The mantra is not so simple
A comment on the recent Research article ‘Is co-creation over-hyped’ ended with the following statement:
The mantra is simple: stop asking questions and start listening to conversations. Job Muscroft, Face
Please go and read everything else he said as I would not want to take his comment out of context but I do have to disagree with that particular statement.
Fundamentally, questions are the at the heart of keeping any conversation going. Whether on a small scale between two people at a party or a big scale… “why are we here? The best type of questions provoke new and better questions that provide momentum and context to keep conversations going. Additionally, just listening in to other peoples conversations can often seem somewhat rude.
I can see what he is getting at though in terms of ‘listening’ and with this in mind I can whole heatedly agree the sentiment that if you know what question to ask then you probably have a good idea of the answer. From my perspective asking the right questions means preparing to strike the balance between listening and speaking. By listening I mean learning and reacting. By speaking I mean any provocative act with the aim of eliciting a ‘response’. This is much broader than research questionnaires or party conversations. Athletes, scientists or designers all ask questions, all create and do things that provoke a response, a conversation.
There is much more to a co-creative approach and research than just listening.
So my mantra is less simple, but more interesting: stop just asking questions, start provoking conversations, that embrace many perspectives and that you can be a part of.
