Public Innovators Labs
Join thousands of Public Innovators in all 50 states and across the world who are actively creating real change by applying the Harwood approach in their work and personal lives.
The result of nearly four decades of innovation and learning, our accessible, high-impact Labs offer you the best of the time-tested Harwood approach.
LAB FORMAT
The Labs are offered in two formats to best accommodate the needs of your community.
Virtual Labs
For individuals, groups, or organizations seeking to build their capacity to create change
Five weekly two-hour sessions
Small and large-group discussions with real-time application of the Turning Outward practice
Practical tools and resources that you'll use from day one
In-Person Labs
For communities and organizations looking to galvanize a large group or network
Two consecutive days of learning how to apply the Turning Outward practice to real challenges facing your community
Contact our team for pricing for an in-person Lab
“It changed my entire perspective on the work that I do, my commitment to my profession, and how I think about how we everyday engage with our communities.”
Lab 1: Getting Started
Your Launchpad for Creating Change
In just five weekly 2-hour live, interactive sessions with our team of Harwood instructors, explore the mindset and practice of Turning Outward; learn how change happens and unfolds in a community; develop ways to engage people in your community and what matters to them; discern where your community is starting so you can take the right actions; and identify how you can show up more intentionally in your life and work.
If you are ready to get started using the Harwood approach, this Lab is for you!
-
The lab is great for individuals or cohorts of people—from urban, rural, or suburban settings—who are working to create change in their community.
The lab is a great fit for someone who:
Is engaged in and seeks to make things better for their community
Is open to adopting a new way of doing things
Moves beyond talking by taking intentional action
Is not easily defeated when challenges and difficulties arise
Seizes new opportunities to achieve desired impact
Possesses a can-do spirit and a sense of authentic hope in the face of real challenges
Values the community’s voice and keeps the community's aspirations in their line of sight
Enjoys problem-solving in the face of ambiguity
-
Session 1: Why Turn Outward. You’ll explore the mindset and behaviors needed to make more intentional choices and judgments in your work and life to create a new sense of possibility and authentic hope in your community.
Session 2: How Change Happens. You’ll examine how to catalyze a chain reaction of actions in your community with others and learn how the chain reaction can grow and spread over time.
Session 3: What Matters to People. You’ll discover why starting with people’s shared aspirations and concerns is critical, and how the public knowledge you gather can help you reframe public discussions, enlist allies, develop strategies, and align actions over time.
Session 4: Know Where Your Community Is Starting. You’ll learn how to discern and diagnose where your community is starting—not where you wish it could be—which will enable you to calibrate a set of actions that best fit your local context.
Session 5: How You Show Up. You’ll identify what it means and what it will take to show up differently for yourself and others in the community.
-
Wednesday, October 7, 2026– Orientation | 2-3:30 pm ET
Thursday, October 8, 2026 – Session 1 | 2-4 pm ET
Thursday, October 15, 2026 – Session 2 | 2-4 pm ET
Thursday, October 22, 2026 – Session 3 | 2-4 pm ET
Thursday, October 29, 2026 – Session 4 | 2-4 pm ET
Thursday, November 5, 2026 – Session 5 | 2-4 pm ET
-
The class fee is $995. We encourage you to participate in the Lab with your colleagues! Joining as a group can help you align around a common purpose and spread the Turning Outward practice within your organization and your community.
In addition to the interactive weekly online sessions, you will receive:
A Public Innovators Lab Guidebook
Essential tools for Turning Outward
Copies of Rich Harwood’s most recent books
Access to an online Resource Hub
Regular email updates from the Institute to guide and support your work
Connection to a growing national network of public innovators
-
Weekly homework assignments: Before each session, you will complete homework assignments including readings, videos, and reflection questions to apply your learning. Most participants spend around an hour per week on homework in addition to the two-hour class session. To get the most out of the Lab, plan for adequate time to complete the assignments before each session.
