The co-design mindset

Co-design isn’t just a process, it is a mindset.

A mindset is a way of being and thinking. It is who we are and how we interact with each other. Without the co-design mindset, there is a risk that your co-design will be tokenistic or what has been called “faux design“.

The co-design mindset means that we are:

Elevating lived experience

This is about seeing all people as equals who can all contribute meaningfully to co-design – specifically it is about seeing the lived experience as important as the professional or “expert” experience. It is about making room for their ideas and contributions. Often this means supporting people with lived experience to have their voices heard and to be taken seriously. For staff, this is about sharing the power to level to playing field, and potentially contributing your own lived experience if you feel safe and supported to do so.

Practising curiosity

This is about being open to a range of perspectives and opportunities, and open to having our worldview shift based on this. This is about asking questions and genuinely wanting to know the answers.

“You have a lot to teach and I need your help.” Beryl Institute via Tiffany Christensen @sickgirlspeaks.

It is about not labelling people with counter-views as “troublemakers”, but seeing the value in their contributions.

Offering hospitality

This is about creating an environment where people feel welcomed and ok to show up as they are, without judgement. This is about having the right space, but mostly about how you treat people. Show people that they are appreciated and support them to ensure that they can take part in the process.

Being in the grey

This is about being ok with uncertainty – the co-design journey and destination may not always be clear and that progress will not be fast. It is know that it can be challenging to work in situations where the road ahead is murky and not clearly defined. It is about trusting in the process and those you are working with.

Learning through doing

This is about experimenting and trying things, rather than endless talk with no action. It is about testing a new product/solution knowing that it may not work; learning from failure and ongoing improvement is an important part of co-design. It is knowing that the relationships, empowerment and knowledge you build together along the way is as important (or more important) than the outcome itself.

Valuing many perspectives

This is about seeking out varied perspectives and listening widely and deeply to identify new opportunities. It is about resisting generalisations and speaking on behalf of others. It is about speaking to others with the intention of learning from them. It is about not being attached to a particular agenda or outcome.

But how do we work in a co-design mindset?

It takes conscious effort, practice and reflection to work in a co-design mindset. This is because it is not how we have been trained to work together in traditional health professional-patient or researcher-participant relationships.

Tips:

Talk about the mindset, ask people in your team what the mindset means to them and together develop specific actions to help you apply them. Include the mindsets in your terms of reference or similar documents.
Consider the mindset as a key attribute when “recruiting” people to your co-design team
Use our “Peer Performance Review” process to assess how well you are individually and collectively applying the co-design mindset. This “But is it co-design?” quiz may also help you to reflect on your co-design mindset.
Use this quiz to check back in with each other
These cards might also be good prompts to consider in the co-design team to see what might be holding them back in their co-design mindset/context

Creating health systems that support co-design

Often a mind-set shift is required, by health service managers, to adapt how projects are commissioned, funded and resourced to enable co-design. See this article for more information about how we can create systems that support co-design.

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