Designed to Collaborate by Participatory City

Designed to Collaborate A comprehensive account of the design, implementation and evaluation of the collaborative business programmes developed as part of a borough-wide practical participation system in Barking and Dagenham. Published in 2023 alongside the Places To Practise report by Participatory City Foundation

Acknowledgements Special Thanks

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

Most of all, thank you to all the participants of

Saima Ashraf, Deputy Leader, Barking and Dagenham Council Rhodri Rowlands, Director of Participation and Engagement Monica Needs, Head of Participation and Engagement Michael Kynaston, Participation Manager Claire Brewin, Policy Officer, Community Solutions Debbie Butler, Community Development Officer, Community Solutions

Every One Every Day for their excitement, ideas, and contributions. Every One Every Day is inspired by the innovative work of hundreds of people locally and across the world who are finding new ways to reshape their communities and helping imagine what re-organised neighbourhoods might be able to achieve in the future. Participatory City Foundation Research Team Tessy Britton, Founder Nat Defriend, Chief Executive Officer Katherine Michonski, Chief Operating Officer Iris Schönherr, Head of Programmes Sarena Shetty, Programmes Designer Hayley Bruford, Head of Learning and Design Laura Rogocki, Learning and Graphic Designer Nikitha Pankhania, Graphic Designer Tim Warin, Head of Operations Andres Muniz, Assets and Premises Manager Claudia Iacob, Operations Manager Ivana Cosmano, Researcher Madeline Contos, Learning Designer Saira Awan, Head of Neighbourhood Development Dan Robinson, Head of Neighbourhood Development Adédolapo Yusuf, Project Designer Bahar Kaplan, Project Designer Farah Shahab-din-Chaudhry, Project Designer Imogen Newman, Project Designer Jessica Broughton, Project Designer Jack Tatham, Project Designer Louis Rutherford, Project Designer Matthew de Kretser, Project Designer Symbol Obinna Uzoukwu, Project Designer Winter Lappin, Project Designer With additional thanks to: Aggie Pailauskaite Stephanie Olowe Ruchit Purohit Amelie Pollet Dee Pessoa Brigitta Budi Ola Ismail Olopoenia Jordan Gamble Rachita Saraogi Colette Mackay Abegayle Elmes 4

Trustees Michael Coughlin Sophia Looney Hannah Rignell Roland Harwood Noel Moka Akil Scafe-Smith Rosanna Vitiello Tom Hook With additional thanks to: Dan Hill Olivia Smith Alessandro Ricci

Partners & Tutors of Collaborative Business Programmes Barking and Dagenham College Barking Riverside Limited Chris Heaton Chris Winter Co-operatives UK E5 Bakehouse Emma Corck Froghop Goldsmiths, University of London Handle Recycling James Edmunds Josie King KERB METZ+RACINE Other Today OTTOS R’chelle James Roberta Siao Royal College of Art Sew London Project Tastehead University of East London Wax Atelier

Funders & Partners London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Esmée Fairbairn Foundation National Lottery Community Fund City Bridge Trust Greater London Authority Bloomberg Philanthropies Barking Riverside Limited Ikea Lagom Credit & thanks to Nishant Jain for cover illustrations

Forewords Participatory City Foundation After dedicating five years to the collaborative business programmes, I am thrilled to publish this report. It is a testament to the hard work, innovation, and commitment of over 400 residents who embarked on a journey of exploration, bringing more than 1000 ideas and products to life through 42 remarkable programmes. The dedication displayed by residents as they delved into new modes of collaboration, the passion and creativity they brought, and the time they invested are truly extraordinary. Equally inspiring has been the hard work by our staff, expert tutors, and partners, who supported residents along the way with encouragement and practical guidance. Amongst so many amazing memories, are those of residents coming together in the kitchen to bring their recipes to life, learning to set up gazebos, transforming spaces and shops, mastering Excel sheets for costing and pricing, and sharing feedback and ideas to co-create environmentally friendly products. Amidst the moments of laughter and, yes, the occasional disagreement, strangers evolved into close teams and friendships that continue to thrive.

These programmes fill a vital societal gap, allowing individuals from all walks of life to come together around a shared goal and learn and earn together, creating shared ventures. They are businesses designed around humans, leveraging individual strengths, interests, and availability. They allow for flexibility, horizontal peer-to-peer support, equal ownership, and invite and include anyone, no matter what prior experience they have. The case for open access social infrastructure and the creation of diverse, practical opportunities in order to build social capital amongst diverse groups of people is compelling. This report encapsulates the impact these programmes have had on individuals and their communities. They symbolise a vision of hope, a future where everyone has the chance to explore new livelihoods together with their neighbours. These programmes hold the power to reshape our communities and local economies, fostering inclusivity, collaboration, and environmental sustainability. Iris Schönherr, Head of Programmes

While this is part of the wider Places To Practise report, it felt essential to present the findings of collaborative business programmes independently. The aim is to give inspiration among those who are working to design inclusive, trust-based, cooperative, and cohesive environments within the spheres of employment, education, economic development, and social infrastructure.

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

I am delighted to share this report with the world alongside Places to Practise, which we published at the beginning of October 2023. While much of the content in this report is taken from Places to Practise, we felt it was important to share these findings separately due to the particular interest we believe they hold for specific audiences who may not locate them within a report with a broader remit. When we set out to build the world’s first practical participation system at scale in 2017, our thinking about the connection between neighbourhood participation and economic development imagined the participation system equipping local people with resilience, confidence, and skills to advance within a competitive local economy. The results set out here certainly demonstrate that residents within the collaborative business programmes experienced these benefits. However, the broader real-world experience of building participation systems with the residents of Barking and Dagenham rapidly demonstrated that, rather than aim to incubate a large number of small businesses, collaborative business models, incorporating co-operative principles, would be better at creating a flexible, mutual, and shared context for local residents to advance in learning, product design, production, and retail. The result are the collaborative business programmes, which, through hours of co-design, countless rotas, dozens of tastings and fittings, and many late nights and early mornings, have brought over 400 residents into a unique collaborative environment, and created countless hours of selfdirected and flexible learning within numerous programmes. It has been a huge feat from the Participatory City Foundation staff, tutors, and partners, who have made it happen, and most of all it is a testament to the passion, energy, and skills of Barking and Dagenham residents who brought this work to life. Thank you for reading our report! Nat Defriend, Chief Executive

Residents of Barking and Dagenham For years I lived in Barking without a true sense of belonging, as my work and social life often took me outside the borough. This distance from the local community left me unaware of any interesting things happening in the area. While I loved volunteering and connecting with people, I found myself seeking opportunities outside my supposed hometown, where it felt more like a place to sleep and eat, rather than home. I discovered Every One Every Day through their community newspaper. I couldn’t believe that such an amazing project was just around the corner and had been for years. On joining a natural fabric dyeing and beeswax wrap making workshop with Wax Atelier, and upon entering the workshop, I was astonished and excited by all the resources that were available for everyone in the community to use. I left with a broad smile, a new skill, and connections to neighbours I never knew I had. After the isolating months of Covid, I signed up to join Coffee:Works, and it has changed my life! It has allowed me to gain local employment as well as teaching me transferable business skills, all while making friends and feeling a sense of belonging to my community. I also participated in Re:Works where I learnt carpentry skills and was involved in making furniture from waste wood donated by the V&A museum. Although there have been ups and downs I’m grateful for the opportunities the project has given me. I still work part time at the cafe and have taken the skills I have learnt through collaborative business programmes with Every One Every Day back to college where I am now studying a Level 2 Diploma in carpentry, something I may not have pursued otherwise. It’s been an amazing journey for me over the past few years. The most rewarding thing for me is not feeling like a stranger in my hometown anymore. Having that sense of belonging to the community is something I’ll forever be extremely grateful to Every One Every Day for. Sophie Harris-Greenslade, Resident of Barking and Dagenham

