In which positions do actors complement each other?
- Constructive positions
- Initiator
Initiators incite change. They have ambitions and contagious energy.
- Manager
Managers are 'enablers'. They watch over the structure. They can change conditions to make room for the initiative. Think of money, mandate, etc. They can also keep the door closed.
- Supplier
Suppliers provide building blocks to give shape and substance to an ambition, such as humanpower, knowledge, materials, access to other networks, etc. They do so within the conditions that managers control and initiators try to change.
- Free actor
Free actors take the freedom to do what is necessary to make and keep a network vital and co-creative. They are appreciated by others for this, even if they colour outside the lines if necessary. They aquire this position, and at the same time it is granted to them.
Without at least one free actor, going the extra mile without anyone asking, no network can function properly.
- Defensive positions
Not everyone can always think along with others. Sometimes other issues with a higher priority come into play. People then take a defensive position towards the initiative.
- How do you recognise this?
People do not contribute to a shared ambition.
- How do you solve this?
The free actor can explore what obstacles there are, and what it would take for the different players to take a different position.
- Activist
Activists go for change, whatever the cost. They have no regard for the interests of others.
- Gatekeeper
Gatekeepers guard the structure, and are not open to change. Other interests have a higher priority.
- Survivor
Survivors have no room to take risks. Their own interest comes first.
- Pitfalls
The boss plays the boss. You have a managerial position and you want change. Then you can give orders and demand results. In doing so, you can be an obstacle to cocreation. Room to bring about change together is only created when there is a safe space in which people teally want to work on an initiative themselves.
The financier is the boss. Funders often treat project teams as contractors who have to deliver products with measurable specifications and detailed implementation plans. This leaves little room for cocreation. Initiators become suppliers and easily deform into survivors. This provokes order-keeping behaviour on the part of funders. Energy leaks away.
The free actor is too free. It does not go well if you take your view of your role as a free actor so broadly that you think you can do anything that comes to mind. You are a free actor only if others appreciate you in the position you hold. Only then can you connect people, and that is the essence of this position.
- Do tips
How do you avoid the pitfalls?
The boss plays the boss. As a manager, you have opportunities to make space. You can open a door. Or keep it closed if the risks are too high. But if nobody uses the open door, no co-creation will occur. Look for people with initiatives that fit what you see as desirable change. And then negotiate conditions that create space for development (see development phase - Spriral of Initiatives).
The financier is the boss. As a funder, you have goals and criteria for spending money. If these are too product oriented, you leave no room for creativity and surprises to the project partners, and nothing new is created. Moreover, you turn initiators into suppliers, and the energy disappears from the activity. Determine what questions you want answered at the end of the funding. Then negotiate the whole set of research questions with the initiators and how they will be accountable for the process.
The free actor is too free. Those who conceive of the free actor as limitless do not become a free actor. It is a position you take because you believe the network needs it at that moment. But the position must also be granted to you. And that happens when others trust you to serve the network.
- How do you tackle it?
Are you a free actor?
Engage with initiators and managers. Do informal preliminary work before meetings. Work on conditions that create space for all actors to contribute to co-creation from their complementary position.Are you an initiator or manager?
Confide in someone who has the free actor position, or help them acquire it.
Initiator
Wants change
Manager
Monitors structure, can enable change
Supplier
Delivers building blocks for change
Gatekeeper
Is not open to change
Survivor
Goes before self-interest
Activist
Goes for change, regardless of structure
Free actor
Does what it takes for change
Change
Change of structure
Stability
Perpetuation of the structure
Structure
The established order in which actors move
We
The collective interest
Me
The individual interest
Importance
Actors' motives and drivers
Constructive