Co-creation method

A map with paths to select from

path

The co-creation method is a systematic way to engage stakeholders in an organization or a community in a co-creation process. The participants can explore improvement or innovation potential, plan action and act, place responsibility related to progression and evaluate their efforts. This dialogic and participatory method was developed from evaluations of experiences with action research in Larsen (2021).

The method design is a map of different paths to choose from when you to engage in a co-creation process to develop sustainable solutions. On the one hand, the co-creation method can be followed systematically through three phases of knowledge and practice development. On the other, organizations or communities can follow their own path through this map. It is also possible to choose from various tools in the method. For example, you may learn how to establish, coordinate and document a fixed co-creation meeting that may ensures a co-creation process. This meeting may also be supplemented with group interviews and/or dialogue seminars to strengthen the process.

In the coming weeks I will describe the different tools and phases in the co-creation method one step at a time. So, if you are curious about this, sign up to the RSS to get notified when a new tool/phase is introduced. I begin with the Ideasmithy. In the research, this fixed meeting was established due to a conflict between staff and patient co-researchers when patient co-researchers urged changes in treatment. You can read more about this conflict here. It is considered the back-bone of the co-creation method, because here co-creation is planned and maintained. Also, this meeting is a place where conflict can be addressed, and resistance can become constructive.

Stakeholder roles – rule of thumb

I use the roles (service user, provider, leader) related to the research-context where the co-creation method was developed, when I describe stakeholders. You may change the name of these roles as you see fit. The rule of thumb is that stakeholders should participate, including persons with decision-making power (managers, leaders). The point is to inform propositions for change or innovation with knowledge from the persons that will be impacted by the solutions that will be implemented.

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Favors

If you want to use the tools in the co-creation method presented underneath to co-create sustainable solutions in your organisation, community, or family even: Feel free! But first, please do me a favor:

I’d love to know about what you are doing/planning to do, so send me an email about it.

This favor will increase my knowledge about various ways to co-create sustainability.

– With your permission, I can contribute such knowledge as a favor to others in terms of guidance.
– With your permission, this knowledge can also inform my teaching, so the students can more easily understand co-creation of sustainable solutions and develop their own practices.

If you need me as a reflexive partner on how to facilitate co-creation processes where the focus is on sustainability and/or environmental protection, please do me a favor:

Contact me here, and answer these two questions:

  1. Which of the UN sustainability development goals do you plan to address with your efforts, and how?
  2. How can I improve the text on this web-page about the co-creation method, so it becomes even more comprehensible?

This favor will

a) Increase my knowledge about how to reach the various the sustainability development goals through co-creation processes
b) Increase my knowledge about how to make the web-page more accessible and understandable

– With your permission I can contribute such knowledge as a favor to others in terms of guidance.
– With your permission this knowledge can also inform my teaching, so the students can more easily understand co-creation of sustainable solutions and develop their own practices.





THE IDEASMITHY

hands on a tree

The Ideasmithy is a fixed co-creation meeting between the stakeholders. It is meant to follow the co-creation process from A to Z and it is the key tool to maintain it. The members may be two service users, two providers, and two leaders, and an Ideasmithy coordinator. The Ideasmithy members can explore issues such as training needs, service quality or challenges in a community, change propositions and innovation initiatives related to sustainable solutions in this meeting. Furthermore, propositions made in other co-creation meetings in the co-creation process are followed up in the Ideasmithy.

The Ideasmithy coordinator is central to the Ideasmithy. This person

  • will have a special responsibility in integrating the Ideasmithy coordinator role in the organisation/community and for establishing the Ideasmithy meeting
  • should be skilful in building a trustful, including communication environment and in facilitating explorative dialogue, while also being able to ask the difficult questions
  • must ensure the attendance of multiple stakeholders and make use of the chosen tools for documenting the co-creation process

Some documentation tools that may be helpful in the Ideasmithy and the co-creation process are meeting minutes, comparative tables, action and evaluation reports and a progression map. They will be described later.

A strong Ideasmithy can prevail for years. Assisted by consistent documentation and the Ideasmithy coordinator, Ideasmithy members can continue to monitor developments and support and empower persons who engage with co-creating sustainable solutions in the organisation/community.

THE INITIATOR

To anchor the co-creation process in an organisation or a community, well thought out initiation is just as necessary as follow-up. Negotiation, planning, action, and evaluation must be initiated by someone. Also, gaining an overview of the organisation or community is important. So is knowledge about and connection between stakeholders. Finally, for those who wish to engage more deeply, long-term commitment through coordination and follow-up is key. Therefore, someone with a wish to contribute to sustainability and an eye for potential, can take on a specific role, lay down the first stones for the foundation and continue building overview and competence that will profit the process. You may be an engaged staff, leader, service user/citizen, researcher, or any other stakeholder to initiate the first steps of designing a co-creation process. This role will develop into a coordinator role when a foundation has been laid in collaboration with the stakeholders. An initiator understands the logic of the map and paths in the co-creation method. You are also able to engage in and facilitate explorative dialogue about how to design a context-specific path. Another main task is to early on ensure that a joint aim is developed among stakeholders about how to find sustainable solutions.

