Eating our own dog-food

Posted: December 22nd, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: co-creation, inspiration, Rooftop | Tags: , , | No Comments »

dogfoodCo-creation is at the heart of what we do, but what is at the heart of co-creation? In order to answer this question, we decided to give ourselves a dose of our own medicine. We asked an external moderator from Kaos Pilots to lead a co-creation session in which we would participate ourselves.

To get a broad view and diverse input on the subject, we invited three of our clients from Heineken, Bugaboo and Leaseplan and three former expert-participants to join us in this session. Our goal? Get to the essence of co-creation!

Between several exercises ranging from drawing each other’s face without looking at your paper to imaginative sword fighting, various interesting topics were brought to the table. Group discussions eventually led to four co-creation essentials:

  • Synchronising: get everybody on the same level
  • Equality: make sure everybody feels equal
  • Management of expectations: acknowledge the different personal expectations
  • Value-definition: know that everybody will value the session for different reasons
A result that will without a doubt add value to our co-creation sessions in the future.
It was an interesting experience to be on the other side of the fence for once: not knowing what will happen in the following hours, not knowing what is expected of you and looking around at all other participants: What do they expect? How do they feel? What will they say?
My biggest lesson? You will never get to the essence if you don’t try it yourself, or, as one of our experts said: “It’s good to see that your are eating your own dog-food!”
Wroaf!

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