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Partners, funders & global advisory Barking Riverside Ltd (BRL) are proud to have supported and nurtured this project, working in partnership with Participatory City Foundation to bring a resident-led café, Grounded, to the Wilds at Barking Riverside. Grounded has embedded community benefit at the core of the Wilds, and demonstrates Barking Riverside’s mission to work with residents to create a place that is authentically ‘Barking Made’. Working with Participatory City Foundation has not only created more pathways for residents to shape and lead community life, but has also created tangible opportunities for residents to gain skills and training, whilst benefiting from genuine career opportunities. There is no doubt that the presence of Grounded at the Wilds has played a pivotal role in achieving prestigious awards for the Wilds. In 2022, the Wilds was nominated in the RICS Regional Awards and the Planning Awards, winning the ‘Community Benefit’ and ‘Partnership Working’ categories respectively. This demonstrates the recognition that Grounded and the Wilds have achieved in the built environment sector.

community, which a commercial provider could not due to the multifaceted approach to achieving community benefit through a locally led offer. Working in partnership with Participatory City Foundation on the project enabled participants to be led through the process with sufficient guidance, benefitting from the skills and experiences of staff from both organisations. Participatory City Foundation’s position as a third sector organisation meant they were best placed to incubate Grounded, being able to adapt to the needs of participating residents. BRL look forward to supporting Grounded to sustain their offer at Barking Riverside, and to further develop their business so they can continue trading into the future. Sarah McCready, Head of Placemaking and Communications, Barking Riverside Limited

Most importantly, Grounded has been able to offer something unique to the Barking Riverside

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Contents

Introduction

Collaborative business programmes and inclusive growth

Aims of collaborative business programmes

Collaborative business design principles

Collaborative business models

Model 1: Collaborative brand evaluation Case study: Rock Paper Scissors Participation data Model 2: Collaborative design evaluation Case study: Everyone’s Kitchen and Bowled Participation data

Model 3: Collaborative production evaluation Case study: Wax:Works and Wax Atelier Participation data Model 4: Collaborative shop evaluation Case study: Coffee:Works and Grounded Participation data

Observations and reflections

Timeline

Introduction About this Report

Every One Every Day

This report summarises and evaluates the Collaborative Business Programme concept which was tested for five years as part of the Every One Every Day project in London’s Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Every One Every Day is a research and development project in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, delivered by Participatory City Foundation and funded since 2017. The initiative’s overarching goal was to co-create the first largescale practical participatory ecosystem. It tested and evaluated the feasibility of creating social infrastructure that acts as a support platform to enable residents to improve neighbourhoods and build new livelihoods.

Collaborative business programmes are free programmes for any local resident wanting to learn new skills and explore new livelihoods. They are designed to be inclusive, collaborative, and of low personal risk, making participation easy and accessible. They bridge a gap between formal education and traditional business development support. This document highlights four different models prototyped and tested within the collaborative business programmes concept, and evaluates each model on the basis of whether they created inclusivity and accessibility, collaborative participation outcomes as well as business outcomes. Each model description contains lessons for adaptation and the report concludes with overall reflections. This is the first full account of running 42 collaborative business programmes across five years with over 400 residents, and highlights the transformative impact they had on both individuals and the community. These programmes built friendships, networks, collective agency, and social as well as economic capital. The insights and lessons shared in this report are especially valuable for those involved in city leadership, urban policy and strategy, community and neighbourhood development, as well as skills and employment development. Please note that this is published alongside the wider report called Places to Practise, which is the comprehensive account of the developments of the Every One Every Day project since July 2019. The research and evaluation documented in Places to Practise provides clear evidence that the accumulated experience of practical participation is directly linked to the development of increased social capital within individuals - understood as the trust, cooperation, and resources that are built and shared among individuals and groups through social connections.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

This support platform included eight open-access neighbourhood spaces which were opened to support nearly 10,000 local residents to develop over 300 neighbourhood projects, from cooking to making to growing to playing to looking after bees and chickens. Every One Every Day also opened a large, openaccess, 3000 m2 makerspace called Everyone’s Warehouse. Everyone’s Warehouse has been the main base for collaborative business programmes, offering residents free access and learning opportunities across its spaces. This included an industrial kitchen, a ceramics studio, a workshop for woodwork, recycled plastics, and digital making, a fabrics studio, podcast room, co-working space, and an urban garden. The Every One Every Day project will come to completion in summer 2024, with its assets being distributed across the borough and a final report being published. For more details, visit www. weareeveryone.org or www.participatorycity.org.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Local context of Barking and Dagenham The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is situated in East London with a population of 218,900 (2021). The borough has experienced the third highest population growth in England and Wales since 2011 at a rate of 18 percent. Barking and Dagenham’s demographics have also changed rapidly over the last 20 years, from 79 percent White British in 2001, to 45 percent in 2021. It is a place with a rich history of industry, manufacturing and small business start ups. It is the location of some of London’s most significant urban developments including the Thames and Riverside development, which will create 10,000 new homes over 20 years, the relocation of the city of London’s wholesale food markets to the borough in 2027 and the site of Europe’s largest film studio in Dagenham East.

neighbourhood impacts and new livelihoods. The approach builds on eight years of prior research which documented the work of people across the world who were creating a different model for how to build sustainable, urban neighbourhoods. T h e c o n c e p t o f c o l l a b o r a t i ve b u s i n e s s programmes emerged from this context and sought to challenge conventional barriers to entrepreneurship by promoting inclusivity and collaboration, and by designing opportunities that fit into people’s lives. The varied programmes described in this report collectively aimed to create a low-risk learning environment in which residents, irrespective of their prior experience or skills could build businesses together, creating social as well as economic capital.

Barking and Dagenham is also one of London’s most deprived boroughs, grappling with a number of socio-economic challenges including low incomes, under-employment, poor educational outcomes, and high levels of homelessness, teenage pregnancy, and domestic violence. The Every One Every Day project was designed to bridge these two realities in the borough; alleviating poverty and hardship by creating the conditions in neighbourhoods and beyond for residents to participate, collaborate, learn, and connect with one another to create positive

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Collaborative Business Programmes and Inclusive Growth Entrepreneurship, ownership, and competition drive local economies and create the incentives that enable residents to participate in it. Accordingly, most approaches to local business development take these concepts as the starting point and seek to develop the skills and tools necessary for people to compete. Most business development programmes, such as incubators and accelerators, set a high bar to entry, with participants tending to already possess a number of key attributes, including prior knowledge and experience, relevant skills, time, appetite for risk, and access to capital. In contrast, Every One Every Day's collaborative business programmes aim to create multiple opportunities into flexible and inclusive learning and business development programmes. The hope is that anyone with an interest can participate, regardless of skill, ability, or prior experience. This approach also fosters collaboration amongst participants to build bonds, develop social capital, and share risk and reward.

Since Every One Every Day’s launch, 42 collaborative business programmes took place with over 400 residents*. This report describes the approach and learnings to building collaborative businesses in Barking and Dagenham, and shares lessons that will be useful for others trying similar approaches. Programmes were evaluated on the basis of whether they created; •

Inclusivity and accessibility to enable diversity of skills and participants;

•

Collaboration and participation outcomes, such as social capital creation and effective work cultures and structures;

•

Business outcomes, such as prototyping, testing, and trading.

These programmes draw on the resources of the participation platform - spaces, machines, equipment, materials, programme designers, and operational support - as well as the provision of technical skills taught by peers and experts. These small-scale programmes create the potential for large-scale demonstrations of new products and services that are designed to contribute to a regenerative and distributive economy of the future, as well as the creation of neighbourhoods built around participation and connection rather than economic growth.

*This number excludes repeat participation and is likely an underestimate because not everyone provided contact details.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Integrating collaborative business programmes into the existing ecosystem

programmes Networking events

Incubation and acceleration programmes

Collaborative business programmes

Finanical modelling

Business development environment Loans and funding applications

Mentoring and coaching

Legal, logistic and operational set up

Business plan development

Collaborative business programmes overview

4.5 Years

Programme call outs

Programmes

636 1105 Participants (incl. repeat)

Sign ups & co-design participants

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Aims of Collaborative Business Programmes Inclusive, collaborative, low-risk opportunities

Capacity, capability, and social capital as outcomes

Designing accessible opportunities for any resident to learn new skills, develop products and services, and test trade them for business viability and income, with no or low personal risk.

Building opportunities that aim to achieve personal, collective, and societal outcomes around increased skills, confidence, networks, employability, employment, and social cohesion.

