The 5 ingredients of authentic co-production: Ingredient 4

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

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 4: Time

I have heard people say that doing co-design/co-production doesn’t take much time and is a simple process. In my experience this is not the case and I question as to whether those people are really doing it or if it’s a form of consultation in disguise.

Authentic co-production takes more time than you think it will. Your meetings will go for longer and you will discuss less. It will take you longer to reach decisions and potentially longer to create actions. If you’re wondering now ‘so why would I bother?’ it’s because you will get better outcomes, better services, happier customers and happier staff. You will create a culture of collaboration, partnership and trust where people’s opinions matter and are listened to. And, I will bet you some roll-on effects of this are, loyal customer base, reduced staff turnover, higher rates of customer satisfaction and improved quality. In a consumer-driven marketplace, can you afford not to have this?

Hear from Andrew Stoll from ECH in SA on ingredient 4 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.

Author: Kelly Gray, CommunityWest Inc.

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