KEY TAKEAWAYS
How to realise co-creation with the professional field?
Based on vision and policy
Need for framework structure
An explicit framework facilitates co-creation with the professional field.
Investing in presentation
Higher education establishments can compile a “portfolio” to make themselves visible to potential partners in co-creation projects. The information shared opens up opportunities for gaining recognition as a valuable partner. The pursuit of unique expertise enables them to demonstrate their own added value.
Integrating professional practice and curriculum
Reflection on the professional practice as an element of the curriculum, within a network of support from the professional field and the teaching staff.
Based on pragmatics
Managing continuity of creative disruption
Continuously looking for a process to manage the “living” co-creativity. Someone needs to survey successive co-creation processes. Enthusiasm can be preserved by determining, time and again, what exactly makes the process unique, and by subsequently focusing on keeping it fresh. Continue to re-invent co-creativity.
Communication is key
Aim for maximum simplicity in your communications, use visualisations of the project steps and of the plan, and try to include a marketing element.
Reducing the administrative burden
Use standard project management templates to identify common goals, and in evaluation processes.
Success factors
Success factors
“Shared goals”
- Keep the specific common goal of the project in mind;
- Analysis of needs and shared urgency: be alert to the challenges facing professional partners. Ensure that they know and feel that you – as a higher education establishment – are open to helping them address such challenges. After all, the point of departure in co-creation processes is an urgency which is shared by all the participants. It is advisable to analyse risks, map interests, pursue expectation management, and formulate win-wins in explicit terms. Every co-creation process is different, and every partner harbours its own interests. It is best to openly discuss this.
“Subject matter expertise”
- Share information on opportunities, share expertise that could be useful to others and, therefore, to the entire partnership.
“Professional organisation”
- Explicit framework of agreements: be specific regarding roles, responsibilities, tasks, and deadlines. Use a Gantt chart to indicate which tasks need to be completed by a particular date and by whom. Determine, in concert with the participants, which communication platform to use and stick to this only.
- Set up an official feedback loop: the success of a co-creative learning community depends on the space for the partners and the students who are actually involved to provide open, fair, and constructive feedback.
- Non-disclosure agreement: co-creation also entails that each partner has rights. Proper agreement on what may be disseminated to the public is important. Not everything should remain covered by a non-disclosure agreement.
- Change management: allow sufficient time for changes to filter through in the various organisations, work out a clear timeframe, provide sufficient means of (internal and external) communication. Attempt to (also) set up a bottom-up structure.
“Internal-external communication”
- Transparency within the partnership and open communication will prevent pitfalls. Consider visualising the plans in order to provide all those involved with a clear picture.
“Diversity and autonomy”
- Aggregate expertise in multi-disciplinary teams: ensure sufficient diverse, relevant, and complementary expertise in a multi-disciplinary team (which includes students) in order to achieve valuable co-creation. During a co-creation project, explore the advisability of students learning to cope with authentic, professional challenges when participating in actual practice. Such exercises are, by definition, multi-disciplinary. In addition, ensure that each team comprises several key participants with a helicopter view. Try to expand the benefits of multi-disciplinary teams by having the partners teach one another, based on their own expertise. This can also be helpful to resolve differences in background.
- A helicopter view, involving collaboration between many complementary disciplines, is not widely used for an in-depth exploration of a topic; however, it is a worthwhile method. Ensure that you keep the focus on the common perspective and preserve a commitment to achieving the intended goal.
“Facilities”
- An appropriate working environment: be aware of the impact of the (online) environment in which students and partners are engaging in co-creation. Personalise the environment.
“Trust, team spirit, and good atmosphere”
- An atmosphere of trust and engagement creates a good team spirit and enables all the partners to work on added value.
- Trust between organisations: ensure that you leave room for new partners, in addition to those with whom you are already working. This enables you to supplement the consortium with new expertise, thus enriching the overall result. Create a mindset that provides room for and appreciates the input of others.
- Informality: ensure that sufficient attention is paid to informal exchanges between participants. This enhances their trust and psychological security.
CO-CREATION