The 5 Ingredients of Authentic Co-production: Ingredient 2

As a follow up the previous article ‘The 5 ingredients of authentic co-production’, Kelly Gray from CommunityWest talks about the second ingredient of ‘power and support’. 

Kelly’s understanding of genuine co-production and co-design has been gained from completing a literature review on the topic, writing a ‘how-to’ toolkit and coaching aged care organisations and their staff. Read a guest blog on how to implement this ingredient in your organisation.

Ingredient 2: Power and Support

Don’t discount or ignore the power dynamics currently in play in community services. As a trained aged care or health care professional you automatically have the upper hand in a room with consumers. You need to acknowledge this and work to break down those power differences. In my experience, particularly with older consumers, the staff member assumes the position of authority and power and the consumer often sees themselves as the ‘passive recipient’ who will have co-production ‘done’ to them. And this feedback has been given by consumers as well as the staff I have coached!

Support from the top is a must. As per the first ingredient, it’s just as important to have decision makers in a co-production project as it is consumers and other staff. Management must support the project and agree to uphold the decisions made by the group. Also consider co-production isn’t a ‘free’ activity. There will be costs for staff time, venue hire and catering, then implementation costs to achieve the outcomes of the process.

Hear from Paul Johnson from the BallyCara in QLD on ingredient 2 here.

To find out how to start your next co-design or co-production project, check out the CommunityWest website here or call Kelly Gray on (08) 9309 8180 for more information.

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