Collaborative business programmes components Part 2

Part 1

Design

Access • • • •

To machinery, spaces, and materials To permits, insurance, and licence To expert tutors and designers To a bank account and Point of Sale system

• • • Team • • •

Meet collaborators Learn how to work together Learn how to make group decisions

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Learn about developing an idea Learn how to design Learn how to make a prototype

Co-creation of local, circular, and greener economies

Collaborative Business concept development

Designing collaborative business programmes, partnerships, and systems that support residents in co-creating small-scale, local, inclusive, circular economies across the borough.

Developing, testing and evaluating the Collaborative Business framework and different models that have inclusivity, collaboration, and low risk within the design. Develop case studies, models, and tools for replication or adaptation.

Part 3

Sell • • Make • • • •

• •

Learn technical skills Learn how to make products Learn how to make for commercial use Learn how to make small batch productions Learn how to make labels Learn about hygiene as well as health, safety

•

• •

•

Learn how to do inventory Learn how to cost and price Learn how to talk about products and the brand Learn how to do product photography Learn how to set up and sell at a shop or market stall Learn about customer interactions

Evaluate • •

•

Learn how to analyse sales Learn about product or concept iteration following feedback and testing Plan next steps and co-design follow up support

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Collaborative Business Design Principles Collaborative business programmes draw on the design principles for neighbourhood projects but are different in terms of desired outcomes, which can be categorised into inclusivity, collaboration, and low personal risk. Each programme integrates as many principles as possible into the programme design in order to create a variety of opportunities that together offer something for anyone wanting to participate.

Designing for inclusivity

No selection process Providing ‘Open Info’ and ‘Discovery’ sessions that allow anyone to sign up and join without having to commit from the start.

Designing for collaboration

Starts where you are No prior experience or skills needed to join. Surfacing with residents what skills and knowledge already exist amongst them and what additional support they need to develop their ideas.

Designing for low personal risk

Low to no cost Free participation opportunities and provision of loans for small batch production (about £30 per resident) that turn into grants if no sales were made.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Part-time and flexible

Children welcome

Offering different times of the day including during the weekdays, evenings, and weekends to cater for varied lifestyles. Work shifts shared amongst residents to allow a flexible and shared work load.

Designing child safety, space for children to play, and making activities for children that are accompanying adults into programmes.

Peer-to-peer learning

Testing ideas

Multiple shared tasks that require collaboration, such as running a pop-up shop and selling each other’s products, or collaborative production or product development.

Rapid prototyping and real-life opportunities to test ideas and products with customers as soon as possible.

Access to essentials

Support from experts

Open access to space, machines, equipment, and materials as well as permits, insurance, and financial management support.

Expert tutors and the appropriate accredited training to ensure quality and safety in product and service development.

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Collaborative Business Models The 42 collaborative business programmes can be split into four different models, focused on brand, design, production, and retail. While some programmes ran multiple times, no two programmes were designed and delivered in the same way. Each programme was built iteratively upon lessons from previous ones after a developmental evaluation process. Some programmes had different names and some did not make it to the final selling phase. In most cases, this was due to either low interest amongst residents or due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. All programmes have collaboration designed in but each model tested a different aim and approach. As a result, the phases of Learn/Design, Make, and Sell have varying degrees of collaboration amongst participants.

Model 1: Collaborative Brand Individual products working under a single brand.

Model 2: Collaborative Design Products designed and sold together.

Model 3: Collaborative Production Products designed by the platform or a designer and produced together.

Model 4: Collaborative Shop A business set up for the purposes of trading together.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Degree of collaboration

Programme brands

Design Make Sell Low

High

Degree of collaboration

Programme brands

Design Make Sell Low

High

Degree of collaboration

Programme brands

Learn Make Sell Low

High

Degree of collaboration

Programme brands

Learn Make Sell Low

High

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Model 1: Collaborative Brand Evaluation Six different iterations of the Collaborative Brand model were tested, including programmes focussed on retail, design, food, and childcare. Most programmes were between three and four months duration and involved groups of up to 15 residents learning how to design and manufacture their own products with the aim of testing them, preparing them for market, and test trading together under one brand.

Pantry

Imagination Space

Residents brought in their own ideas for new shelfstable food products and a food expert helped them refine their recipes and package them in order to trade together at a food stall.

A group of residents interested in setting up their own childcare programmes ran individual sessions under a single brand.

Rock Paper Scissors

Graphic

Residents with their own retail products were invited to work with a designer to refine and package them for sale in a pop-up shop that residents ran together.

Residents learning graphic design skills and offering design services to clients. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this programme did not fully go ahead.

Sauced

Knit

Residents making and selling a range of sauces under a single brand. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this programme did not go ahead.

A collective of residents making and selling different kinds of knitwear under a single brand as part of a pop-up shop.

Strengths

Challenges

•

Development of unique products and ideas by individuals;

•

Creation of high quality products with a good product market-fit due to the diversity of products, skill levels, and design skills;

•

Flexible production timelines and self-directed product development allows residents with varying abilities and commitment levels to participate;

•

Coherent brand identity. Not all resident products fit under a single unified brand;

•

Need for lots of responsive one-on-one support during product design and development due to the inevitable variation in skills and capacity in the group;

•

High degree of retail skill experience from staff and residents is required to fit out a pop-up retail space quickly and beautifully;

•

Limited ongoing test trading opportunities beyond the scope for the programme.

•

Gradual and light-touch collaboration. Residents only start to work as a team at the test trading stage, allowing them to build friendship and trust gradually;

•

Rapid product testing and real-world retail experience that builds transferrable skills. Pop-up shops are stocked with a range of products from multiple residents;

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Summary Inclusivity and accessibility

The model applied no selection criteria and was open to all. Support was given where needed, e i t h e r b y product experts, designers or peers. Residents had access to materials, equipment, and space through the Every One Every Day platform. The model also allowed lots of different residents to join in at a level and pace appropriate to them. Residents were highly diverse in terms of age, skill level, and ethnicity. The majority of participants were women who were trying out a making skill for the first time. Residents often brought their children to join in for learning, making, or trading, which provided a strong indicator of its accessibility to this group of residents. Example During the first Rock Paper Scissors programme, parents self-organised to ensure their children were safe and looked after by sharing childcare responsibilities and separating the spaces into child-friendly and risk areas. They all took turns making and looking after the children.

Because residents worked on their own product ideas - often on their own time and in their own spaces - participants only came together with regularity in initial meetings and during the test trading. This meant there were fewer opportunities for interaction in the three-month programme period as compared with other models. The benefit of this was that people could make in their own time and at their own pace; often mothers of young children would work on their products at home after their kids were in bed.

In one of the Pantry programmes, residents decided to contribute 10 percent of their product sales into a shared pot that was equally distributed amongst all to reflect that everyone was making an effort to sell each other’s products at the market stall, not just their own.

Product ideas and development were often improved by collaboration. Pantry and Rock Paper Scissors started with product idea sessions where residents brought their ideas to other residents and product experts for feedback.

During Rock Paper Scissors, two local mothers worked on a children's book together and met a local artist through the programme which led to a collaboration in design. These mothers also participated later in Imagination Space to test childcare activities, and the friendships formed there led to a joint pitch for a local childcare business later. Now both mothers are on the Citizen Panel for participatory budgeting in the borough.

Collaborative participation outcomes

There were examples of products being improved by substituting ingredients or materials for others that were more sustainable or healthy.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Many of the support networks created in the programmes continued to endure past the programme’s end and often spurred other collaborative opportunities outside of Every One Every Day’s activities. Example

Business outcomes

Participants were able to refine their products on the basis of customer feedback and sales a n a l y s i s g e n e ra te d b y t h e programmes. Some went on to continue to sell their products, either under the collaborative brands or under a brand they developed themselves. A few started or joined local businesses. None of the collaborative brands developed a longterm viable business, but some continued to trade under other collaborative business programmes. This model works well to create inclusive opportunities to prototype ideas with no or low personal risk. The strength lies in testing different ideas, analysing feedback and iterating product and business ideas, giving as many residents as possible an opportunity for short term test trading in a friendly and fun environment that helps residents build confidence in their ideas and learn new skills. Even though the programmes were short, some participants were able to gather enough data to build a business case and plan.

