Learning Lab attendees posing outside the space. Photo/Rebecca Rudolph

1819 Learning Lab: Introducing Cincinnati’s innovation launchpad

Cincinnati’s business ecosystem thrives on innovation from the Learning Lab

By Stephen Kenney Email Stephen

7 minute read April 10, 2025

Hidden within the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub is a game-changing resource for large companies and startups alike.

The 1819 Learning Lab is an innovative space where Southwest Ohio’s business leaders and entrepreneurs unlock the insights and expertise needed to launch their teams to new heights.

More than 1,000 representatives from over 60 unique organizations have gained expert insights at the Learning Lab in the last eight months. Below, we’ll break down four cutting-edge sessions that helped 1819 partner companies reach their full innovative potential.

Kinetic Vision: Strategic thinking

Engineering design firm Kinetic Vision turned to the 1819 Learning Lab to learn how to overcome the “strategy trap” – a deceptive pitfall that can cripple teams when businesses prioritize strategy while deprioritizing the very strategists who drive those decisions.

Kinetic Vision team in front of the Learning Lab. Photo/Rebecca Rudolph

Based on learnings from the book “Strategists First: How To Defeat the Strategy Trap,” written by the University of Cincinnati’s executive vice president and chief innovation and strategy officer Ryan Hays, the session broke down ways for Kinetic Vision’s teams to make wise and strategic choices.

Learning Lab leaders Nicholas Partridge and Rebecca Rudolph leveraged the chapter structure of the book for enhanced learning and retention. This included instructing attendees on employing specific techniques related to:

Five habits
Four skills
Three choices
Two fixes
One mission

To help its business avoid strategic failures, Kinetic Vision’s team received a clear message: “The best way to generate more effective strategies is by cultivating more skilled strategists.”

The seminar’s clear messaging led directly into interactive role-play opportunities and small group sessions, enabling Kinetic Vision’s team to turn words into action. Ultimately, attendees left the Learning Lab better prepared to craft strategy by developing and enabling strategic thinkers.

Western & Southern: Experiment planning

The accounting and finance teams at Western & Southern Financial Group traveled to 1819 to learn about designing thoughtful experiment plans. There were three main objectives for the session:

Western & Southern employees during a Learning Lab exercise. Photo/Rebecca Rudolph

Maintaining a strong sense of connection
Providing constructive feedback on recent team events
Developing clear experiment plans in opportunity areas

The Learning Lab session began with a retrospective analysis, identifying opportunities to preserve, eliminate or refine for the future. This roundtable gave the teams a chance to celebrate victories and provide constructive feedback on recurring business functions.

The highlight of the Learning Lab visit, though, may have been its focus on experiment planning. Attendees brainstormed ways to construct experiments to increase internal efficiency. According to Partridge and Rudolph, a key feature to process improvement is to identify what to keep doing, eliminate or change – “prioritizing the riskiest assumptions and testing them in experiments as early as possible to quickly and conclusively validate or invalidate them.”

The teams acted on these words in the latter half of the Learning Lab session, ideating on potential business experiments. Finally, attendees considered next steps – from setting up a debrief session to conducting experiments identified at the Learning Lab.

U.S. Bank: Early career development

U.S. Bank employees in a Learning Lab discussion. Photo/Rebecca Rudolph

A group of recent U.S. Bank hires traveled to the Learning Lab for a two-part session focused on early career growth. Attendees, some of them recent UC graduates, are members of a two-and-a-half-year rotational program at U.S. Bank. Their time at 1819 helped them foster connections through hands-on activities and by identifying each other’s professional “superpowers.”

With new relationships formed, the group transitioned into a Learning Lab session about systematic inventive thinking (SIT). This innovative mindset uses a structured approach to generate novel ideas, emphasizing five key patterns and four essential principles.

U.S. Bank attendees weren’t just at the Learning Lab to listen; Partridge and Rudolph organized activities for participants to incorporate SIT principles themselves. Subtraction, one of the five SIT patterns, was especially highlighted during a team-building activity. Finally, the U.S. Bank team was tasked with incorporating SIT using ChatGPT, blending two critical innovation skills simultaneously.

Fifth Third Bank: Process improvement

Fifth Third workers brainstorming at the Learning Lab. Photo/Rebecca Rudolph

Various leadership groups from Fifth Third Bank journeyed to the 1819 Learning Lab to uncover and address their teams’ most valuable and unmet needs. Identifying current business inefficiencies was a priority at the start of the session, with the group looking for unclear or unanswered questions.

Next, Fifth Third’s team learned about process improvement and how to unlock its power in the corporate environment. Collaboration played a significant role in the seminar, with attendees working together to fill out sheets and place sticky notes on whiteboards explaining the current state of team processes.

Thinking through Fifth Third’s current process improvement strategy had value, but the session’s main goal was to lead the team to envision future changes. Working in smaller groups, Learning Lab attendees reimagined current process improvement strategies to create a more effective game plan for their teams moving forward.

Leaders lean on the Learning Lab

Whether by planning out innovative experiments or harnessing the potential of young hires, the 1819 Learning Lab offers countless opportunities for forward-thinking change. Tapping into the expertise of this gem in the Cincinnati Innovation District provides Southwest Ohio’s leaders with a crucial asset for revolutionizing their businesses.

The 1819 Learning Lab is where teams come to level up their innovation game.

Nicholas Partridge Director, 1819 Learning Lab

Partridge views the Learning Lab as an extraordinarily valuable tool for Cincinnati’s innovation community. “The 1819 Learning Lab is where teams come to level up their innovation game – building skills, strengthening collaboration and tackling big challenges with fresh thinking,” he states. “If you’re a business leader looking to future-proof your team and spark breakthrough ideas, this is the place to be.”

Most people may be unaware of the 1819 Learning Lab, but the region’s business and community leaders have certainly taken note. Corporate titans like Procter & Gamble and Great American Insurance Group and smaller groups such as the Corryville Community Development Corporation have joined the four companies above in collaborating with the Learning Lab; will you join them in unlocking its potential?

Featured image at top: Learning Lab attendees posing outside the space. Photo/Rebecca Rudolph

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