First Retreat Camp for Project CHANGE Held on October 27-28
During these two days at the Shonan International Village Center in Kanagawa Prefecture, we focused on strengthening team cohesion. We were honored to have Masanori Yoshino, the Project Leader of the COI-NEXT Hokkaido base, and Tomohiro Anzai, FTI representative partner and former Assistant Project Leader at the COI Kawasaki base (Project COINS), as our special speakers. Yoshino shared insights into the operational policies and activities of the Hokkaido base, while Anzai provided valuable reflections on COINS, discussing key points in project management.
The theme for the first day was "Back-casting Experience." To deepen our understanding of Japan's super-aging society and the mission of CHANGE, we kicked off with a quiz competition among teams as the ice-breaking session. Following that, participants engaged in group work where they: 1) envisioned the dire future awaiting us if the super-aging society is neglected, 2) created an ideal future to embody CHANGE’s vision of "a resilient health and longevity society led by collaboration in medicine, engineering, and nursing," and 3) constructed a fifth target using back-casting methods. Participants found that thinking from a back-casting perspective, which is often overlooked in nursing, led to new insights.
On the second day, we conducted group work modeled after the Kawasaki Nursing Association's initiative to gather insights from nurses about the "challenges they wish technology could solve." In addition to current nurses, we involved project members who are actively caring for family members, allowing them to share their experiences and the challenges they face. We went beyond simply gathering opinions; our goal was to extract issues and propose product ideas for solutions through discussion, culminating in presentations that shared these ideas with all participants. This day allowed us to experience the "design thinking" process, emphasizing the importance of fostering empathy with care providers, who will ultimately be the users, rather than having researchers work in isolation based solely on identified needs.
Feedback from retreat participants included remarks such as, "I had the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions with people from companies and hospitals that I usually don’t interact with," "It was a very valuable session to explore solutions to on-site challenges from diverse perspectives with researchers, nurses, and industry professionals," "I gained a deeper understanding of and connection to the project's goals," and "We generated some really great ideas in a short amount of time." After the two-day program, members with various backgrounds left with a better understanding of each other and a shared sense of empathy. I believe we have laid a solid foundation for the future growth of Project CHANGE.
＜PART 1 / DAY 1>
Atsushi Miura / Chairperson, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion
Takanori Ichiki / CHANGE Project Leader
Koji Nagai / CHANGE Project Sub-Leader
＜Keynote Lecture #1＞
Masanori Yoshino / Project Leader at COI-NEXT Hokkaido
＜PART 2 / DAY 1＞
＜Q&A Session & Feedback from Advisor＞
Takayoshi Mimura / CHANGE Advisor
＜PART 1: Keynote Lecture #2 / DAY 2＞
Tomohiro Anzai / iCONM Principal Research Scientist / FTI, Representative Partner
＜PART 2: Group Discussion＞
＜Award Ceremony＞
DAY 1 Group Photo
DAY 2 Group Phot
