10 lessons on co-creation

By: Crystal Luxmore / June 2023

In October 2022, I made a career move, leaving my life as a freelance journalist behind to try working in government. As a Métis writer, I wanted to use my skills to help advance truth, justice and reconciliation, so I emailed my résumé to the Indigenous Centre of Expertise.

A few weeks later Valentine Hébert, a marketing manager from the Public Service Commission of Canada, called to tell me about a project to tell stories of First Nations, Métis and Inuit working in the federal public service. She was looking for an Indigenous storyteller to take it on, would I be interested?

The project seemed straightforward — that is, until I asked Valentine questions about its scope, like the story length and where the stories would appear. She said we’d decide those later as we co-created the project.

Co-creation was new to me. As a journalist I’m used to controlling the narrative and writing within a rigid word count. Co-creating stories sounded different — creative, challenging and a little bizarre — adjectives that my partner sometimes uses to describe me — so it felt like a good fit.

The project, telling stories about Indigenous people working in the federal public service, went live in May 2023. We learned 10 key lessons about co-creation along the way.

1. Design a broad objective

Keeping the vision broad allows the process of co-creation to shape the outcome. The objective in our marketing plan was: “Help the public service of Canada reflect our country’s diversity by telling compelling stories that interest and inform Indigenous job seekers about how to get hired and build a career at the Government of Canada.”

This objective was shaped by the marketing team and the Indigenous Centre of Expertise, a team of Indigenous human resources experts who talk to First Nations, Inuit and Métis job seekers daily.

One thing we’d change next time

Bring in more co-creators at the very beginning, including our social media, multimedia, and internal communications teams, so they can provide their insights from the start.

2. Keep the direction of the stories open

I was uncomfortable not knowing the stories’ length and exact topics before writing them, so I kept pushing for more clarity. But the only direction was that stories could be based on the Public Service Commission of Canada’s main recruitment programs, like the Federal Student Work Experience Program, and the graduate recruitment programs, and should include the topic of self-declaration.

Other than that, Valentine trusted in the co-creation process, saying things like, “You are the storytelling expert, so that’s up to you to decide,” and “Together I think we can create something really meaningful.”

This supportive, open management style set the groundwork for true co-creation because the stories were shaped through the process, instead of from the top-down.

One thing we’d change next time

Build a framework to help define an open project. We didn’t decide where the stories would be published or set limits on length, and the first story was too long. So, we laid out a maximum word count, making the other stories easier to write.

3. Share the lead

Choose partners with complementary expertise, then invite them to lead.

The Indigenous Centre of Expertise led outreach with First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. Instead of using our connections to find people to interview, we co-decided to post a public call-out for Indigenous people who wanted to talk about their experiences working in the federal public service. The call-out was posted nationally on Indigenous employee networks and informal GC Facebook groups, and shared with directors in regions where we didn’t get a big response.

Key takeaway

Sharing the lead allowed the Indigenous Centre of Expertise to be the face of the project, and we had a great response to the call-out.

4. Consider an open call for participants

Making an open call for participants was a more open, democratic way to reach Indigenous public servants across Turtle Island rather than the usual method of relying on personal networks or word-of-mouth referrals. The latter methods can lead to choosing “superstars” with only positive things to say about their experience, or seemingly unattainable career paths.

We knew from the Many Voices One Mind report that finding a job and working at the Government of Canada as an Indigenous person can be difficult, and we wanted to reflect that in the stories. 

But the call-out approach had some disadvantages. We didn’t handpick people, so we didn’t achieve the perfect mix of geographical regions, nations and communities. Plus, we had 31 public servants email us, volunteering to share their stories, and the emails kept coming well past the deadline. So not everyone who wanted to share their stories got the chance to with this project.

Bonus benefit

Our team built new relationships with the storytellers; for example, one of them is now a mentor for the Indigenous Student Employment Opportunity program.

5. Centre the voices of the co-creators

Storytelling can be an opportunity for deep listening, and in this case, it offered a way to put Indigenous voices and perspectives first.