Large & small group discussions: Each session features interactive large and small group discussions. Please come prepared and ready to engage!
“This Lab is a great place to get started if you feel worn out or stuck in old ways and are looking for fresh ways to center your community in the work you do.”
Lab 2: Unleashing Impact
Deepen and Accelerate Your Practice
In five weekly 2-hour interactive sessions with our team of Harwood instructors, you’ll see how a chain reaction of ever-expanding actions and ripple effects is unleashed; strengthen your community’s civic culture; develop new ways to engage in ongoing learning and innovation; and name what it will take to keep showing up with greater intentionality in your work and lives.
The Unleashing Impact Virtual Lab is great for those who have gone through earlier versions of the Labs as well as those without previous experience using the Harwood approach. It is your next step to becoming that much more effective.
-
The lab is great for individuals or cohorts of people—from urban, rural, and suburban settings—who are working together to create change in their community.
The lab is a great fit for someone who:
Is engaged in and seeks to make things better for their community
Is open to adopting a new way of doing things
Moves beyond talking by taking intentional action
Is not easily defeated when challenges and difficulties arise
Seizes new opportunities to achieve desired impact
Possesses a can-do spirit and a sense of authentic hope in the face of real challenges
Values the community’s voice and keeps the community's aspirations in their line of sight
Enjoys problem-solving in the face of ambiguity
-
Session 1 – Leverage the Power of Public Knowledge
You'll revisit the power that public knowledge gives you and why leveraging public knowledge sets you up to unleash and spread a chain reaction in your community.Session 2 – Unleash the Chain Reaction
You’ll take a closer look at the chain reaction—how it takes root, grows, and spreads over time, and how you can make intentional choices about who to run with to help you take action.Session 3 – Grow Civic Culture
You’ll examine how your actions must address what matters to people (their shared aspirations and concerns) and, at the same time, grow your community’s civic culture (the capacities, relationships, networks, and norms that enable your community to grow).Session 4 – Engage in Civic Learning
You’ll develop new ways to engage in ongoing learning and innovation so you can continually recalibrate your efforts based on what you and others are learning together about your shared work and the community.Session 5 – How You Show Up
You’ll work through key inflection points that will come up as you engage in this work and identify what it will take to show up for yourself and others in your community as you keep moving along the public learning journey. -
Stay tuned for the next Unleashing Impact Lab dates!
-
The class fee is $995. We encourage you to participate in the Lab with your colleagues! Joining as a group can help you align around a common purpose and spread the Turning Outward practice within your organization and your community.
In addition to the interactive weekly online sessions, you will receive:
A Public Innovators Lab Guidebook
Essential tools for Turning Outward
Copies of Rich Harwood’s most recent books
Access to an online Resource Hub
Regular email updates from the Institute to guide and support your work
Connection to a growing national network of public innovators
-
Weekly homework assignments. Before each session, you will complete homework assignments including readings, videos, and reflection questions that help you apply what you are learning. Most participants spend around an hour per week on homework in addition to the two-hour class session. To get the most out of the Lab, plan for adequate time to complete the assignments before each session.
Large & small group discussions. Each session features interactive large and small group discussions. Please come prepared and ready to engage!
“I went into this Lab feeling frustrated and stuck, but now I feel like there are steps that I can take to really help my community. I don't feel like I'm lost in the woods without a map. I've been given the map, and now I just have to put it into practice.”
THE PATTERSON FOUNDATION has sent over 300 community members through the Public Innovator Labs from across their four-county region in Florida to activate multiple chain reactions of change focused on the community’s shared aspirations.
THE LIBRARY OF VIRGINIA is one of many statewide library systems that have sent dozens of leaders and staff through the Virtual Labs so they are Turned Outward and operating as thriving community hubs.
INDIANA UNITED WAYS brought together a group of leaders from across the state for an in-person Lab to deepen and accelerate their use of the Turning Outward practice in their communities. This Lab built upon a previous statewide initiative between the Institute and Indiana United Ways.