check the co factor of your project

Fast facts

Tool: Check the co-factor of your project

This decision making tool has these things (list) to help you check the co-factor of your project. So that you can do the together parts of working together better.  

Supports Measure What Matters guide and build on state of working with survey questions. Better Together Collective and group of FOWW Questions to align with contemporary participation ladders, scales and spectrums words.

You are free to use and share under the terms of creative commons licence.

This means that : We encourage you to share this material widely. You must give appropriate credit, link to the licence and state if you made changes. You may do so in any reasonable manner but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

What it’s about

A co- factor is the degree to which a project or engagement felt welcoming and worthwhile for the people with lived experience that were involved. Its a high level check that you lived up to your public promise of a co word or participatory way of working.

This tool contains 

• six domains to of co to consider

• example questions to help you develop your own survey to check the level of hospitality and involvement people experienced as part of your lived experience engagement activity 

• a rating scale to create an overall understanding

• an action canvas to help you map out 6 things to do with what you hear. 

It will help you to check your project’s together/co factor (i.e. participant’s experience of the  level of hospitality and involvement in your work compared to recognised elements and participation measures) and use what you hear to keep improving.

Why it matters words

When working with people and communities, it’s important to make sure the word you use to describe your approach is the right fit for what you’ll be doing together.

When governments, organisations and project teams use co-words and concepts interchangeably, they lose their meaning. It causes confusion and risks harm. You need to accurately describe your approach (eg. co-design), be honest about what is possible, and clear about any limitations. 

This tool is for

• those working collaboratively or in partnership with people with lived experience and communities

• senior executives and funders to understand what should be happening when they promise co-words( eg. co-design, co-production or community led), partnerships or other participatory ways of working.

Use this tool 

• after an engagement activity or project to check participant experience and rate your co-factor in order to learn and improve.

•  to sense check work you’ve already started and make adjustments or plans to do better next time.

What this tool isn’t

This decision making tool is not a cover all. It’s intended to provide high level guidance rather than specific advice. We won’t gather or store any of your personal information. 

How it works

👉🏼 download the tool

👉🏼 consider the six domains

👉🏼 use the question guide to develop your own co-check survey

👉🏼 use the rating scale to check the co factor in your work

👉🏼 identify areas to improve / suggest some ways to

Takeaway

Use this tool to check the co factor according to those who participated. You’ll be confident that it felt like you were working as a team and building the conditions for meaningful and respectful engagement (aligns with current practice expectations words).