We harness the knowledge and the will of people to accelerate your strategies and visions into reality.
The solutions for the most complex problems cannot be developed alone, they need to be co-created. The changes the solutions require cannot be made alone, they need to be co-created. Climate change adaptation, sustainable lifestyles, youth exclusion and ageing populations, among other complex problems of global scale require two major things from us: the will and the tools to collaborate in a meaningful way. Simply put, the question is how to mobilize a diverse group of people to efficiently create solutions that have impact?
Increasing individual capabilities coupled with enabling technologies has led decision makers, academia, corporate leaders, and other institutions to seek the wisdom and capabilities of the many instead of the few. Organisations seem to have the will, but what we lack is the concrete way of doing things. Making co-creation happen and creating shared value through it is where the people of Demos Helsinki are at their best.
Co-creation is a method for solving problems, exploiting opportunities and motivating stakeholders to act together. Demos Helsinki has over a decade of experience in different forms of co-creation. In Peloton Club, we have designed and implemented a variety of product and service co-design processes. In these processes visions which enable people to lead sustainable lifestyles are turned into feasible products and services with the collaboration of experts across professions. Out of this also a community has been born. In Safari, we have taken corporate leaders, decision makers and civil servants on a journey for social change, where young people have co-created solutions to the most pressing societal problems cities and companies are faced with. In Helsinki Challenge, we have brought the most unexpected people together with the greatest scientist in Finland to co-create solutions based on cutting-edge research and to improve the interaction between science and society.
All our co-creative work has certain elements in common. First of all, it is designed to serve both a partner’s need and a larger societal need. If stakeholders are asked to work together, the goal needs to be bigger than a single actor’s. Secondly, co-creation is and should always be results-oriented and purpose-led. The interaction should be meaningful in itself and produce concrete outcomes.
Thirdly, co-creation and community-led development should always be inspiring and mutually valuable for all the participants. And fourthly, one gets more than they expected. Besides tangible outcomes, co-creation at its best creates shared sense-making and vision, connections, agency and new opportunities to grasp.
Co-creation specialists at Demos Helsinki are able to turn your will to work with communities into a tailor-made concept that works. We are talented in convening very different kinds of stakeholders and getting to really work together. And we are always inspired to explore completely new territories together with our partners.