Lessons for adaptation

Streamline and simplify the purchase and supply of materials by bulk buying to drive costs down and reduce the initial outlay. This also means residents will work with the same materials and are able to share learnings and produce together, as well as continue production (and in turn collaboration) beyond the programme. Introduce product design criteria that can help residents choose more sustainable or recycled materials, designing essential products with a better market fit rather than luxury or niche products. Having some general guides to help in product quality and selection is essential for this. This model could work well with a permanent shop space to run multiple programmes supporting different product developments, giving each programme a few weeks of test trading before the next cohort takes over.

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Rock Paper Scissors Collaborative Brand case study Rock Paper Scissors invited residents to come with ideas for homewares and textiles products that could be test traded under a single brand in a pop-up shop. The three-month programme included a Design, Make, and a Sell phase. The pop-up shop was open for two weeks.

The flexibility of the programme enabled participants to manage their time independently and work during hours that were convenient for them. For example, many participants were parents to young children and were able to work on their products at home at night.

All residents were supported by product design tutors and students to turn their product ideas into prototypes and real products through design sprints, machine training inductions, and product development workshops. Small loans of £30 per resident were allocated to purchase materials for small batch productions, and residents learnt the basics of costing and pricing. These loans were repaid from sales revenue.

Residents even adapted the space to enable children to be present, using floor tape to separate the production space into child-friendly and machines areas. This enabled the residents to take turns looking after children or producing products. The rota for the pop-up shop shifts was shared amongst all participants and small children often accompanied their parents.

This collaborative approach meant that despite working on individual ideas, residents were able to iterate their designs based on constructive feedback from peers and often produced products which were more simple and streamlined as a consequence. This helped to create confidence and collaboration. All residents met each other before the shop launch to learn about each other’s products and how to run a collaborative shop together. Many residents became friends after going through such a unique collective experience together. They supported each other emotionally as well through peer-topeer skill sharing.

Following their participation, approximately a third of participants have continued to develop their own brands, including launching their own businesses and selling their products at concept shops, market stalls, and online. Moreover, some participants have become leaders in training other residents in various types of making.

“ I think it is showing me that when you apply something and you’ve got the right support and you’re focussed, a lot can happen in six months... And how quickly and lifechanging some things can be. I’ve done so much in the six months, it’s unbelievable.” - Participant

Participation Data Programme registration data Age

Religion

50-59 (17%)

Christian (6%)

Buddhist (0%)

19-29 (26%)

60-69 (4%)

Sikh (2%)

30-39 (28%)

70 - 79 (0%)

Muslim (9%)

Any other religion (0%)

10-19 (2%)

40 - 49 (24%)

Jewish (2%) Hindu (54%)

“The best thing about this was the timing […] I had just undergone a major operation, and I designed it all when I was recovering. […] for me to do this and have the opportunity to not be bored recovering in bed, because I was like I can’t move, I’m not supposed to do ABC, but my brain’s still working. And I’m a very active person, a very active member of the gym, I’m doing all these things, so to be stuck at home, it was the perfect timing.” - Participant

Ethnicity

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

No religion (15%) Prefer not to say (13%)

White or White British (26%)

Asian or Asian British (9%)

Mixed (2%)

Other (17%)

Black or Black British (46%)

“Since coming here, every idea I’ve had they are like ‘try it out’. I haven’t heard anybody say ‘you can’t do that’! It helps me believe I can try anything!” - Participant

Timeline of the programme

Programme cycles

Design phase 1 month Design-a-thon

102 Participants

Machine workshops

Prototype making

Make phase 1 month Making product batches

Costing, pricing, and inventory

Marketing and product descriptions

Sell phase

Trading days

1132 Products sold

777

Types of products developed

Different locations for pop-up shops tested

1 month Pop-up shop set up

Selling via shift rota

Product and sales evaluation

206

Shop shifts shared

£9947 Revenue generated

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Model 2: Collaborative Design Evaluation The Collaborative Design model prototyped six different types of programmes, including in food, ceramics, and woodwork. Most of these programmes ran for several months and took groups of residents through a process of designing products together to collectively test trade them.

Everyone’s Kitchen, Bowled and Food:Works

Launch Lab Sprint

With the support of food tutors, residents were invited to design fresh food products and menus that were then tested as catering offers.

Young people (aged 14-16 years old) were invited to learn how to design and make a woodwork product together.

Slab

Super Cake

Residents learnt how to design and make a range of ceramic homewares products as a collaborative to test trade.

Residents interested in making cakes were invited to start a cake-making collective, focused on fresh cakes or home-made cake mixes. Due to low interest, this never made it further than the Discover workshops.

Strengths

Challenges

•

Engages a diversity of people with different skills, confidence, and experience levels and shares roles and responsibilities amongst residents;

•

Co-ordinating the team in a way which works for all residents can be challenging and makes it less inclusive for residents with varying availability and commitment levels;

•

Builds close relationships and social capital amongst residents through a strong emphasis on collaboration and peer support d e l i ve r e d t h ro u g h s h a re d d e c i s i o n s, production, and trading;

•

Setting and maintaining high standards for product quality due to different levels of skills and aesthetic opinions amongst residents;

•

Requires programme designers that are skilled in facilitation and collaborative working methods to support the development of a team that can make their own collaborative decisions without hierarchical structures;

•

Replacing traditional mindsets about intellectual property and hierarchical structures with a collaborative approach and open source culture.

•

Creates a committed team that feels ownership over the brand and is more likely to continue production and trading together after the programme.

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Summary Inclusivity and accessibility

All programmes under this model were open to anyone wanting to learn how to design something, r e g a rd l e s s o f p r i o r s k i l l s , experiences, or whether they had product ideas. These programmes brought together residents from different backgrounds, skill sets, and ages, with low barriers to access, and got them to work together as a team, developing bonding and bridging social capital in the process. Example In all of the catering programmes, residents could bring food ideas from their culture and through a codesign process all those different ideas were developed into a unified concept or menu. This model required individuals to work as a team and to find ways to be inclusive of anyone who wanted to join and be part of the team.

Collaborative participation outcomes

This model tested whether teams can be formed amongst diverse residents who were interested in testing a business idea. The significant amount of time spent as a team designing and making together created bonding and bridging social capital. Strong peer-to-peer connections were developed through frequent collaborative learning. Because residents were working towards a shared goal they had to collaborate from design through to test trading. Success under this model depended on collaborative team working and team effort. Programme designers invested much more time in building strong team work in this model than in others. For example, all programmes had workshops where principles for team working were co-designed together that were often revisited throughout the programme.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

This model allowed residents to input into all phases. Once they reached the producing and trading, residents could decide to focus on specific tasks or roles based on their preference and availability. This was possible because they had a team and the team decided together who does what, often based on strengths or interests. Across most programmes, there were residents with less confidence and skills in computer work or public speaking, and this model allowed them to choose other tasks or pair up with someone more experienced whilst they learnt. Example In Slab, residents learnt about communication through a pair exercise. Two people were placed back-to-back and one had to describe a complex form and the other had to listen and make it with clay without asking questions. The exercise created understanding about different communication styles and provided an important opportunity to practice listening.

Business outcomes

The Collaborative Design model creates a business around a team, rather than one person’s business idea. As a result those teams felt more able to continue trading beyond the support of the initial programme as both time commitment and risk was shared. The catering businesses secured catering jobs inside the borough, whereas Slab struggled to continue producing without further training and trading opportunities. This model allows residents to quickly prototype products and services and go to market to experience developing ideas and real-life trading with no or low personal risk. It is great for testing a collaboratively designed concept and gives enough data to develop it into a business model.

Lessons for adaptation

Partnering with experts to support or advise on product design and feasibility of scaling up production is useful, even if residents have design responsibility. This is to create the best possible quality products and better business outcomes for the long term. Providing inspiration on what good looks like and how to produce in an efficient, yet collaborative way, often requires expertise or research.

For example in ceramic programme Slab, residents were taught how to make basic mugs but co-designed the handles and glazes. Introducing a democratic process for decision making early on was critical, such as consent-based decision making. It took constant practise for the norms to develop into a team-working culture.

