6 Principles of co-creation

In my previous blog I talked about how developing self-management and co-creation in organizations can be a struggle. I’ve argued that top-down reflexes are not easy to suppress and I’ve made the point that even if a manager succeeds in suppressing them, he or she still doesn’t have a framework to replace top-down thinking with. However, when it comes down to dealing with complex problems on an organizational level, this framework is exactly what is needed. In this blog, I’d like to talk about the six principles of co-creation and how they can serve as a framework for you as a leader.

Managers nowadays are usually genuinely willing to invest in people. They can be great coaches in one on one meetings. Many of them are quite able to build a strong team out of their direct reports. Collaboration is then based on trust and respect instead of on power and hierarchy. Only, when it comes down to making such a connection with the organization as a whole, this proves to be much more difficult. Top-down reflexes take over.

What a pity! The rest of the organization stays disconnected from what is really going on. When you think about it, this is a great loss of opportunity because all the potential and competencies that are present in the organization do not get tapped into.

I think organizations would benefit enormously if they could find ways to facilitate connections being made throughout the whole organization. The result would be that the organization would get rid of islands and silo’s and that collective action would be enabled.

One of the reasons this does not happen enough in our organizations is that managers usually don’t have an alternative framework to replace the top-down approach with.

There are strong arguments to suggest that letting go of top-down approaches holds a lot of advantages:

• decisions are of a better quality

• commitment and energy levels rise

• relationships become stronger

• trust is enhanced

• innovation is stimulated

• organizations tend to cope with change better

• opportunities are detected earlier

If you are serious about cocreation you’ll have to reprogram your thinking according to the following six principles (Weisbord & Janoff):

• Bring the whole system in the room: invite all stakeholders together in a room and have them discuss the matter at hand

• Explore the ‘whole elephant’: don’t engage in solving parts of a problem, unless you’ve explored the whole

• Control what you can and let go of what you can’t control: prepare such meetings well; the control is in the preparation

• Let people be responsible: the knowledge is in the system, people can manage themselves

• Find common ground: focus on what is agreed up on, not upon what divides

• Master the art of ‘subgrouping’: keep the group ‘whole’ while going through the process of differentiation and integration.

I realize that listed like this, you might not be able to attribute much meaning to these principles. I will go into them in blogs to come.

In conclusion, it is not so that alternative frameworks to top-down thinking do not exist. It is merely the case that they remain unknown to most managers. The six principles of co-creation are a good way to start.​

Want to know more about these six principles? Read “Co-creation is … 13 Myths debunked” published by Lannoo.

Contact me: Lesley.Vanleke@VanlekeAdvies.be or call me +32 478 51 96 66.