When was the last time you enjoyed a meeting, or found it interesting, exciting or simply worth the time spent? Businesses depend on meetings to make decisions, solve problems and share information and getting the right people in the room is only the beginning of being able to work together effectively. Can your business be as successful as you would like it to be if your problem-solving meetings aren't working as well as they should?

Cocreative problem solving is a facilitated approach to complex problem solving that guides and supports participants through the process of integrating facts, opinions, values, hypotheses and questions into a collectively inspired solution. It differs from the usual approach in which problems are fragmented and simplified through a pseudo-democratic 'group-think' in which only ideas with consensus agreement go forward. This lacks creativity and is rarely satisfactory or successful in providing sustainable solutions to complex or difficult problems. Can you really deliver on expectations with a lowest common denominator approach to problem-solving?

Cocreative problem solving facilitates the emergence of solutions that are not obtainable through logical/cognitive thinking alone, by bringing into the process insights, intuition and knowledge that is usually only accessible in other contexts. Trust and a shift in perspective are critical to a cocreative problem solving process. It is always assumed that the participants have all the necessary skills and knowledge and all good ideas and approaches are considered. The role of the facilitator is to create a mutually supportive environment in which ideas can be generated and challenged through deepening levels of questioning and reflection.

Most importantly, cocreated solutions do not lack any of the traditional goals of efficiency, productivity and profitability, but will in addition always incorporate meaning, motivation and values. Cocreative problem-solving is the result of decades of study into the behaviours and attributes of knowledge-building communities. It is a whole system process, rather than the left-brained (logical and analytical) processes we favour and allows for the inclusion of feelings and ideas, as well as hard-nosed facts.

Cocreative problem solving can be used in any situation in which a group of people are willing to work together and can achieve rapid results from new and functionally diverse teams. It can be exciting, fun, challenging and altogether more satisfying than the usual process. However, if there are significant trust issues within the group we would advise that these are addressed first.