9 Benefits to expect from co-creation

Do you recognize this? You know that your company needs to change in a way which will affect everybody in your organization. You also know that everybody has to be involved to make a success out of the change at hand. On the one hand, you feel that involving a broad number of stakeholders in complex change exercises is necessary for success and on the other hand, you are reluctant to do so because you want to be sure that tangible results will be achieved.

Read this blog and find out the benefits of a large-scale co-creative approach for complex change issues.

The idea that the perspectives of the different stakeholders have to be integrated into a change process is widely accepted. Therefore, most project teams are multidisciplinary. Still, we see that even if this multidisciplinary team comes up with interesting solutions the rest of the organization stays disconnected and is not energized by its plans.

In other words, we think that a multidisciplinary project team is a sufficient condition to make sure all stakeholders will be satisfied with the approach the team comes up with. Unfortunately, this is not true.

The reason that solutions from multidisciplinary teams raise resistance in the organization lies in the fact that the other members of the organization have not been involved and didn’t get a chance to truly participate.

I think there is a lot to be gained from applying the six principles of co-creation in a change process. It may be contra-intuitive, but in my experience, opening up the discussion to a broad number of people right from the start of the project brings along a long list of benefits.

We’ve listed them in our book ‘Co-creation is … 13 Myths debunked’ (2015):

1. A collective image of reality and what has to be done is built throughout the process

2. The process grows a dynamic which leads to actions with a broad support within the organization

3. People co-own the project, which allows the collective ambition of the organization to grow

4. Working in a co-creative fashion allows self-management to grow, allowing more time for management to do other things than control

5. Innovative ideas emerge, in part because other people than the usual suspects get involved

6. The general feeling of well-being within the organization is lifted

7. The process allows the organization to make more use of the competencies, talents, and qualities of the collaborators

8. Silos are brought down, allowing to work independently from hierarchy

9. Chances that something truly changes are much bigger than the average 25% chance with traditional approaches

In conclusion, in the case that you have a complex change issue ahead of you, be sure to also consider a co-creative approach to it, rather than accepting the top-down approach as the only way to go.

If you want to learn more about co-creation, please contact me Lesley.Vanleke@VanlekeAdvies.be or call me +32 478 51 96 66.