At the heart of co-creation in storytelling is centering the voices of the people being interviewed. To do this, I had to let go of my journalistic framework of interviewing “subjects,” and to think of the people I was interviewing as co-creators. They aren’t subjects to be slotted into a story that serves a preconceived narrative, they are the storytellers, and the stories they share will drive the narrative.  

Tips to listen deeply in conversations

• Start with a warm introduction and explain the project
• Ask open-ended questions
• Listen to the answer and ask follow-up questions to go deeper, instead of moving to the next question on your list
• Ask about positive and negative experiences
• Welcome silence in the interview so the storyteller can fill the space
• Before concluding, ask the storyteller if there is anything they want to add
• Build a lasting relationship by following up with your gratitude and project updates

6. Nothing about us without us

When telling stories about a marginalized or employment equity group, members of those groups should take lead roles in creating the content.

In our case, the marketing team hired an Indigenous writer on a casual contract to lead the storytelling, and the Indigenous Centre of Expertise edited the stories. Being Métis and introducing myself in the call-out and in interviews by explaining my ancestry and where I come from, sparked interest and trust with the storytellers.

We were asked to add an Indigenous element to the graphics for the project. However, we didn’t have an Indigenous graphic designer on our team of 5, and it was too late to bring on an outside agency. So, we stuck to our decision to focus on the faces of the storytellers using a clean design without overt Indigenous elements.

One thing we’d change next time  

Hire both writers and designers from the equity groups we are creating content about whenever possible.

7. Allow the storytellers to shape the stories

Instead of slotting people into a defined story idea, we took the reverse approach. I interviewed 8 public servants who entered government as students and the story arcs were shaped by their common experiences.

The stories

Students who were currently working in the Federal Student Work Experience Program tended to share practical tips on how to get and succeed in a student job, so I wrote a story on that subject.

The students-turned-public servants had longer, often inspirational career paths and stories of finding belonging in the Government of Canada as an Indigenous person. That became the topic of the second story.

Before talking to the storytellers, I interviewed team members at the Indigenous Centre of Expertise. They identified a group of job seekers without a dedicated Public Service Commission of Canada program: Indigenous professionals curious about transitioning into government mid-career. So, we wrote one of the stories about 3 Indigenous professionals who switched into government mid-career.

8. Share power with the storytellers

In journalism, most people interviewed don’t get to see the story or their quotes before publication. When co-creating stories, the opposite should occur. From the beginning, we told storytellers they had final approval on all content involving them.

Bonus benefit

The storytellers become more invested in the project and become ambassadors to help disseminate the stories.

9. Don’t get stuck on the “how”

I did, and it really tripped me up. I worried about how we’d translate the stories for social media. I fretted over how they would look on our web pages. Turns out I just needed to trust in co-creation.

Here’s how co-creation made the project bigger and better:

• Our social media team read each story carefully and teased out the essence of each storyteller’s experience with a tagline or a single word.
• The marketing and web teams broke up the text for the web pages, edited the stories to make them more concise and powerful, and created compelling graphics for each storyteller.
• The Government of Canada’s Indigenous Communications Subgroup helped us identify a need for a print version of each story that could be tacked on bulletin boards or used at job fairs, so we created a one-page poster for each story to the project.
• After attending a meeting on communicating Indigenous topics, Valentine suggested adding an audio version of each story to echo the practice of oral storytelling in Indigenous culture. So, we asked some of the storytellers to narrate these.

10. Trust the process

Co-creating stories is a little like sitting in a circle around a campfire, where one person begins a story and then the next adds on to it. No one knows exactly where it’s going. Instead, you really listen to each other, are open and playful, and build on each other’s ideas. If you can trust the process, it will help you and your co-creators tell an unforgettable story.

Author bio

Crystal Luxmore has written over 300 stories for national publications and magazines, including The Globe & Mail, Toronto Star and Chatelaine. Her first book, a graphic novel co-written with her partner, is being published by Scholastic in 2025. A citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario, her family is Métis, French Canadian and English.