Co-creation, risk-taking, and shared purpose

I am currently collaborating with Virginie Glaenzer on a workshop that affords practitioners the opportunity to reflect on, and deepen their understanding of, fluid co-creation.

While she was developing this workshop, Virginie shared a note with me that reads:

“By remaining open and receptive to input from others and letting go of our own insecurities and preconceived notions, we create a culture of creative risk-taking and a shared sense of purpose.”

What I like here is the positive linking of creative risk-taking and shared sense of purpose because the relationship between them can actually be close and productive.

When a group has a shared sense of purpose then this provides an anchor for that group. A group that feels secure and anchored will be able to then capitulate to the state of vulnerability that creative risk-taking requires – the shared purpose provides a grounding for experiment and play. This grounding dynamic becomes even more stable when that shared sense of purpose is also aligned with a shared set of values.

Undertaking a collective adventure in creative risk-taking will make or break a group – collaborators will either discover a sense of trust in each other or discover that it does not exist. A group of people who can undertake such an adventure and be prepared to learn from, and about, each other can identify the things that trust can be built on – a sense of forgiveness when experiments fail, patience, empathy, the capacity to engage with ideas or opinions that are diverse. This can then be embedded in that shared sense of purpose and values that will, in turn, support more creative risk-taking.

Neat, huh?

Co-creation is a powerful way of harnessing collective creativity and innovation. Join Virginie and I for our February workshops ‘How to work together differently’. Info and bookings here.