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Co-creation meetings bring together internal
and external stakeholders (such as senior
management, employees, customers, suppliers,
partners, academics, members of the community)
with widely differing agendas to pool their
knowledge, generate
high potential ideas, agree which ones
to take forward, and make robust plans for
collaborative action. There is no limit to
the number of participants in a co-creation
meeting, but 50 to 200 people tends to be
the norm.
Most of the co-creation meetings I produce
in partnership with clients are based on a
combination of Open
Space Technology and other, more overtly-structured,
methods.
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When to use co-creation meetings
This tool was created by Paul Miller (chairman
of the Intranet Benchmarking
Forum) and Martin Leith, based
on Bryan Smith’s model.
| Low |
LEVEL
OF OWNERSHIP AND COMMITMENT
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High
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| Circumstances |
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| Issue / desired results / way forward are
clear |
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Issue / desired results / way forward are
unclear |
| Low complexity |
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High complexity |
| Low uncertainty |
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High uncertainty |
| Pre-determined outcome |
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Open outcome |
| Single stakeholder group / single agenda |
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Multiple stakeholder groups / multiple
agendas |
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| Typical issue |
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| We want everyone to know what the company’s
vision is |
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We want to hear employees’ problems, and
their suggestions for tackling
them |
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We want to foster a sense of community
and belonging |
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| We want people to be aware of the need
to cut costs by 25% |
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We want people to adopt the new process
that has been developed |
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We want breakthrough ideas |
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| We want to inform everyone of the year-end
results |
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We want people to recognise the need for
change |
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We want to engage in strategic conversations
with diverse stakeholder groups |
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| We want to show the new advertising campaign
to the sales force |
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We want employees to implement the corporate
strategy at local level |
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We want to co-create a compelling vision
of the future |
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| We want to make an announcement to the
media |
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We want to integrate the company we recently
acquired |
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We want to solve an insoluble problem |
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When designing a co-creation meeting
(this is normally done by a design team
that includes a small sample of the people
who will take part in the meeting) it is important
to spend at least as much time considering
what will happen after the meeting as is spent
thinking about the meeting itself. Co-creation
often begins with a meeting or large scale
event, but it’s much more than
an event - it’s an iterative process
of experimentation and learning.
Many co-creation meetings have a
dual purpose:
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Kick-starting one or more vital projects |
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Setting behavioural change
in motion |
Likewise, each project team that
is established during or following a co-creation
meeting also has a dual purpose:
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Bringing into being something new,
tangible or intangible, that delivers
maximum value |
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Serving as a learning laboratory
in which new behaviours can be practiced |
This second point means that mechanisms
must be put in place to facilitate the
emergence of the desired behaviours and their
subsequent spread across the organisation
as a whole.
My colleagues at thenew.org and
I can help establish these mechanisms and
ensure that the greatest amount of behavioural
change and organisational learning flows from
the co-creation meeting.
| STAGE |
Anchors aweigh
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Full steam ahead
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WHAT WE DO
• Broadly |
Design and deliver a co-creation
meeting |
Enable the delivery of vital
projects initiated during the
co-creation meeting |
| • In more detail |
Help leaders understand the wider implications
of holding a co-creation meeting
Design and deliver the co-creation meeting
in partnership with the client
team
Establish cross-functional teams to deliver
vital projects
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Instal a mechanism that will enable project
teams to acquire new behaviours
and deliver their projects successfully
Work with project teams to help them display
new behaviours
Help the leadership team:
| 1. |
Determine and display the required behaviours |
| 2. |
Provide the right kind of support to the
project teams |
| 3. |
Spread the new behaviours from the project
teams to the wider organisation |
Facilitate communication within the organisation
using the intranet and other channels
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| SERVICE PROVIDED BY |
Leith Co-Creation (Martin Leith and colleagues) |
Leith Co-Creation in partnership with thenew.org |
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