Leading co-creation for the green shift

IMPACT

Cities around the world are assuming responsibility for solving the climate crisis, and this bold endeavour calls for the co-creation of innovative green solutions. To be successful, co-creation requires the exercise of a particular type of co-creation leadership. To grasp the peculiarity of this leadership type, this article derives a set of co-creation leadership tasks based on the thorough analysis of the distinctive features of co-creation. The result is a list of no less than 15 carefully specified tasks that public managers can draw upon and learn to perform as part of their increasing efforts to use co-creation as a lever for green change.

ABSTRACT

European cities are formulating ambitious climate mitigation goals and calling for the mobilization of societal resources through the co-creation of innovative solutions to help them achieve their goals. To improve the understanding of how to lead and manage the co-creation of the green shift, we distil the key characteristics of co-creation, using them to sketch the contours of a particular form of co-creation leadership. The findings are illustrated by empirical examples from the green shift in the cities of Copenhagen, Gothenburg, and Oslo.

KEYWORDS:

• co-creation: local government
• innovation
• leadership
• management
• public governance
• public value
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).