There are different ways for residents to be involved in design, from designing product brand principles to product categories to specific design aspects like brand colours, patterns, or materials used. Depending on the programme, different approaches are required. Food programmes generally allow for a high degree of product co-design, whereas in a making programme full of novices that do not yet understand the degrees of technical skills required for different products, product recommendations are useful.

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Everyone’s Kitchen and Bowled Collaborative Design case study Everyone’s Kitchen was a Collaborative Design programme to develop a fresh food catering collective run by residents, which was later re-branded as Bowled. The idea for a catering programme came from residents who participated in Pantry, a programme to develop shelf-stable food products. Residents from Pantry tried catering for the first time at the We Make Our City festival and subsequently wanted to learn more about how to prepare and sell fresh food. A call-out was created that invited any resident to participate in developing a catering business. Residents who came to the intro sessions participated in workshops to imagine what might be in Your Bowl, a concept that accommodated multiple types of cuisine. This culminated in a practical workshop where residents brought their favourite home-cooked mains and in a collaborative process they created full dishes by adding different sides that can accompany the main. Twelve bowls were created, photographed, and tasted on that day, building a collaborative menu designed by the team. Following this was a period of practicing and testing. Residents used two larger events at Everyone’s Warehouse to test the menu with potential customers. During this time, they shared and taught each other the recipes of the mains and practised making them as a team. The group also designed how best to serve their dishes. They set up an ordering and serving station with a back kitchen where team members had different roles. They created forms to receive feedback on taste, quality, look, price, and service as well as asking if anyone would use them for upcoming catering gigs. As a result of the collaborative design process, the concept and brand from Everyone’s Kitchen was changed into Bowled. This process was highly collaborative and fun, creating friendships amongst residents. However, when the bowls were tested at the events, challenges emerged around quantity and costs of ingredients as well as preparation time, and therefore some bowls were not viable from a business perspective. Those learnings were valuable for residents in terms of understanding what it takes to make it work, and menu principles were formed such as ‘simple to make.’ Following this, another newspaper call-out invited residents to join the catering collective Bowled by joining a two-day ‘Catering School’ with a tutor. In the Catering School, previous participants and new

residents worked together with a tutor on designing menu options, purchasing ingredients, preparing and cooking the menu, serving and tidying up, and as a team worked out timings, costing, and pricing. This gave all residents an opportunity to put their ideas into product design. Working with a tutor also ensured quality standards, taught hygiene, and introduced best practices on teamwork in the kitchen, as well as giving advice on production, costing, and pricing. Following a recipe-practising period that was selforganised by residents, they started to test trade. Once Bowled started to offer their services, they received regular business. They learnt how to take on an order, cost and price, and manage the team on the day. It was a huge learning curve for residents who had to figure out how to budget for large catering orders, transport the food safely and keep it warm, and maintain professional standards. They were charging London Living Wage for their time and managed to earn an income. Collaborative processes like digital costing tools that do the calculations for them, catering order sheets with task tick boxes, and collaborative shift rotas were designed to allow selfmanagement of the group. Making sure residents felt supported in learning how to use shared Google Folders, Sheets, and Docs was important as these tools were necessary to make it work and allowed transparency around equal workload. In these cases, the role of the Programme Designer was often to teach digital skills as well as developing tools like the costing and pricing tool. Keeping the presentation of the dishes consistent and of high quality was a challenge, so residents worked together to start an internal recipe book that explained the cooking process step-by-step and included images of how the dish needed to look like when served. These programmes were highly collaborative as residents designed the concept, the recipes and menu, as well as the operational processes like kitchen management, serving, and food presentation. Unfortunately, the collective had to stop due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, but were later supported by another organisation in the borough that helped them develop different catering and food product businesses further.

“Normally to start a group there will be a lot of things involved like risk assessments and insurance…and I wouldn’t have even known where to start. But when I came here, and they said there is a kitchen that could be used for the community group, I was pleasantly surprised. I’d never seen anything like it before. It’s a really nice kitchen, and it’s really well equipped, and most places don’t allow you to have your children with you like they had - very welcoming.” - Participant

Participation Data Reflections from participants What co-design as a team means and that it needs a different mindset •

Shared responsibility and shared ownership;

•

That we don’t want to let each other down;

•

It’s less stressful as you share the workload;

•

That everyone has personal triggers, eg. Food Hygiene;

•

It takes commitment to make it work as we’re relying on each other;

•

Finishing on a high note is important - achievements make teams;

•

It definitely is an adjustment - from individual creativity and control to collective creativity and working together - it’s a learning curve;

•

How important it is to build relationships before you’re in a stressful situation - let’s do something social first to become friends;

•

It’s important to know when, where, what needs to be done and who;

•

It’s fun.

When asked about what the group learnt, the Programme Designer captured the following: •

Experiencing how ideas from concept stage are turned into actual products that we can deliver. Being part of all stages;

•

The process from original idea to viable product and concept;

•

How useful feedback from people is and the way we captured feedback;

•

Bowled is different to Pantry in which the product development is in your control whereas in Bowled it’s a team effort.

“Discussing ideas with other people and being flexible is something that I have had to learn. I have enjoyed it a lot. [I am] working with people a bit better and discussing what I want to do. I am learning how to come across, how to be clearer with my ideas. Sometimes I have an image in my

“We all pitch in to help. People are concerned. It’s not pretense, people really care. Feels nice to know I am supported. […] I’m supported in the fact that if I can’t get something done, there is somebody who will do it for me. Or there is somebody who will know what to do or there is somebody who

head and I do not know how to explain it to the other person so that they can see it the same way. Yes, it is interesting.” - Participant

can help me do it. I am never alone, that’s what I’ve realised. I just have to be more vocal.” - Participant

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Timeline of the programme

Programme cycles

Design phase 1 month Concept design

Participants Concept testing

Concept evaluation

Make phase 1 month Production practicing

Costing, pricing, and labelling

Marketing materials

Number of workshops

Number of products co-designed

Number of days of testing

Sell phase 1 month Catering order co-ordinaition

Delivering catering orders

Evaluation

Number of paid catering events

Number of inspiration trips

£1404 Revenue generated

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Model 3: Collaborative Production Evaluation In the Collaborative Production model, ten different programmes were prototyped, including programmes in growing, food, textiles, and homewares. Most of these programmes ran for several months and took groups of up to 20 residents through a process of learning how to produce pre-designed products that could be sold. Because products were already designed, the Collaborative Production model allowed residents to focus on developing making skills for products. Product designs were acquired by either working with highly skilled designers who tutored residents how to produce their products, or by partnering with an existing business that was looking to scale its production capacity.

Capsule Collection

Future Food

Residents learnt how to produce garments designed by a skilled designer.

Residents explored indoor growing methods using hydroponic stations.

Baked

Wax:Works

Residents learnt how to produce cakes and breads that were test traded at events.

A partnership with design studio Wax Atelier to scale their sustainable wax products business by training residents to start a co-operative for production. A large group of residents joined the Discover and Learn phase and a smaller group of eight was later selected to join the production team, earning London Living Wage on a part-time, flexible basis.

Re:Works A partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum which saw waste materials from the museum being used to teach residents to make benches and tables.

Essential:Works A series of programmes where residents learnt how to make sustainable, essential products with different materials. For one of those programmes, 20 young adults were employed via HM Treasury’s Kickstart Scheme to learn how to make essential food, homewares, and fashion products and test trade them at a pop-up shop called The Good House. The Kickstart residents developed the following trading brands: Geo, Wildly, Clayd, Loop, Thames 47. Other programmes included Clay:Works and Baked:Works for ceramic and baked products.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Strengths

Challenges

•

No need for specific prior experience or skills; any resident wanting to make or learn how to make is able to join;

•

Finding open-source product designs that are high quality and follow sustainability principles is difficult as there are not that many and often cannot be used for commercial purposes;

•

Removes the need to design and instead focuses on technical skills development, which is better for employability potential and work experience;

•

When product designer(s) are part of the business collaboration, it can be challenging to establish a culture of equal footing amongst designers and makers. Teamwork can easily slip into a traditional management and hierarchical culture;

•

Provides production capacity and skills development in the local area;

•

Allows flexibility in production, by allowing residents to contribute based on skills, interests, and time. For example, piecework production allows residents to contribute as and when possible;

•

Requires finding skilled tutors with technical skills, production experience, and ability to teach a diverse range of residents. Often times tutors do not have sufficient experience with adult education;

•

Creates higher-quality products since products are pre-designed and often market-tested. Programmes can focus more on incorporating principles around sustainability, circularity, and open-source culture.

