Core Values – 4. Co-creation

This is the fourth post in a series of eight, looking at Core Values in the workplace. The first post was a general introduction explaining where the core values of the team that I lead were derived from. In the last two posts I described the core values of Altruism and Integrity. Here I will look at the role of Co-creation in our work.

The two Impact Reports which I referred to in the earlier posts describe the team’s approach as being underpinned by collaborative working, which works on co-creation. This is a very fashionable term. Many organisations, particularly in the public sector talk about co-creation or co-production. In many cases the term is used very loosely.

When I use the term, I am talking about an approach to creating new projects that begins with an idea and very quickly gets into a co-creation space. When we commission people to work with us, we expect them to bring their expertise to the design stage. This may mean that the brief changes completely from the start-up phase through to execution.

The traditional way to commission work is to define the specification and be really clear about all aspects of it before engaging the people who are going to deliver the work. This is fine when you have all of the answers, but limited if you are intending to engage experts who have ideas that wouldn’t occur to you before you connect with them. For this reason, we look where possible to make sure that we do not restrict the journey that the project will travel as it is developed.

Intrinsic in this approach is an understanding that we not only trust the people who we work with, but also that we respect the expertise and knowledge that they bring to the process and fully expect them to know things that we don’t and to have a perspective that is fresh.

This core value is key to ensuring an innovative approach to work, where there is always space for reflection and to draw on the ideas of the whole team of people who are involved. To do this, we need to be prepared to look at anything – whilst maintaining focus through being clear about the core vision of what we are setting out to achieve.

Adhering to these principles creates an environment where it is possible to truly co-create. It also ensures that the work programme that we deliver is not reliant on a small team, but can draw on a much wider group of people who sign up to the core values of the ways in which we work. In a future post I will talk more about that wider group, and an exciting new development which we are creating in the next couple of months to support it.