What does it take to co-create?

Sustainable development cannot happen without effective and genuine cooperation and co-creation. This is what the UN Sustainable development goal no 17 is all about.

In this episode we want to explore more about this. What does it take to achieve the kind of co-creation which makes you reach huge and complex goals?

The Norwegian Vidar Top is working on his PhD thesis “Silence and Violence in the Boardroom” and he is an international capacity as he has trained 30,000+ people in 27 countries on behaviour change to improve results. His research focus the past 20 years has been on execution throughout teams and organizations, beginning in the boardroom. Vidar has authored books on topics related to corporate governance and leadership such as influence, questioning skills, rhetoric, change management, crucial conversations, and accountability. His PhD thesis is on "Silence and Violence in the Boardroom".

In the conversation with Vidar we touch upon several interesting issues:

How does one build a strong professional network? Vidar explains how he systematically works with networking, and started many years ago. Some will be surprised by his way of doing it.

Then we talk about what is the formula for collaborating well with different people in various industries. The approach of asking questions turns out to play an important role.

We talk about what are the most important values for teamwork and collaboration, including for the PhD journey. Vidar explains key skills, such as recapping what others just have said when we start expressing our own view, because we often fail to understand others. Furthermore, we should pay respect to each others by asking questions after presentations have been given.

We ask Vidar to share some experiences when he would find it difficult to collaborate with others. How did he overcome it? Vidar explains that everybody will find yourself in conflicts as long as you involve yourself in projects and issues.

Younger generations of students refer to triggers and glimmers—triggers being things or actions that bring about negative reactions, and glimmers being the opportunities and inspiration that bring about self-confidence and good feelings. Vidar gives an example from his life how he failed, how he brought a trigger which became very negative into the life of another person.

Vidar also explains one of his favourite glimmers, and explains why it is effective.

We talk about the concept of sustainable co-creation. How can a diverse group have sustainable co-creation processes? Vidar reflects about the question.

When we speak about the elements of time, space and place - how these factor play into the co-creation process, Vidar is concerned about timing and unformal surroundings.

At the end of the conversation, Vidar gives a very interesting and illustrative example about communicating a song.

Read more about Vidar Top here:

https://www.usn.no/kontakt-oss/tilsette/vidar-top

This episode will also be part of a course about cooperation for phd students, a course developed by Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.