Co-Creation Guide: Realising Social Innovation Together
Co-Creation Guide: Realising Social Innovation Together
Co-Creation Guide: Realising Social Innovation Together
#Co-creation tweets:
social innovation
eXchange
This guide is tributed to Diogo Vasconcelos (1968 - 2011).
www.socialinnovationexchange.org
www.knowledgeland.org
www.dialoguecafe.org
Text Editors:
Louise Pulford, Kine Nordstokka, Connor Friesen, Chris Sigaloff, Kimon Moerbeek and Lorine van Loon
Design:
Marcel Oosterwijk
Illustrations:
Spraakmakende Verbeelding by Thomas van Daalen
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License. See the full terms of the license at: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl
2
Why a co-creation guide?
Everyday, whether we are working in the third sector, government, business
or the media, we are faced by new challenges. Increasingly, these challenges
are social. Social Innovation has been defined as the development and
implementation of new ideas (products, services and models) to meet social
needs. This broad definition embraces innovations in fields as diverse as
fair trade, distance learning, hospices, urban farming, waste reduction and
restorative justice. Social innovation can come from individuals, groups and
associations, the non-profit sector, the market and the state.
The basic difference between social innovations and other innovations can be found
in the motivation behind them. While innovations, generally speaking, are motivated
by private financial appropriation, social innovations are motivated to produce social
value1. The need for social innovation is widely accepted across all sectors and all over
the world, but acceptance is not the same as action; for many new social innovators,
the process of initiating and implementing social innovation is challenging. However,
the more people work together, the more engagement there will be between citizens
and service users, the more effective new solutions will become - finding effective
ways to solve social problems (in healthcare, communities, local government etc.) is
no longer a job for governments alone. By working together - by co-creating - social
innovators can create wide-ranging solutions that draw on the insights of everyone
involved.
1
http://socialinnovationexchange.org/aboutsixcorepartners
3
It brings together a broad range of perspectives. It changes the way we approach
ownership of projects and responsibility for outcomes. But what does co-creation really
mean? Is it just another buzzword, or an effective mechanism to create new solutions?
On the 24-25th May, 2011, nearly 100 participants gathered in Amsterdam to discuss
the advantages and pitfalls of co-creation between citizens and organisations in this
new technology-mediated world. A global community including professionals from
public agencies, NGOs, global firms and universities joined with technology experts,
policymakers, and service users to explore these issues.
4
How can we do it?
Efforts around the world to make co-creation more meaningful and useful
are fragmented. There are very few explanations available regarding effective
methods of co-creation - what works and what doesn’t? The aim of this guide is
to share principles and experiences as well as questions, in order to shed light
on the real, practical strengths and opportunities that can come from working
in this new way.
Our purpose with this ‘guide’ is therefore not to dictate a set of answers or a formula
for successful co-creation, but rather to take a look at some of the discussions that
are happening around the topic, to reframe the debate around co-creation and citizen
participation, and to look at old issues from new angles and with fresh perspectives.
This approach is more focused on asking the right questions than finding definitive
answers, so we are likely to end up with more questions than we started with—some
will be new and some will be inspired by foundational questions. The entire co-creation
‘guide,’ aims to be useful as a tool to inspire further thinking and debate around this
important and timely issue. We hope that this guide will enable us, together, to co-
create new ways of working with each other and within our organisations.
5
Why co-creation? Why now?
“We live in times of profound change.”
EMERGING TENSIONS
PARTICIPATORY 1ST ORDER
DEMOCRACY 2ND ORDER
3TH ORDER
REPRESENTATIVE
DEMOCRACY
TOP-DOWN DISCIPLINARY
MEDIA SCIENCE
EMERGING EMERGING
BOTTOM-UP TRANSDISCIPLINARY
MEDIA DESIGN/SCIENCE
2
Roel in ‘t Veld during SIX Spring School Presentation 24-05-2011
7
“Co-creation is an attitude from the initiators.
You can have a series of steps and plans, but
unless you have an attitude from the person
who initiates the action, real co-creation is
difficult to achieve. Co-creation necessitates
an attitude of learning and listening from
the people you are working with. It begins
with a personal attitude before it reaches
out to the range of different methodologies.
Unless you have got the attitude right, the
methodologies are going to fail. To move
the field of co-creation further is more about
attitudinal change than it is about a toolbox.
Co-creators must take the role of facilitators,
not experts. The experts are often the ones
who are closest to the issues.”
Garth Japhet
(Hearlines / Soul City)
8
#Co-creation tweets
• It’s an illusion to think that we can completely decentralise power, you will always
need states at whatever level.
• How will bottom up innovation supplement top-down government, as we know it?
• Does co-creation ever get matched with new modes of co-accountability? Are we
only having half the conversation? The easiest half?