•

Final production phases sometimes requires selecting makers with most skill and potential, particularly if there are limited spaces, reducing aims of inclusivity.

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Summary Inclusivity and accessibility

The Collaborative Production model required no prior experience and no entry criteria other than an interest to learn new technical skills and potentially join a production team. Learning was initially focused on the basics and then progressed to higher levels of technical proficiency. Products that are simple to make and that could be made by piece work or flexible shifts worked best to allow inclusive participation. Most programmes had residents with childcare responsibilities as well as retired, unemployed, and employed residents. Residents set up flexible shifts to accommodate varying schedules. By taking out the need to design and come up with quality products, this model was inclusive to anyone who wanted to learn rather than develop their own ideas. Often residents started to design their own products after participating in a programme as they had successfully acquired materials knowledge and technical skills.

Collaborative participation outcomes

T h e Le a r n p h a s e c re a te d collaboration through shared experiences and peer-to-peer support on a unique learning journey. Generally residents worked well together, often developing more streamlined making processes. The resulting products all followed product design principles relating to sustainability a n d c i r c u l a r i t y , demonstrating how to make something that is good for people as well as the planet. This sparked a lot of collaboration around product experimenting in certain programmes where residents shared their existing skills and developed something new together. For example, in Wax:Works, some residents worked with the founders of Wax Atelier in creating new colour mixes and products. Once the Learn phase was completed, residents often needed to self-organise to start producing and trading.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Business outcomes

Wax:Works created part-time, flexible work for residents who joined the production co-operative. Many stayed on for about one year earning London Living Wage. Some also started their own wax businesses using their skills to design a brand and new product line. For Wax Atelier, it created an alternative model for scaling their business with lower risk. The platform provided production and storage space, free utility, equipment, materials, and a start up loan to cover wages until orders were fulfilled. From a two-person business it scaled rapidly to a production team of 12 makers in a matter of months. For residents who wanted to start their own businesses, the model did not provide enough general business skills as most of the business strategy and administration was done by Wax Atelier.

Lessons for adaptation

Whilst the focus in this model is on production skills, a key learning from past programmes is that teams need a high degree of team working and organisation skills to be able to continue producing independently. They also require skills development in business development if the desired outcome is an independent production collective.

The Essential:Works programmes led to trading at The Good House, a pop-up shop based in Dagenham Heathway shopping centre, where products were sold to customers inside the borough. Other programmes in this model did not make it to market, sometimes reflecting that residents joined for learning reasons rather than trading motivations. Some programmes did not result in trading as they had no clear business model or viable market, for example the small scale of food growing developed in Future Food. This model can create regular and flexible income and work if the products and recipes are already tested and have a market or trading channel. It is another safe way for residents to gain skills and experience in test trading business ideas, which can build the basis of a business case.

For the collective to establish and maintain a selfmanaged, collaborative, and equal culture, it needs its own space and right to organise the way it wants. A clear understanding of the responsibilities and expectations of both parties can help.

Another recommendation would be to prioritise and source designs that are open source or collaboratively owned. This also needs to be captured in the partnership agreements with designers and makers. To pre-empt any challenges further down the line about intellectual property of designs and commercial usage. If this model is replicated in partnership with an existing business with the purpose of scaling or setting up additional production capacity, there could be benefits in separating the work spaces to allow different cultures.

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Wax:Works and Wax Atelier Collaborative Production case study Wax:Works was a programme run in partnership with design studio Wax Atelier in 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Its aim was to test whether a production co-operative can be set up that is run by residents, and where designs and orders were provided by Wax Atelier. The programme started with a Discover phase, where 30 residents tried out making a dipped candle and waxed textiles and learnt about Wax Atelier’s vision for a production cooperative. There was then space for 20 interested residents who were able to attend all sessions to enter a three- week long Learn phase. In this phase residents received a small stipend that covered travel expenses to make participation easier. After the Learn phase, residents could apply to join the production team for the final Earn phase. Twelve residents joined the final phase, which included a week of setting up a team and then a five week long production sprint that was paid at London Living Wage and helped Wax Atelier fulfil their Christmas orders. This initial Earn phase tested whether it was beneficial to Wax Atelier as well as residents to work together on production. Due to its success, Wax Atelier continued to work with the Wax:Works participants for more than one year before moving out of Everyone’s Warehouse into their own production space. Due to oversubscription, a selection process with decision points for residents was designed. To join the Learn phase participants filled out a survey to communicate availability and motivation to join. To join the Earn phase, participants were asked to evaluate their own skills and confidence on a bespoke Learning Journey Tool through which they assessed their own development. Ultimately, Wax Atelier selected 12 residents based on skill level, learning development, and ability to work as part of their team. In terms of collaboration, residents learnt how to make products as a collective fulfilling orders coming in from Wax Atelier. Production was possible to do in flexible, part-time shifts, sometimes even from home, making it inclusive but less collaborative. Participants had to make team decisions like how to communicate with each other. It was collectively decided to set up an online Slack channel, as not everyone had a smartphone and could use messaging services. It was used to share inspirations, learnings, rotas, and organise meetings.

Residents encountered a challenge around fair allocation of paid shifts when there was not a clear and process for organising extra shifts. It was solved by helping prioritise work tasks for participants with the lowest number of completed shifts. Team bonding was slow as work was organised around small team shifts, making it hard for the whole team to work together. Because of this, it often took a Programme Designer to facilitate conversations and work through challenges. It was also difficult to integrate a management structure based on quality control with a more collaborative way of working. Despite trying to keep democratic processes intact throughout the production process, meeting production deadlines required significant oversight and quality control by more skilled members of the team, and management structures reverted to hierarchy very quickly. Initially the plan was for the production collective to work independently from Wax Atelier, allowing them to manage their own space and team in a more horizontal way. This was not possible as space constraints meant that the space was shared between Wax:Works participants and Wax Atelier, who needed to increase their admin staff to support their growing business. This contributed to tensions and unhelpful hierarchies within the group, and consequently the Wax:Works team became smaller the following year. Some Wax:Works participants were keen to start their own collective. Every One Every Day provided a budget for product development and advertised a call-out inviting residents to join a new business programme. This also would have helped the existing participants learn business development skills, which they had less exposure to within the working arrangements with Wax Atelier. Unfortunately, not enough new residents signed up to make this a viable programme. This together with reliable income from Wax Atelier, meant there were less incentives for residents to start their own business. Despite these challenges, Wax:Works generated strong business outcomes. The programme successfully scaled a small maker business by providing training and skills development to a group of part-time and flexible workers, many of whom were able to leverage their work experience for future work.

“We are working on a new way of forming businesses and collectives. Rather than sending a CV, having an interview and receiving a Yes or No, we are working together and experiencing each other’s company. So whether we do go through to the next stage or not, we are taking away skills. Rather than gaining nothing, we’re gaining something.” - Participant

Participation Data Programme registration data Sign up reasons

Disability

Ethnicity

Other

Starting a business

Meeting people

Improving skills

Employment and income

Starting a collboartive business

Learning a new skill

Joining a community

Yes (7%) No (86%)

“I love how we came together and bonded whilst creating beautiful natural products. In the world today we are losing the connection with one another on a deeper and more profound level, and the art of working with natural materials, following old ways of doing can create a wonderful atmosphere of togetherness. This is what has brought me to this co-operative adventure of Wax:Works.” - Participant

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Prefer not to say (7%)

White or White British (43%)

Asian or Asian British (14%)

Mixed (13%)

Other (4%)

Black or Black British (27%)

“After enduring long term mental health conditions I realised that I needed a creative outlet, which I had long abandoned when life got in the way. Wax:Works affords me the opportunity to explore and develop my creative talents further, and it connects me to other inspiring members of the community. Wax:Works for me has been an Oasis in the midst of COVID-19.” - Participant

Timeline of the programme

Participant sign ups

Discover phase 1 week Taster workshops

Decision whether to apply

Participants in Discover phase

Learn phase 5 weeks Technical workshops

Learning journey documentation Interviews and decision on final team

Set up phase 1 week Team building

Shift rota co-ordination

Participants in Learn phase

Participants in Earn phase

Types of products made

Participants who started or developed their own business

Earn Phase 5 weeks Fulfilling product orders

Months of collaborative production partnership

Evaluation and team decision on the future

£8823 Revenue generated (5 weeks)

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Model 4: Collaborative Shop Evaluation In the Collaborative Shop model, two types of programmes were tested, a co-operative coffee shop and a retail pop-up shop. These programmes invited residents to complete a Learn phase to develop retail skills and then test these skills at pop-up shops with the possibility of developing a permanent shop.

