Working with People

Abstract

Co-creation is a human-centered process, so we begin to unpack the How to with a focus on people. “People” consists of stakeholders and the participants in a program, facilitator included. In this chapter, we look closely at understanding and working with people, from the art of stakeholder interviews to co-creating a compelling needs story. Highlighted with vignettes of typical stakeholder dialogues, we show the reader not only what to consider but also how to go about it in the real world. We also introduce the value of the “virus”—a disruptive influence to creative processes. In co-creation, this means purposefully including people in the process that are outside of the worldview of the design or business team. We then offer techniques to manage that influence toward positive outcomes.

Introducing stakeholders leads to a discussion of team selection and dynamics—the Who of collective creativity. Creating teams is not formulaic. Each context and challenge demands a different type of team, sometimes with clearly set roles and others with purposeful ambiguity. In addition to introducing guidelines for team formation, we consider variables that can affect team performance and offer practical advice on how to work with diverse people. Above all, we emphasize engagement by all participants as one of the keys to successful co-creation. Without engagement, which itself is created by the compelling needs story, participants lack the energy and commitment required to manage working with uncertainty and the follow-up needed to realize the ideas that come forth in creative work.

Working with dynamic teams requires certain qualities in the experience designer (Xd). Great designers and organizational leaders do this intuitively, but can it be developed? We argue that it can, given the purposeful cultivation of qualities such as awareness, empathy, humility, and trust. Through a set of vignettes, we share the wisdom of veteran facilitators who speak of intangibles such as working with energy, being the midwife, and knowing when to let go of a process design. Rather than following a prescriptive process, we argue that skilled Xd enter into and follow the energy of a group. They must be flexible enough to change their program on the fly to adapt to the group’s needs. This perspective illuminates the need for anyone who applies design thinking to realize that it is more a loose template than a blueprint. True co-creation is iterative with a certain degree of chaos built in. The ability to work with playful entropy is vital for maximizing the potential of co-creation.