Ideas from our first co-Creation event
Posted on | July 24, 2009 | No Comments
Erik, Mark, Patrick and I would like to say thanks to everyone who participated in our first co-Creation event. We were really impressed by the level of enthusiasm and interest people showed in the project, and we’re grateful for the input and inspiration. I’ve been collating the flip chart sheets, trying to work out a compromise position that would work for everyone. Actually, it would seem that there’s not a huge diversity of opinion among our potential members: there’s a lot of call for bright, naturally lit coffee bar in the city centre…
Some responses to the questions on what sort of environment you'd like to work in
If we were giving out prizes, we’d have to award one to the table who asked for a silent disco (but only because another table had a failure of nerve and crossed out their request for a pool).
Our learnings from the last co-creation event.
We asked these questions in our first session:
What makes you go to work?
Where would be the most enjoyable place to work?
What does your ideal workspace look like?
What else do you want from work?
They were intended to be open ended questions, designed to exercise your creativity and elicit some thoughtful answers. Pleasingly, for the Hub team, the answers you gave us delivered a solid endorsement of our own views. Here is a synopsis of your thoughts.
Most of you want to work in the city centre, or within the canals, in a modern, open plan office, brightly illuminated by natural light (preferably). Flexible is a word that occurs frequently in the analysis of your answers to our questions. A lot of people want flexible opening hours, and many of you require flexible meeting space. You want access to facilities such as a printer pool, fax machines, photocopiers and projectors, even video conferencing equipment, and software tools like calendars, email, a website. Networking is crucially important to you, both among other Hub members and with other Hubs worldwide, and so is interacting or connecting to other people. A good number of you want to exchange ideas, collective knowledge, engage in a community. There’s a need expressed for mentors, business advice, support and shared expertise. You want “really frickin good” internet connections.
Oh, and practically all of you want a cafe.
Some sort of accommodation for bicycles was more popular than parking spaces; there is a desire to work near green spaces, or a park or courtyard; for some of you a quiet space – even a quiet room – is really important. Recycling, “green” policies and a sustainable approach to business are highlighted by some of you, much to our relief.
There’s a lot more diversity in your answers to the question what makes you go to work (apart from the obvious response, money). Self fulfillment, self worth, intellectual stimulation, advancement, pursuit of dreams, passion, all had about equal weight. Making ideas happen was an interesting response.
Finally, the ideas we hadn’t thought of : mobile drawers; shared subscriptions to library and online services; a gallery; a media adviser; a massive twitter feed projected onto a wall, and, my personal favourite but sadly unlikely to happen for a while, a silent disco.
For the second session, we asked you more personal questions:
Who – or what – inspires you?
What do you want to change?
Where are the best conversations happening?
What do you want to do with your life?
The answers are predictably diverse and unclassifiable. You are inspired by passionate people, original vision, creativity and innovation, diverse ideas, social entrepreneurs, the open source movement, shared experiences, positive change and seeing others do what they love. Some are even inspired by twitter. I wonder.
You want to change work practices, in particular, working more collaboratively and cooperatively, reducing the isolation of the one person business. You want to see less regulation and red tape, reductions in the costs of running a business, a reduction in the CO2 content of the atmosphere. Taking back responsibility is a repeated theme. Some of you want to change the world, which is admirably ambitious.
The best conversations are happening in pubs, not surprisingly for Ireland, informal and relaxed conversations over coffee or food, between generations, in gardens – areas outside the “office” – online, social gatherings such as conferences and bar camps, and, apparently in Finland (!)
Finally, what you want to do with your life varies from winning a Nobel prize to cycling round the world, leaving a legacy, selling or starting a company and less specific goals such as creating worthwhile work, fulfilling personal potential, taking more control of your life and getting better at what you do. Some of you just want to be happy.
Tags: co-creation > design > ideas > inspiration > meeting > planning > workspace
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