Cooperating with people is always difficult since miscommunications and different views of tasks and concepts can get in the way. This is exponentially so in spaces for creative collaboration towards sustainability transitions, when stakeholders come from different backgrounds and institutions with their own way of working.
These three tools will help users to reflect on their own values and goals, listen to and understand other stakeholders’ point of view and vocalize the participation and expectations one has regarding a common lab project.
The complexity related to co-creating in labs tends to come from a lack of understanding of one’s own biases, other partners’ perspectives and the expectations each ‘new teammate’ has regarding their own and other people’s roles and participation levels during the project. The three tools in this chapter aim to tackle three different aspects of these issues by allowing participants to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their partners, as well as the dynamics in a lab.
Even though they were initially developed for a lab environment, the tools can also be used to facilitate stakeholder collaboration within any field. They also encourage the consideration of the natural environment as a stakeholder. Therefore, these tools are most useful for coordinators and facilitators of dialogue among varied groups of people that might struggle to see eye to eye.
These tools were created by lecturers/researchers from THUAS and developed in the context of the future proof labs project.
Tool 1: Stories from watertown
Tool 2: Lab conversation cards
Tool 3: Mountain sight planning game
Read more about THUAS and knowledge development here.