Coffee:Works and Grounded

The Good House

Residents learnt barista skills as well as how to set up a coffee shop and cafe. Later they could apply to run the cafe, called Grounded, for a trial period of ten months and earn London Living Wage.

A pop-up shop space for residents to sell their products together. The concept was an experiential retail space with free making workshops and an exhibition area, both themed around circular, essential products and sustainable making and repair. The Good House was open for two months.

Strengths •

Offers multiple roles and responsibilities that require different strengths, from team co o rd i n a t i o n a n d co m m u n i c a t i o n to production and financial management. This allows a diversity of residents to be involved based on abilities and interests;

•

Provides part-time, flexible work and strong retail experience;

•

Provides a valuable model for investors or existing businesses that want to achieve social outcomes focussed on diversity and inclusivity as well as financial outcomes.

•

Incubates a team that shares responsibilities, rewards and ownership, and co-develops processes and practices to operate as a nonhierarchical, collaborative, and equal team.

•

Subsidies required to cover costs of rent, materials, and wages during initial years of business;

•

Balancing the provision of support with creating autonomy. The Programme Designer has to constantly assess when and how to support while also enabling independence;

•

Helping residents maintain a learning and growth mindset beyond the initial programme to generate commitment to longer-term business outcomes;

•

Creating incentives for residents to develop the business. The two programmes secured grants for subsidies, but did not set up economic incentives for participants to put in extra time for business development;

Challenges

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Summary Inclusivity and accessibility

The Good House trading collective used the government Kickstart scheme to create opportunities for young people in receipt of Universal Credit to design, make, and sell sustainable and essential products. This was a rare model for Every One Every Day, which always tries to be inclusive of everyone. In contrast, Coffee:Works was open to all residents and encouraged participation by enabling anyone to join the Discover phase before applying to the next phase of the programme. Inclusivity was further supported through financial subsidy for travel and time. A selection process was used to identify eight team members to run the cafe. This process was co-designed with residents and was based on a combination of peer nominations, commitment, and ability to do shift work, as well as a demonstration of individual skills and key attributes.

Collaborative participation outcomes

The open and inclusive recruitment process, the shared goal, and the experience of learning and trading to g et h e r d eve l o p e d st ro n g bridging social capital amongst a group of diverse residents who were unlikely to have connected outside of the programme. The success of this model depended on how well residents worked together as a team. The programmes focused on building team skills, introducing collaborative or consent-based decision making processes, setting up working groups, and creating flexible roles, shared rotas as well as operational and HR processes such as handovers, reflections, and learning journey assessments.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Sharing responsibility for running the cafe created part-time, flexible work for residents who had a variety of other responsibilities, including other jobs, caring, and childcare. It also meant residents could do part-time work whilst still receiving benefits. For some this was their first employment.

Business outcomes

The Good House tested whether a concept shop for sustainable and essential products together with a workshop and exhibition space would be viable. During the two months it was open, The Good House helped young people learn how to work together on a rota to sell products and teach others to make through a series of workshops. Whilst the traffic of the shop was high due to the welcoming atmosphere, the free workshops, the exhibition and its location within a shopping centre, sales were low and it did not create enough takings to generate a sustainable business model. It is hypothesised that the price points for goods sold in the shop were too high for the customer base of the shopping centre. Coffee:Works and Grounded created a model for training and supporting residents to run a cooperative coffee shop. Because the coffee shop is subsidised by a developer to help generate commercial activity in a new development, the foot traffic is still too low to predict whether Grounded can become a long-term sustainable business.

Lessons for adaptation

Developing the right incentives for residents to feel motivated and committed to keep learning and growing t h e b u s i n e s s. T h e approach of providing secured hourly wages for shifts limits residents’ interest in investing in the long term. If Grounded is able to generate more sales through increased foot traffic, there will be an opportunity to provide ownership equity of the co-operative business. Also, the concept of a co-operative business was not widely understood, but generated excitement and motivation. Working with a co-operative development agency or arranging mentorship with an existing co-operative is helpful to provide opportunities to learn about co-operative goals and culture, legal requirements, and collaborative management.

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Coffee:Works and Grounded Collaborative Shop case study Coffee:Works was a programme for residents to learn barista skills and how to run a cafe. Residents who went through the programme could apply to jointly run a co-operative cafe for 10 months, earning London Living Wage. The programme invited 20 residents to join a Discover phase with coffee-making taster workshops. Following this, residents could apply for one of 16 places to join a four-week long Learn phase and two weeks of setting up before launching the cafe. One month into trading, the initial team was reduced to a final eight who were selected to keep operating and managing the cafe for the initial 10 months. This selection was based on a framework and selfassessment tool describing the skills, experiences, and attributes needed to be a great team member of Grounded. The framework included technical skills, customer service, teamwork and commitment, and outlined what was required at minimum, advanced, and expert levels. Participants were invited to recommend up to three fellow participants for the final team, and doing so reflect on complementary strengths needed within the team. Because the selection process was codesigned, residents felt agency in the process— although it was clearly very disappointing to those who were not selected. This project was a partnership with local developer Barking Riverside Limited (BRL) to help open and activate a newly built community ecology centre for the surrounding area. Grounded launched in July 2021 and twice secured a subsidy from the developer to cover costs and wages until summer 2024, with the potential for continued support when the business became viable. The group was quite diverse, with residents of different ages, backgrounds, skills, and confidence levels. Some joined because they love coffee, others because they were looking for employment. Some had lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. For some, the cafe was their first job and a way to gain experience and additional income alongside benefits. Due to its flexible nature in sharing shifts, and having a maximum of two shifts per week, it allowed residents to fit this in with other responsibilities. Strong collaboration is needed to make the Collaborative Shop model work.

This was achieved by designing a programme where residents worked together intensely over seven weeks. In working together toward a shared mission, they practised learning together, supporting each other, solving problems, completing tasks, and making decisions collaboratively along the way. For example, they decided on the menu, how to set prices, where to store cups, glasses and stock, and how to assess and manage safety. The model allowed for different strengths and peer support whilst also framing everything as a learning experience. For some residents, their learning journey started working at the cafe as their first job and one and half years later, they are creating and presenting monthly financial and health and safety reports, often times to the developer’s head of finance. The Grounded team set up working groups (called ‘cooperative committees’) on hygiene, communications, stock, and finance. They learnt iteratively how to self-manage as a small team, and the different strengths amongst the team have often resulted in them taking leadership and responsibility over key areas such as operational spreadsheets, daily checks, rotas, or handover notes. Beyond the initial programme the Grounded team received support in developing more traditional business skills, such as writing a business plan and pitch, sales analysis, communication strategies, and co-designing hot food options. In 2022, The Wilds won the regional and national Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Community Benefit Award, which recognised the resident-led cooperative cafe. At the time of writing, Grounded has been operating for two years. It has created part-time, flexible work for eight residents, trained three new staff members, and sales are increasing. As the population grows in the local area, there is the prospect of significant increases in footfall, which would help increase the customer base. In 2023, Grounded will seek to incorporate. To support this, Grounded received a local business development support programme and grant from BDGiving.

