The Copenhagen Co-creation Manifesto

I have seldomly experienced such a rich event as the Copenhagen Co-creation summit a few weeks ago. The level of discussions and participants was fantastic. I needed weeks to digest all the information. I am back now. What was going on? The Danish Design Association had decided to take a bold step. Why not writing a Co-creation manifesto rather than beating around the bush all the time? Let’s nail it! But we didn’t. Of course not. When you have 30 people co-creating, the answer never comes immediately. It will take some time. Some more thinking. But: I was very happy with the definition my group came up with after the sessions:

- Co-creation unlocks collectivy creativity of people to create deeply relevant solutions -

It might sounds a bit dreamy, but so then the event was. We dreamt about a future world where co-creation would tap into the unlimited resource of collective global brainpower. New solutions would create far better worlds and would end the one-way consumption currently going on.

My conclusion after the event was: yes, co-creation is very difficult – and especially because of how organisations are structured right now – but it is a movement that cannot be stopped. There is no way back. We are all opening up and will refuse to close again.

Read the Manifesto and watch the great video.

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Select the Very Best – or how social are the Swedes really?

I recently enjoyed being part of a great conference in Malmö, Sweden, called Business to Buttons. It was organised by a company called Inuse. The congress was mostly on usability and interaction design. I was invited to talk about co-creation. Something else for a change I guess. It was very interesting, especially from a cultural perspective.

We at Fronteer talk about co-creation strategies all the time, and the 5 guiding principles of it. The second principle is ‘Select the Very Best’, meaning selecting the best people to co-create with (the 1%) or being able to select the best ideas from many. When presenting the principles in a workshop I was confronted with the 12-strong crowd feedback. They found the second principle shocking, undemocratic and radical. But also they found it being liberating and daring. I touched a nerve there. In the land of almost socialism, how could you exclude people? Not listening to the masses? Not weighing everyones opinion? Even in Sweden you can, believe me. Everybody likes to work with the smartest people.

This anecdote illustrates the impact of our rigid selection process when it comes to finding people to co-create with. We at Fronteer spend much time and effort on it and it’s essential to the success of our work. When our clients venture out in social networking (who doesn’t?) we find them the experts and entrepeneurs. When our clients want to dig into old artisan industries, we find them the people that understand the tension fiueld between old and new industries.

For any challenge there is a 1% to crack it.

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