Co-production; the in and the out group
Co-production is essentially group work. Two groups of people, staff who work in a service and citizens that use the service work together in an equal partnership. We could somewhat crudely characterise co-production by thinking about it as the coming together of an ‘out group’ and an ‘in group’. Basically, the staff – the ‘in group’ invite some clients from the ‘out group’ to work with them on an activity. There’s lots we can tell people about how to make this process inclusive, and welcoming. We can recommend using ground rules, paying attention to people’s access requirements, covering expenses, carefully considering power imbalances and having clear aims and objectives for the work. This is all great advice, and at Co-production Works we include all this and more in our training. But for people who have not worked co-productively all this information does not help them understand how co-production will actually feel.
That’s where the hula hoop comes in!
The simple exercise of first lowering the hula hoop first in an ‘in group’ of four and then inviting an ‘out group’ of four more people to complete the same task replicates one of the central experiences of working co-productively. Just like co-production the exercise is unpredictable – it depends on lots of factors about the group – whether they have worked together before, how well they know each other, what the underlying dynamics are and so on. What usually happens is that the ‘in group’ find the task of lowering the hula hoop relatively easy. When the ‘out group’ join strange things happen. The hula hoop goes up instead of down. Sometimes it can seem like the hoop is possessed by a poltergeist. The hoop wobbles all over the place and the group has to move to follow it. Eventually the hoop gets lowered to the ground.
The reality of co-production
The exercise is enjoyable and a pleasant antidote to the after lunch dip in energy that sometimes happens in training groups. But the interesting thing about it is that it often provokes deep and interesting discussions about co-production. We can tend to think that co-production is all flowers and rainbows, but the reality is, it is hard, complex and emotional work. The hula hoop exercise enables participants to explore in a safe environment, an experience of what the messy reality of co-production might be like. It is also enlivening and fun, a nice contrast from the dreaded death by PowerPoint approach to training.
If your team or organisation is interested in co-production training complete the enquiry form or email pete@coproductionworks.co.uk