This past Saturday night I went to a wedding at The Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. It’s a beautiful Episcopalian church, built 150 years ago. At the reception, I ended up sitting next to the Rector, Reverend Alan Neale, who performed the wedding ceremony. Over the course of the evening he asked me what I did and I explained that Frontier works with clients in a burgeoning discipline called service design.

“Essentially, we ask questions like, ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not?’ to design new services – and new sources of revenue – for our clients,” I explained over the second course of dinner. The Rector is a smart guy and he “got it” immediately. Born and educated in London, his first degree was from the London School of Economics and a degree in Theology from Oxford University followed.

He leaned in close and said, “Yes, that’s exactly what we did here when I first arrived four years ago. Previously, this church would only marry those people who were parishioners at the church. I came along and thought that was ridiculous so we opened up the church to anyone who wanted to be married. I meet with the couple four times prior to the wedding to provide counseling to get them off on the right foot, and now we do about 40 weddings a year. (more…)