Social Leaders gain strength from the co-creative power of their communities: the support, challenge and perspective that a high functioning community can bring. In Social Learning, we rely on co-creation too: for communities to come together, to learn, to share, to co-create stories. But co-creation itself is not free: it requires fertile conditions to grow, and investment, both by individuals and organisations.
For an individual to engage in a co-creative activity comes at an opportunity cost of the time and effort, and a reputational cost, if their input is not valued. It may come with a social cost, too in certain contexts. Co-creation is an active and challenging process.
For organisations, there is an investment too: they are relinquishing certain control, they have to invest in people, they need to invest in technology and collaborative spaces.
Putting people together does not make a community: and even if we form a community, there is no guarantee that it will invest itself in co-creation. It’s a hard process with a solid legacy, but it’s not necessarily easy or quick.
The best we can do is to create the conditions for success: to put in place the spaces, the permissions, and the social recognition for those who engage.
julianstodd
Julian Stodd's Learning Blog 
A challenge for many in the gig environment is finding the space and person/community to co-create with. As Org’s move to flex teams, work@homes, and more gig/consultant’s where do you think this space will become Julian?
Perhaps in the new Guilds, the loosely connected, trust based, democratised communities that we will inhabit in the absence of any formal structure… bonds of trust will prevail, with contracts being transient features in that new space perhaps…
Perhaps however as you outline social leadership I think there should be a way to bridge the formal org with the pre-guild gig’ers (hmm, not sure that’s a word but I’m going with it!). As we focus on work the lines of communication & trust need to expand and co-creation is a part of that process I would think (and hope!).
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