The term co-creation describes a collaborative approach to the joint development of innovative solutions and value creation in teams, departments, organisations and/or in multi-stakeholder processes. The aim of co-creative processes is to bring together diverse perspectives from inside and outside a team, department or organisation in order to enable innovative thinking through a change of perspective and to develop new solutions for current challenges from a holistic shared understanding. Co-creative work can be used for teams and in organisations at a low threshold, e.g. as part of individual workshop elements or as a general attitude and working method for collaboration.
Key principles of co-creative processes:
- Clear definition of the problem, objectives and success criteria, which are defined together with all stakeholders in a process
- open and trusting communication between all participants, which enables feedback, learning and adaptation
- the appropriate selection and application of various creative methods and tools that support idea generation, prototype development and evaluation
- an open, experimental attitude on the part of those involved and the courage to try out unfamiliar techniques and make mistakes in the process promotes co-creative work
- the appropriate involvement and motivation of stakeholders, who contribute their experience, knowledge and ideas to the process.
- continuous documentation and reflection of the process, which records the findings, results and potential for improvement
- clarified common ground as a prerequisite for successful and satisfactory co-creation