Change Together
 
 

Our Who

 
 

Joel worthington

With deep expertise in both health care and strategic design methods, Joel founded JW Collaborative to more directly serve change-making clients who want to create uncharted change and facilitate stakeholder alignment. He’s committed to helping teams of subject matter experts create value, clarity, and alignment with human-centered co-design strategy and facilitation. Joel leads projects as well as client and collaborator relationships.

In addition to his time at JWC, Joel has worked at numerous, leading organizations focused on health care: BlueCross BlueShield Association, HDR, Adventist Midwest Health, Navigant (now Guidehouse), Sg2, Lake Forest Hospital (now a part of Northwestern), and Advocate Christ Medical Center.

The Collaborative

JW Collaborative is a robustly networked hub of independent, small, and mid-sized experts across sectors that includes design strategists, public health experts, improv gurus, health care clinicians, system executives, empathetic researchers, experience designers, concept creators, communication designers, data wizards, deep-thinking professors, behavior change scientists, and so many more.

All of these and more are brought into engagements through formal project partnerships or as needed for small one-off services.

 
“[Joel is] everything you want in an advisor - empathetic yet steadfast in his viewpoint, approaches challenges as the glass being half full, and he’s easy going which makes tough issues easier to navigate.”
— Minni Marwaha | VP Core Innovation, Advocate Aurora Health
“Joel excels at the art of asking insightful questions. His ability to pose thought-provoking and relevant inquires helped to not only foster a deeper understanding of complex issues, but also encouraged collaborative problem solving. ”
— Lauri Mills | Director, Consumer Experience at BlueCross BlueShield Association
“The [human-centered design] session was engaging, fun, educational and really helpful to everyone’s day-to-day...It was his thought process and innovative approach that most impressed me. He is a great healthcare and design thinking THINKER, who I’d recommend in any number of capacities.”
— Jeremy Krashin | Director of Strategic Planning, Saint Luke's Health System
“[Joel’s] work was outstanding, moving, and inspiring. We have implemented many of his observations with great success, and are working towards a second partnership.”
— Morsal Tahouni, MD | ED Medical Director, Medical University of South Carolina
 

Our Clients

We’ve been honored to serve our growing list of client collaborators

  • Hawaii Medical Service Association (an independent licensee of BlueCross BlueShield Association)

  • Medical University of South Carolina

  • Saint Luke’s Health System Kansas City

  • Rush University, Health Systems Management Graduate School Program

  • Center for Care Innovations

  • American Health Information Management Association

 
 

Our Featured Work

 
 

CO-DESIGNed Academic medical center’s (AMC) Emergency Department (ED) EXPERIENCE STRATEGY

JWC worked with ED leaders and care team members (CTMs) at a large AMC for six months to understand challenges and formulate a recommended strategic framework. Their issues were significant, complex, and entrenched.

It was clear that no simple strategy would “solve” all their problems. We addressed them with a combination of strategic and systems thinking as well as human-centered co-design. We started with understanding the dynamics at play - by talking directly to the people closest to the problems and opportunities - patients, loved ones, and care team members.

Where possible, we included those same stakeholders in the process of analysis, synthesis, insight discovery, opportunity development, and the creation of a strategic framework, conditions for success, signature experience platforms, and a strategic roadmap to implementation.

DEVELOPed A DIGITAL STRATEGY Strawman TO FOCUS AND ALIGN RESOURCES TODAY WHILE SETTING THE FOUNDATION for TOMORROW

A small, customer-facing health organization sought to develop a full digital experience strategy, wasn’t quite sure how to start, and had limited resources available during that fiscal cycle to figure it out. Through early discussions, we realized there were a range of unanswered questions and foundational misalignments that precluded developing a holistic strategy at that juncture. To bridge that gap, we facilitated a workshop series with key cross-functional stakeholders to unlock ideas and prioritize the best ones to carry forward. 

As a result of the workshops, we were able to collectively define and align around a high-level, qualitative, two-year digital experience plan—a straw man—to help the team prioritize the biggest rocks to focus on for the next fiscal year, and develop business cases for the upcoming budgeting`. 

Equipped with that strawman, the team has been able to engage more effectively with fiscal decision-makers to prioritize resources for a more holistic, Member-centered digital experience to deliver what members need in a sustainable rollout.

Facilitated a Leadership Retreat focused on growth alignment and human-centered, Strategic Capability Building

The client organization had undergone tremendous change over the previous three years - a span that included the onset of the pandemic and its reset aftermath. Senior leaders were concerned about their employees, and their own, well-being and the prospect of burnout. Still, growth and innovation were necessary, so focusing on the right things, not all the things, was essential. Further, while the organization had made great strides on individual team collaboration, they were seeking to carry that into cross-disciplinary collaboration across teams and departments.

We developed a full-day retreat workshop with a primary focus of teaching human-centered design as a competency and capability for change-making in a highly immersive, interactive, and structured way. We incorporated the organization’s real context, constraints, and challenges to ensure it was relevant and actionable.

Ultimately, it was the power of convening, connecting, feeling heard, having a voice, hearing new perspectives, seeing things in new ways, re-framing challenges, and committing to a shared purpose together that unlocked possibilities for participants.