Written by Marc Bolick and Steve Bosak
Organizations like P&G, IKEA, Starbucks and USAID have used co-creation successfully to develop new products and solve complex challenges. Taking the approach of designing with, not for, the people most impacted by your problem can lead to better, more effective solutions.
In today's complex organizational landscape, effective collaboration is a cornerstone of success. Co-creation is an approach to collaborative problem solving that is as much mindset as method. Facilitation is a foundational skill set that is vital to success across the spectrum of collaborative work.
These two elements go hand-in-hand in many projects where collaboration across organizational silos and between diverse stakeholders - even between different organizations - is critical to success.
In the work we do at reshift, we always have some aspect of co-creation as part of our projects. In some cases, co-creation is a core focus of how the project is executed, and in others it’s simply woven into the approach and activities we plan.
We consider facilitation a superpower skill. It’s what sets us apart from firms that do the work for the client. Our approach involves us constantly facilitating and guiding our client teams from stage to stage as they do the work themselves. Let’s unpack what these two terms really mean in the context of human-centered design.
What is co-creation?
Co-creation is an approach to collaborative problem solving that involves designing with, not for, the people who are the focus of your design effort.
The 'gold standard' of co-creation is going through the process of designing solutions, new products or services hand-in-hand with your customers, employees or other stakeholders who are most impacted by the challenge you’re working on.
More broadly, taking a co-creative approach to complex problems involves engaging a broad set of people in the problem-solving process. It emphasizes inclusivity, creativity, and user-centricity in order to drive innovative solutions and foster ownership among participants.
In the social innovation sector this can be co-designing solutions with community members, faith leaders, local government ministries and the like. In the private sector, incorporating co-creation into organizational processes ensures that managers get input from diverse perspectives outside of the functional silos that often hinder collaboration. Co-creation leads to solutions that have deeper employee buy-in and that better meet the needs of end-users, be they internal or external.
When should you incorporate co-creation in your work?
The old adage that people are more likely to support solutions they have a part in creating is what co-creation is all about. Indeed, research shows that if you put labor into something you tend to value it over the same product that you did not put labor into creating. This is called the “IKEA effect.” Co-creation also helps avoid the opposite effect where other people’s solutions are rejected due to “not invented here” syndrome.
“You can achieve more effective results when solutions are created, understood and accepted by the people impacted.” - The Secrets of Facilitation, Michael Wilkinson
Co-creation is a foundational principle of design thinking and is inherent in being human-centered. It is particularly important in the following situations:
- when you need wide, cross-organization or community buy-in for solutions
- when you want to be inclusive and incorporate diverse viewpoints
- when creativity of solutions or innovative approaches is important
- if you want solutions to be optimized for specific people like users, employees, customers, patients, etc.
In the work of complex problem-solving you almost always have one of these goals in mind, so making an effort to include co-creation in any project can almost always increase your chances of success.
Download our free Co-creation Toolkit to get started using co-creation in your organization
What is facilitation?
Facilitation is the art of guiding groups or individuals through conversations, activities, and decision-making to achieve specific goals efficiently and effectively.
It is a superpower skill set that transcends subject matter expertise and authority, where the facilitator’s role is crafting the process, engaging participants and ensuring forward progress.
Skilled facilitators help groups clarify and frame the problem or challenge they are solving, define what success looks like, and ensure individuals move together as a collective to get to their desired outcome. They maintain the group’s forward momentum while focusing on the process and team dynamics so that individuals can focus on active participation and subject matter contribution.
The facilitator needs to master both the design of the process and the conversations that a group needs to have, and the execution of that process during working sessions. The facilitator is constantly paying attention to time, guiding the group to zoom in or out as needed to unblock conversations and move through the process.
When is Facilitation Needed?
Much of the work done in organizations involves some form of collaboration, working with other people to get things done. There are times when that work needs to be coordinated and guided, which often falls under the purview of a manager.
But, there are specific times when it pays to have a neutral facilitator, someone who can take on the responsibility of defining a collaborative process and then guiding the group through that process.
A professional facilitator is particularly valuable in situations involving challenges or where innovative solutions are important. Their function as a guide is particularly valuable when working with large or diverse groups, when working on strategy and organizational change, or when time pressure is particularly high.
Facilitators bring structured processes and techniques to guide discussions, foster collaboration, and achieve actionable outcomes, making them indispensable in navigating high-stakes, multifaceted, or sensitive scenarios to ensure productive and inclusive results.
The Benefits of Deep Collaboration
The business benefits of facilitation and co-creation extend beyond mere collaboration. Organizations that embrace these methodologies experience tangible improvements in innovation, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
As mentioned above, at reshfit we employ both co-creation and facilitation in all of our work. Here are a few examples of the kinds of projects these two powerful concepts can be applied to:
- We designed and facilitated a series of workshops for Michelin to co-create new service offerings with their Detroit-based customers. While the workshops were aimed at finding new, innovative services, our client was also intentionally using co-creation to strategically strengthen their relationship with their customers.
- When Syngenta was exploring ways to enhance the digital experience of their customers, we ran a co-creation sprint bringing together people from across their seed business and a diverse group of farmers. The result was a set of digital prototypes that were developed directly with and for farmers.
- For USAID, we have designed and facilitated more than a dozen collaborative workshops bringing together implementation partners, government ministries, citizen groups, technical experts and others to find solutions to a wide range of development challenges. In each case, careful planning and design of the workshops resulted in advancing novel approaches to the challenges that were created together with diverse stakeholders who are at the center of the challenges.
There are many other examples of successes from using a co-creative approach including P&G’s Fabreze and Swiffer products through customer co-creation, the nutritious food offerings at Starbucks also from customers, the Happy Meal at McDonalds from franchisees, and Xerox’s savings of over $10 million and reduction of 2.6 million pounds of waste through employee suggestions.
Unlocking Collaborative Potential
Co-creation can take different forms, from just involving employees more deeply in the innovation process to centering the solution design process specifically around your customers or your employees.
We feel that the people closest to a problem usually have a lot to contribute to solving them. In this sense, co-creation is part of a mindset of how you approach your challenge at hand, be it defining a new product or finding ways to reduce employee burnout.
One of the biggest challenges in the rapidly changing world of work is getting teams and groups to more effectively collaborate. This can be as simple as fewer and more effective meetings. Research shows that more meetings are not the answer (this study found that reducing meetings by 40% almost doubled productivity, for example).
We think that facilitation is a skill set that will be increasingly valued as a way to get more out of our human-to-human collaboration. Good facilitation can turn those unproductive meetings from boring, unproductive time wasters to engaging work sessions with purpose and positive outputs.
Finally, the collaborative potential of both co-creation and facilitation, when done with care and by experienced professionals, are proven to yield better results than working in isolated silos. Co-creation is a mindset that you set out with on your journey to finding innovative solutions, and facilitation is the guiding hand that helps your team get to your destination.
Download our free Co-creation Toolkit to get started using co-creation in your organization
If you need an experienced facilitation team for your next working session, or if you want to incorporate the power of co-creation in an upcoming project, drop us a note at info@reshift.us.
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Co-author Marc Bolick is founder and managing partner of reshift, an innovation support partner for leaders and teams seeking Big Change. He draws on decades of experience in product and service innovation to facilitate collaborative problem solving and drive impact for the most complex challenges organizations face.
Co-author Steve Bosak learned innovation facilitation in 1995 and applied it to his environmental policy work before learning human-centered design. Whether it’s a tech company trying to improve its customer service or an organization seeking ways to tackle climate change problems, Steve enjoys helping clients build a deeper understanding of their stakeholders and helping them develop solutions to their challenges.