Leaders first

The first step for a person who wishes to initiate a co-creation process, is to prepare for negotiation with decision-makers in the organisation or community. It is pivotal that the project is anchored among formal leaders such as managers, and civil society or political leaders. Due to their overview, insight and authority, it is advised that they are invited to mold the co-creation process first. They are regarded as stakeholders with enhanced responsibility related to the organisation’s/community’s duties in society. They are just as important as the other stakeholders, because without leader-involvement the process risks failing. For instance, decision-makers may counter-act stakeholders’ mutual efforts by making decisions that aren’t informed by the stakeholders’ co-created knowledge. Also, if conflict about priorities arise among stakeholders, formal leaders need to be fit to make context-adequate decisions that will keep the process constructive. Without ownership, and involvement – the decisions made may be superficial and counterproductive.

Reciprocal empowerment

On the one hand, leaders’ insider-knowledge and trust may open doors to the rest of the organisation/community. On the other, leaders contributing to co-creation of knowledge will inform other stakeholders’ propositions for solutions with leader perspectives. Also, leaders themselves benefit from knowledge development and involvement with other stakeholders, so that their co-creation leadership competence will enhance. Examples are how to handle collective decision-making, enable dialogue, maneuver between participation and autocratic decision or between operations and innovation, and more. Reciprocal empowerment is a core principle in the co-creation method. Stakeholders who co-create knowledge and solutions learn and grow together, reciprocally empowering each other with their contributions for a mutual cause. This is the magic that promotes co-creation.

Come prepared

So, read as much as you can of the material about the co-creation method on this website. You don’t need to be an expert, but you must have an idea of why the tools in the method can be helpful. Consider the potential of a co-creation process for sustainable solutions in your context. Then contact the leader/-s and ask for a meeting, and advertise that you have found a scientifically developed and evaluated co-creation method. Briefly explain the potential of a co-creation process for sustainable solutions in your context as you see it. Make the information accessible so they can read up before you meet.

In the meeting, make sure your arguments are founded in both the information provided and your insight in the organisation, community, its problems, and potential. Explore this potential with open questions for the leader/-s and yourself to reflect on: Why do we need this? Where do we see a sustainability-potential? Who are the stakeholders? How can they, and why would they, contribute? How can we mobilise? What do we need, to engage in a co-creation process? What are the challenges in our context? And so on.

Negotiate

You may agree on a preliminary path in this meeting, but it is recommended to invite all the stakeholders to an information and planning meeting where a mutual path is designed. In the first negotiation meeting, you find out whether the leader/-s are ready to contribute as stakeholders and clarify if they want you to engage in an initiator and later process coordinator role. Make sure that you know what is expected of you, and determine what you expect from the leader/-s. If you are an employee, negotiate so you get time allocated to learn more and plan the next steps before you move on. If you are a volunteer, make sure you have what you need to handle this task. Don’t be afraid to explore potential employment – this role is central to the whole process, and the competence you build in this role may be important for the organisation/community to hold on to.  Are you a researcher? Consider bringing in a fellow-researcher or students as reflective partners and to help manage the complexity of ethics, access, coordination, research, and publication.

Set a date for the information and planning meeting, and discuss a time-estimate for the process. Are we talking one day, or a co-creation process that may last for months or a year, or is it something beyond or between the two?

Build your competence and prepare

When you have what you need (time, access to stakeholders and facilities, etc) you can start building your own competence. This will enable you to get the necessary overview that will help you facilitate the co-creation process. In Larsen (2021) the method and co-creation leadership is described in detail. In the two articles in the thesis, there are some suggestions to literature about how to ensure explorative dialogue and co-creation partnership across stakeholder hierarchies. Keep your eyes open for relevant training opportunities if there’s room for this in the negotiated deal between the leader/-s and yourself.

Prepare for the information and planning meeting with all the stakeholders. Here you explain your initiative, what motivates you, what potential you see, and how you all can benefit from co-creating sustainable solutions. You may explain the co-creation method, the map and the path-selection principle. Also, the leader/-s must be present in this meeting and explain why they think such process may be beneficial. Morts of all, this meeting is an invitation to co-create a path together, so dialogue is key.

Coming soon: The group interviews. Before I describe how the initiator can facilitate path co-creation with the stakeholders, I will present some more of the useful tools in the co-creation method.