• If participatory democracy is to come about, we need new models of governance
that can overcome immense complexity.
• How can government become a linker rather than a doer?
• Pessimism and optimism both have their own truth: empower new visions of
participations without having the feeling of being naïve.
• Co-creation is an untapped resource.
• Government cuts are opportunities.
Engagement:
• How can we convince the dominant players to go a step further?
• Are civil servants in power to give power to the people?
• How can we find out if a community is ready for change / co-creation?
Do’s and don’ts:
• What do we need to stop doing to make co-creation effective?
• Citizens’ engagement in innovation policies is not uncontroversial. How do we deal
with the arguments pro and contra? How do we make this work in our representative
democracy?
• What makes online co-creation work and what we can do to facilitate more success?
• How can we create the right framework for co-creation?
Framing:
• Is there any difference between co-creation & community participation or dialogue?
• Who is co-creation for? How can we enhance diversity in the co-creation process?
Sustainability:
• How can we design social sustainability?
• How do we select quality and act on / grow the work?
Sharing knowledge:
• What would a global content-sharing strategy look like?
So, we have harvested outcomes of discussions around these questions and present
a number of working principles that have emerged from concrete experiences.
10
1. We should start with a dialogue that is:
• Knowledge driven instead of position driven.
• Participatory.
• Encourages a learning attitude and shared responsibility.
• Includes a diversity/variety of voices.
2. We must be:
• Open minded: Co-Creation as attitude (not a precise method).
• Tolerant of failure.
• Less bound by ‘the rules’.
• Focused on sustainability.
• Open to creating unexpected partnerships.
• Trusting instead of controlling.
3. We can use:
• Social media and new forms of connectivity.
• Although social media is not a creator of change or of social movements, it can
amplify them.
• The power of networks.
• Small steps.
• Engage people with stories.
• All talent available and be inclusive – everyone should feel empowered.
• Different approaches at the same time.
• New types of process design/different architecture.
• Sharing and networking, both within countries and internationally.
11
4. Then we can:
• Politicize it.
• Share power (and co- own).
• Bring people together – offline and online.
• Feel engaged/proud.
• Visualize ‘wins’.
• Celebrate success.
12
Co-creation in two different fields
There are many fields where co-creation can start, and many ways that co-
creation can arise within those fields. As an inspiration we want to highlight
two different areas which demonstrate slightly different approaches and
characteristics of co-creation:
There are four characteristics that can improve the ability of a community to change
and co-create:
• An angry community. Most co-creation comes out of crisis and the need for change,
but not always. Co-creation looks very different if it is instigated by communities
who just want to find a new way of working and who are not angry and frustrated
by a system.
• You also need a learning community. Communities need to be willing to learn and
to dare to try again and again.
• You need a confident community. Proud citizens who feel ownership of and identify
with their own communities can be a powerful tool for co-creation.
• Lastly, you also benefit from having a responsible community who makes the effort
to create the change that is needed to deal with the challenges it encounters.
“Many of the projects had been started in response to a crisis. In all cases a spark is needed
to light a flame but success and sustainability will be dependent on their social impact.
From a resident’s or citizen’s point of view, success will be seen if they continue to feel part
of a movement, if they have a sense of belonging, trust and connectivity to a cause.”
13
2. The Power of People in Government
“How can the government become more of a process architect than a governing body?
What does civil society need to do to link with the government?”
The central questions in discussions around the power of people in government is not
so much about building institutions, but more about changing the way that governments
work at the moment. We have to let go of the idea that change is something ‘earthquake-
like’ that will suddenly fix everything by tearing down bad practices. At the end of
changing the government, the government will still be there, only it will look slightly
14
different. Changing the government is often a slow process and a process without a
‘steering wheel’. Politicians should not control the process of change. Rather, they
should facilitate the process and adopt a leadership style which makes others feel
confident to speak and act.
The government is traditionally seen in the role of Organiser, however, people are
very capable of organising their communities if they are empowered to do so. In
many states citizens are used to the government taking responsibility for creating
solutions to major issues and problems. Communities lean back and only get angry
when things go wrong. Citizens need to have a lean-forward relationship with the
state. Communities should aim for an engagement with the state that goes beyond
lodging complaints. Communities should take a generative approach and suggest
improvements.
