Close collaboration, like the kind we saw practiced at IDEO,
means that a group goes into a process with no predetermined idea of the outcome,
but a shared purpose for what they hope to achieve.
Participants engage in empathetic listening,
to understand the perspectives of others.
And they build on the ideas of others to make their own contributions.
Everyone is engaged.
The process is designed to encourage a balanced conversation so
that no one person or idea dominates.
And the group together shares control of the process and the outcome.
Co-creation with clients can aspire to close collaboration but
it can also like collaborative work appear in many diverse forms.
It won't always look like close collaboration nor should it.
So again, our aim is to become more precise about what we mean by co-creation
in a particular context, so
that we can become more precise in how we organize and lead it.
So let's consider a range of examples that vary across a spectrum
between what we will refer to as an expert mindset and a participatory mindset.
When an innovation process is initiated with the expert mindset,
those leading the process operate with a belief that they, as designers or
engineers, have the expertise required to best address the innovation objectives.
While they may engage in research to understand client or
user interests, behaviors, and worldview they assign the client or
user a passive role in the process.
Users become subjects of study while experts determine the innovation process
and outcome.
The belief inherent in this approach is that the expert is
best position to produce an innovation that will create a new market,
or set a new standard in the industry.
That will exceed customer expectations, or propose new ways of living that depart
from current user experiences, or users ability to articulate their needs.
In Jim Barton's discussion with SMA's head of engineering,
Susan Akita, the design driven innovation option falls at this end of the spectrum.
As we move across the spectrum, the client or
end user takes an increasingly active roll in innovation processes.
Until at that farthest end, they can be considered an equal member of the team.
One who brings critical expertise to bear on addressing the task.
When an innovation process is initiated with a participatory mindset,
organizations invite people who will benefit from the innovation
into the creative process as partners.
Doing so they recognize an opportunity for value creation by
including the perspectives and expertise of clients or end users in the process.
The participatory mindset also reflects the belief that people affected by
a decision, event or innovation should have the opportunity to influence it.
Through inclusion, the process can foster empowerment.
Participants can gain mastery over issues of concern in their lives.
Become more informed, more skilled, and more involved in decision making and
experience an improved quality of life.
Boeing's Moonshine Shop offers one variation in the direction of
a participatory approach.
Their end users are their colleagues, Boeing's managers, engineers,
mechanics and diverse workers on the factory floor.
The Moonshine's innovations aimed to improve the quality of work life for
these workers, addressing safety and ergonomics, and
supporting their work through diverse services.
They actively solicit requests from colleagues for process improvements.
And they seek their ongoing feedback on prototypes and proposed solutions.
IDEO offers a range of options along the spectrum.
In addition to providing clients with the opportunity to hire IDEO's teams of
experts to produce innovation on their behalf.
They also offer opportunities for
clients to collaborate with them on the process of innovation.
They call this radical collaboration.
And they involve the clients in the process on a daily basis.
Now with this option they sell clients an opportunity to co-create with IDEO and
to cultivate the client's own internal capacity to be innovative.