From Course 1, each participant (or team) selects a genuine challenge from within their own healthcare organization. This is not a hypothetical. The stakes are real, the stakeholders are real, and the outcomes — if the initiative succeeds — will have actual impact on patients, staff, and the organization. That reality is what gives the learning its urgency.

Each of the 8 courses contributes a discrete deliverable to the DRIVE Innovation Project. By Course 8, participants are not starting their project — they are finishing it. The problem statement from Course 1 becomes the data collection plan in Course 2, the analysis brief in Course 3, the strategic plan in Course 4, the implementation plan in Courses 5 and 6, the systemic implications report in Course 7, and the executive presentation and brief in Course 8. Every session advances the work.

The program follows the action learning loop: Plan → Act → Observe → Reflect → Adjust. Participants are not just studying change — they are conducting it. The DRIVE Innovation Project is the vehicle through which that cycle becomes real and repeatable. When the program ends, participants leave not only with a completed project but with a methodology they can apply to the next challenge they face.

Each participant or team is assigned a project coach who works with them throughout the program. The coach is not a subject matter expert or a grader — they are a thinking partner. They help participants navigate obstacles, stay honest about scope, connect course concepts to their specific challenge, and maintain momentum across the full arc of the program. The coach relationship is one of the most distinctive features of the DRIVE experience.