Andrej openly shares his experiment with co-creation and what went wrong. The intention was good, but he delegated too early and gave too little guidance. The result after one year: "The organization no longer makes decisions." His lesson: delegation is not the same as empowerment. And co-creation takes time. "Until the team dances along with co-creation, it all remains theoretical," he says.
As the evening progressed, it became clear that the reality of co-creation is more complex than the theory, especially when it comes to vertical versus horizontal dimensions. An audience question shed light on exactly this tension: how does co-creation within teams differ from co-creation across hierarchical levels? And how is empowerment truly lived when things go wrong?
Svenja's answer cuts to the core: "If I get empowerment right, I have to hand over the task together with the authority, not just the responsibility." Delegating responsibility is not the same as delegating power. Without genuine freedom to act, empowerment remains an empty promise.
Svenja also highlights how powerful participative strategy work can be: "People cannot complain because they were part of it." Something new is taking shape at BVB: employees at every level are being asked for their opinion. A step that carries its own significance in a company with 130 years of history.
And yet, there are limits. "If you are on the Titanic and see the iceberg, you do not call a team meeting first," says Andrej. Participation is not the same as democracy. There are moments when leadership requires a fast, clear decision. Participation and decisiveness are not mutually exclusive.
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