Co-creation ethics
CoSIE findings confirm that co-creation is a value-led practice and service value may be experienced differently by different individuals. Service end-users value mostly not what professionals/service providers do but primarily how they approach the user and how their interaction in or about services (or their improvements, innovations) takes place.
‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it!‘
We have also found that to co-create with users meaningful for them services requires re-humanisation of services.
Re-humanisation implies more than being user-centred, but rather customising services to particular users driven by incitement to assist user well-being (moral endeavour). It might require changing public sector and service culture (ethos and ethics) regarding the approach to broader stakeholders’ and especially service actors and end-users’ (and beneficiaries) roles and relationships. It also requires relying on broader types of knowledge and data, including qualitative data from observations and dialogues. Meaningful service relationships are built by understanding of each other’s language, roles, needs and abilities. In rehumanising service as a meaningful relationship resource-based and humanistic approach that promotes user well-being is necessary.
What is more, lived experiences support the claim that co-creation requires shifting power – meaning balancing experts’ power with that of end users’. It is more than simply allowing citizen/end user participation/engagement, it is about real possibilities to exert influence. Yet co-creation is not the same as user self-determination.
- Push back against “computer says no”: Instead of accepting ‘can’t’, think ‘how can I make this possible?’.
- Change the language: Reflect on the language you use, think about how it positions people – and if you wouldn’t like to be spoken to or about in that way yourself, then change it.
- Measure different things and measure things differently: Quantitative data alone does capture all types of impact. We must therefore value qualitative data such as experiential knowledge – however, messy and unquantifiable it is – and use it to drive services forward.
- Connect with people: We should invest time in talking to people – professionals as well – by getting to know one another and sharing about ourselves, we build trust and understanding.