“These programmes gave us the confidence and some of the practical skills and practical experience in converting our ideas into a reality.” - Participant “Everyone has input, so much knowledge and wisdom and their own experiences and what I love is how humble everyone is. I’ve also learnt that one should be understanding as everyone learns at different paces and different ways.” - Participant

Participation Data Programme registration data Sign up reasons

Age

Ethnicity

Starting your own business

Getting to know new people

Improving skills

Employment and in come

Starting a collboartive business

Joining a community

Learning a new skill

10-19 (5%)

50-59 (18%)

19-29 (13%)

60-69 (0%)

30-39 (45%)

70 - 79 (0%)

40 - 49 (18%)

White or White British (26%)

Asian or Asian British (34%)

Mixed (11%)

Other (0%)

Black or Black British (29%)

“A few of us on the stock team met up after the cafe closed a couple of weeks ago to count stock and discuss reordering. We talked together as a team about moving forward with new ideas, new products to sell, about customer feedback that had been received about certain items and it really felt like we were all super committed to making this work and understanding of each other’s input. At that meeting I felt like we worked so well together as a team and the processes that we had developed and put in place with stock counting and ordering etc. Over the past few weeks were really coming together. It felt so good!” - Participant

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Timeline of the programme

Programme cycle

Discover phase 1 week Taster workshops Decision whether to apply

Learn phase 1 month

Technical workshops

Learning journey documentation

Menu design

Set up phase 2 week Cafe setup Supplier set up

Team building

Shared shift rota Evaluation and decision on final team

Operate phase 2 years and ongoing

Participants in Discover phase

Participants in Learn and Earn phase

Participants in final team

New staff members trained since launch

Earn phase 1 month

Working groups Business planning

Incorporation

Months of trading since the launch

Successful business plans or funding pitches

£66,056 Revenue generated (July 2021 - April 2023)

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Observations and Reflections 1

Collaborative business programmes built strong relationships and bridging social capital

The programmes bring together diverse groups of residents with shared interests in learning new skills. Residents work collaboratively, providing mutual support and building friendships. This creates a sense of community and social capital, both bonding and bridging, which is highly valued by residents.

The programmes offer an opportunity to learn important business skills quickly, allowing the fast prototyping of concepts and products, and gaining insights by test-trading, without the need to take on personal risk. The inclusive design supported hundreds of residents try something new, gain confidence, refine their products, test trade, and convert their ideas into a reality.

“I have loved working with the group and feel like we have grown so much together as a team. It’s been so lovely to forge friendships and although at times there have been ups and downs, I see us all as a little family now. It’s a wonderful thing having the help and support from everyone in the group and I hope I have been a helpful and supportive team member too.”

Collaborative business programmes built strong participation outcomes, particularly peer-to-peer learning and collective action Programmes were designed to see if a group of diverse residents could collaboratively learn and work together. All programmes had aspects of peer-topeer learning and required groups to make decisions together, organise tasks and responsibilities amongst themselves, and benefit from working together.

Collaborative business programmes fill an important gap in social infrastructure between neighbourhood activities and formal education and support opportunities The programmes help residents learn skills, gain confidence, and build networks. These programmes are more accessible and inclusive than formal education, allowing participants to develop and test ideas for products and businesses that are good for their neighbourhoods. They are designed to be inclusive so they can fit around people’s lives, removing barriers to involvement for groups who often are unable to participate. Approximately 30% of participants joined more than one programme with one resident joining 16 programmes.

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

These models helped participants learn important business skills quickly and with little risk and financial investment

“Doing the Coffee:Works Learn phase and then actually working in a cafe, was one of the most amazing periods of my life. It’s the next level of learning and experiencing the learning into real life practice. These programmes gave us the confidence and some of the practical skills and experience to convert our ideas into a reality.”

To generate more business outcomes, partnerships and integration into the existing learning and business systems of a place are necessary Every One Every Day’s collaborative business programmes have created business outcomes, but follow-up support is clearly needed to help participants and their businesses take the next step. Partnerships with potential funders and integration into the existing business development support entities is necessary to make these businesses self sufficient and sustainable. The platform approach could be further iterated to provide continued business development support and collaborations among start-ups at an affordable cost and lower individual risk. Some early tests were made through the Co-op School, a programme that introduced co-operative and community interest company models and its benefits to residents. “I think it gives you confidence, it helps to raise you to a new level. Before that, you think you couldn't do something, but once you start going on that learning journey, you start feeling like you can do it and then you get ideas of other things you'd like to do and do more and just to raise it up more of a level. So, the support needs to be on every level, to help with that. If you see what I'm saying? Because there's a lot of support at the beginning, but then going on, it needs to, definitely, keep going.”

Each model builds upon the others, testing different aspects, and none of them is superior to the others The first programmes tested the Collaborative Brand model, which demonstrated a highly inclusive way for individual residents to learn new skills and develop their own product and business ideas. The Collaborative Design model was built to test whether a more collaborative approach could work, where residents would design product and business ideas together as a team. Both models emphasised designing as an essential element within the process. This highlighted challenges regarding product quality and designing as a skill that needs to be learned in addition to technical skills. Hence, the Collaborative Production model was developed to test an approach where residents focused on learning technical skills and production methods. The Collaborative Shop model tested whether the inclusive and collaborative approach could create a more permanent shop business, where residents also needed to learn more traditional business skills like business planning and production models.

The participation platform is the vehicle for collaborative business programmes to test and implement new approaches The integration of this approach within the overall participation platform, specifically the emphasis on iteration, enabled the emergence of new models and approaches over time and in response to external developments. An example is the adaptation of the approach to the conditions thrown up by the COVID-19 Pandemic, which drove a rethink about what was produced by the local economic systems, as well as how they are produced. The result was a new set of product design principles which guided the development of the Collaborative Production and Collaborative Shop models.

Product Principles

Everyday items

Simple to make

Open source

Inclusive

Affordable

Co-created

The framing of ‘Collaborative Business’ excites residents but also raises expectations that are not always met Some residents' expectations were not met by their experience of the programmes despite experiencing participation outcomes. This raises the question of whether naming the programmes 'collaborative learning programmes' could excite residents and drive participation in similar ways, whilst managing expectations and focusing on learning rather than only business outcomes.

Regenerative

Healthy

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

Timeline In total, 58 call-outs for collaborative business programmes were made with 42 programmes going ahead. Some programmes ran multiple times, but no two programmes were designed and delivered in the same way, rather each programme was built iteratively upon lessons from previous ones after a developmental evaluation process.

2018

Design and prototypes of collaborative business programmes

Some programmes did not make it to the Sell phase, in most cases this was due to either low interest amongst residents or due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2019

2020

Iterations and scaling of programmes and models

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Spring

Pop up workshop

Work-Inprogress

Talking business

Collaborative business workshop

Co-op school

Business surgeries

Designer week

Rock Paper Scissors x 3 Pantry x 3 Imagination Space x 2 Everyone’s Kitchen Launch Lab Sprint

Bowled x 2 Knit Sauced Graphic Slab Super Cake Capsule Collection Future Food

Designed to Collaborate | Collaborative Business Programmes

Key Coding Collaborative Brand model Collaborative Design model Collaborative Production model Collaborative Shop model Learning programmes

Contraction due to COVID-19, design of Essential Living

Autumn

2021 Spring

Re-emerging with a focus on Essential Living and livelihoods

Summer

Autumn

Essential:Works

2022

Focus on learning programmes

Spring

Summer

Essential: Works

Maker meet ups

Autumn

Wax:Works Essential:Works - Kickstart Programme: Homewares, Food, Fabric

Re:Works Wax:Works Baked:Works Paper:Works

The Good House

Coffee: Works and Grounded Maker-in-Training: Ceramics Wood Fabric Gardening Plastic Baking Cooking

Maker-inTraining: Digital

Food:Works

Collaborative Business Programmes | Designed to Collaborate

This report is the first comprehensive account of the collaborative business programmes developed as part of the Every One Every Day project in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham over five years, involving over 400 residents. Between 2018 and 2022, a total of 42 programmes took place. This repor t includes descriptions of the different models, their design, implementation, and evaluation. Designed to Collaborate highlights the transformative impact that these programmes had on individuals and the community.

It describes how these programmes built friendships, networks, collective agency, as well as social and economic capital. The insights and lessons shared in this report are recommended for those working on city leadership, urban policy and strategy, community and neighbourhood development, skills and employment development, and the built environment.