during the process.

Vision development

This rich material formed the basis for further co-creation to develop a vision for the new hospital and related functions. We did this with a focus group that we guided towards the predetermined goal with targeted questions and various other techniques. Together, we arrived at a vision underpinned by a coherent set of collected ideas. That vision became ‘the dream’ of the hospital as the heart of the HSC where people are central to all its functions.

Eight ways to see the future

We further made this vision concrete by dividing the results of the process into eight categories. These form eight new clusters that serve as lenses to look to the future. This document not only gave more body to part of the Gasthuisberg mission, but is currently serving as the backbone in the development of all further evolutions of the masterplan.