This summer delivered a fantastic opportunity to work alongside a fellow freelancer on a co-design project, working to develop national policy asks for the upcoming election. I jumped at the chance – to build on my policy experience, to go deeper into co-design and to work in a freelance partnership.
What’s Co-design?
Co-design is about meaningfully engaging stakeholders in a design process. It’s about recognising the unique experiences that different people bring, and most importantly that that richness of backgrounds, experience and opinion helps to enhance the end result. One of the areas co-design really delivers the magic in is involving service-users and people with lived experience – making sure that services and support are developed WITH people rather than done to them.
Is It the Future?
It’s hard not to overstate the importance of co-design. To involve, genuinely and deeply, those who have experience of an issue, whether that’s professionally or personally, in developing what happens next is so obvious and yet so often overlooked. How many strategies are written without involving any organisation or individual they work with? How often are services developed or changed without deeply understanding the needs and priorities of those who use them? There’s a great example in the book “Creative Acts for Curious People” about how if those who developed the online system for benefits in the UK actually had to use it, it would change significantly. One key thing they flag is the sheer amount of deeply personal information collected, without it always feeling relevant to the benefit at hand, not to mention the length of time it takes, the digital literacy required, and good luck if your first language isn’t English…
Facilitation Squared
However, just because it’s so necessary, doesn’t mean it’s easy. Involving people in discussions about what national policy asks should be made of a new government when the political system or campaigning isn’t something they’ve ever been involved in, for instance, needs really careful facilitation. There’s a delicate balance of hugely valuing people’s individual experiences and opinions, while also needing to collate/analyse/converge/distil these into the final agreed points. Ensuring the process covers both depth and breadth is key to both capturing and validating these ideas. Building trusted relationships and safe spaces are vital, as is excellent communication throughout the process to manage people’s expectations around outcomes as well as maintaining engagement as the work progresses. With the right process and people, you have the opportunity to deliver something really meaningful able to deliver long term impact based on the people who really matter.
Photo by Med Badr Chemmaoui on Unsplash