Formerly, Pendrecht was a troubled quarter in the city of Rotterdam. Now it is host to a
unique institution: the Pendrecht University. At the University, residents of the quarter
are the professors and the professionals and local governors are the students. One
of the ground principles of the Pendrecht University is to make residents feel that they
are the expert concerning every day matters and issues in their communities and
neighbourhoods. They know which issues need attention and what would be the best
way to tackle them. At Pendrecht University they share their knowledge by teaching
the professionals.
www.socialinnovationeurope.eu/node/2052
15
Case: Verbeter-de-buurt (Improve the neighourhood)
Verbeter de buurt is a Dutch social platform that unites citizens and local government,
by offering an easy way to improve the neighbourhood. Neighbours literally put their
issues (problems and ideas alike) on the map and the city council will be notified. The
platform offers other neighbours the options to read, vote and react on issues posted by
their peers, encouraging dialogue. Ultimately leading to an improved neighbourhood.
www.verbeterdebuurt.nl
16
Case: Hack The Government
Hack de Overheid organises events bringing civil servants, geeks and designers
together to discuss and build applications built around open government data. It is
actively situated in pushing the agenda that open government can bring benefits to
society, not only making the political process more transparent but improving public
services and social cohesion.
www.hackdeoverheid.nl
17
“How do we retool government and “The important thing for Government is not
governing to accommodate new trends and to do things which individuals are doing
demands for openness and co-creation already but to do those things which at
without jettisoning enduring values of public present are not done at all.”
work such as accountability, fairness, rigor,
process fairness? If we can’t work out John M. Keynes
(Quote used in presentation by
how to do both, the debate about changing Diogo Vasconcelos, Cisco)
government will remain mostly aspirational
and peripheral.”
The Soul City model in South Africa has created a mass media platform which can
deal with multiple issues over time. Soul City now reaches 30m people by using
edutainment to integrate social issues into popular and high-quality entertainment
formats, based on a thorough research process. It also uses multiple media – prime
time television drama, radio drama and print media – to capitalize on each medium’s
strength and to reach a variety of audiences.
Two elements are at the heart of Soul City’s work: formative research and partnerships.
Formative research is carried out with both audiences and experts to develop and
field-test materials to ensure their effectiveness. Partnerships are established with
organisations active in the relevant issues.
www.soulcity.org.za
18
#Co-creation tweets
• Ideas for co-creating public services: start where everything else failed, generate
ideas from stories, learn lessons from failure.
• Great insight: governments don’t avoid risks, they avoid blame. That’s also were
external consultants come in :-)
• Bruno Latour’s The Phantom Public: “for any social change, you have to make the
public the agent of that change.”
• The question is also: how do you support emerging practices? It’s happening now,
what do we (govt, org, people) do to support it.
• Funny how people are very keen to say how co-creation *should* work but very
reluctant to say what they will *do* personally.
• In that spirit, here’s what I will do: involve at least one person from a different
discipline in my next project.
• A new process architecture for co-creation as a central tool of govt and democracy.
Can only be done empirically-learn by design.
• Ideas for co-creating public services: a “budget for silly things”, run a project with
role play (citizens are servants & vice versa)
• Make alliances with senior gov managers.
• Alliances with senior people are overrated, it’s the middle managers you need to
work on :-)
Are we ready?
Co-creation is a social process – it means different things to different people
in different sectors of society, but there is a lot we can learn from each other
about how to engage citizens. Co-creating requires a dialogue and a real desire
to learn.
But it’s not about learning from a list of tools. It’s about a mind-set. We have to truly
want to co-create, and we need to create a safe environment in which to do this.
The world we live in is changing and the nature of what it means to be a citizen is also
beginning to change. The recent eruption of civil unrest in North Africa and the Middle
East is just the beginning of a new generation of citizen activists. Simultaneously,
crowd sourcing ideas and crowd funding new projects is happening all over the world.
Whether top down or bottom up, engaging with different groups of people is important,
but requires us to rethink our assumptions. Co- creation is not just another buzzword,
but in order to create long term value for all involved, the concept certainly needs more
attention. In order to co-create effectively; we need to answer the question – Are we
ready for co-creation?
20
SIX Spring School 2011
SIX organisers:
Knowledgeland (KL)
Knowledgeland contributes to a smarter Dutch society. We believe that the best
guarantee for future prosperity and welfare, now and in the future, is to strengthen
our knowledge society. We help to realise this goal by developing and delivering key
interventions. Knowledgeland is an independent think tank. We are continuously
searching for ways to spark the social innovations needed to improve the knowledge
21
society. We start by defining challenges for the knowledge society and creatively
finding possible answers to them. Knowledgeland also develops and delivers projects,
programmes and platforms to help others solve the issues at hand.
Dialogue Café
Dialogue Café is a global non-profit initiative that enables
face-to-face conversations between diverse groups of people
from around the world so that they can share experiences,
learn from each other and work together to make the world
a better place. This is the world’s first public video conferencing network specifically
for civil society - for social, educational and cultural organizations. We have three
Dialogue Cafés already up and running in Amsterdam, Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro.
22
Photo: David Sim
23