Draft journal post. Skeleton with placeholders until the copy is agreed.
Consultation is usually a letter, a form, or a meeting where the decision is already made. People can smell it. They turn up once, they see that nothing changes, and they do not come back.
The 'Co' in CoLab is the whole argument. It means we work with people, not for them. Co-design, co-create, collaborate: not because it is softer or nicer, but because it is the only way to build something people actually want to keep.
That sounds slow, and sometimes it is. [PLACEHOLDER: an example where co-design changed the plan.] But the slow version tends to stick. When people help make the thing, they look after it.
We are not pretending this is easy. Shared power means giving up the tidy version where you already know the answer. It means quiet voices get the same room as loud ones, and the lived experience in the room counts for as much as the professional one.
[QUOTE: Katie Collier or Al Pagan, CoLab Worcs, on sharing power]