Are You Ready for the Co-Creation Movement?

The plethora of social networking tools available today, from Facebook to YouTube to blogs, attests to the new paradigm known as “co-creation,” which the author first described several years ago and now says is poised to take the world by storm. Co-creation is the process by which products, services and experiences are developed jointly by companies and their stakeholders, opening up a whole new world of value. Though increasingly being employed by certain progressive organizations, the author finds that individuals appear to be more ready than most enterprises to embrace what is fast defining the landscape of the future. To be ready, firms must stop thinking of individuals as mere passive recipients of value, to whom they have traditionally delivered goods and services. Instead, firms must seek to engage people as active co-creators of value on every front. For large, established organizations, it starts by co-creating a unique employee experience inside the organization. Then you can cultivate a co-creative engagement platform based on four basic building blocks: Dialogue, Access, Risk-Reward Assessment and Transparency (DART). Practiced effectively, your organization can grow into a mighty tree, from which all kinds of fruit will be ripe for the taking.