This study focuses on the early stages of front end of innovation (FEI)
– the idea generation – when creativity plays a major role. Our study
illustrates a case of what happens when a web-based co-creation tool is brought
to two Finnish comprehensive schools and the teachers are invited to create new
ideas and develop each other’s ideas on a topic given by the principal. In both
schools the experiment was executed with very little top-down facilitation or
managerial control which made it possible to observe the creativity of the
teachers in a situation, when no specific management or even facilitation of
the co-creation process was provided. Our findings confirm the importance of
both facilitating and controlling leadership in co-creation processes in school
environment especially in situations, when co-creation takes place in a virtual
space.