Co-Creation

It's easy to come up with a plan by myself, but hard to "sell it" to everyone else involved in the plan.  One of the themes of Stomp the Elephant in the Office, by Steve Vannoy and Craig Ross, and their company Verus Global, is that people will more easily accept a proposal if it includes their ideas.  But how do you efficiently create a detailed plan with lots of other people?  It often feels like "too many chefs in the kitchen".  Then there are the jokes about camels being horses designed by committee . . . And there is Congress . . .

I've had some luck with floating trial balloons.  Make a proposal, ask for input, and pray for conflict.  I don't want silence.  I want to have my ideas attacked.  I want to hear that I've missed important details or that something I said won't work.  Or that I forgot something important.  Because every criticism is an opportunity to build trust with the group by saying, "Silly me!  You're absolutely right.  How about this revised proposal?"  I've just included somebody else's light bulb.

But trial balloons don't always work.  Sometimes there are situations where too much is at stake for too many people for anyone person to start with, "here's what I think we should do."  I'm in one of those situations at work right now.  We're trying to create our plans for next fiscal year (7/1/14 to 6/30/15) on a project that effects a lot of people at multiple locations around the country.  I don't own the overall project, but I floated a trial balloon for a new way to approach part of the work.  The response was lukewarm.  In hindsight, I think this is a case where the plan needs to be "co-created" by at least a few key players.

Based on another technique recommended by Verus Global, I've decided we need to start by asking key players in the project what worked for them last fiscal year.  The project has made great progress in the last 9 months.  We need to ask the leaders at each manufacturing site and each central corporate team:  "What accomplishments do you feel really good about from last year?  What do you think helped the most in getting there?"  If we do this, and if the plan for the coming year is builds on what people told us worked for them last year, then they will feel that the new plan builds on the things that brought them the most success last year.  They will feel that their ideas were included.

Just as important:  the plan is more likely to work.  Too often, people develop an action plan that doesn't consider "do more of what's already working".  The approach that starts with "what has worked before" sets you up to succeed in the future.