Collaboration as an act of resistance (part one)
Could we really change the world, take a stand for the injustices out there just by working differently? No one will deny collaboration is a good thing. But do we really know what it means to collaborate? Are we really doing it with purpose and meaning? Or has collaboration become just another buzz word? A standard definition of collaboration is:
“working with and relying on others to get something done.”
I don’t find that particularly inspiring and it doesn’t seem that different to another buzz word — teamwork. Teamwork wins football games, builds IKEA furniture (arguments aside) and ensures successful surgical procedures. Teamwork is valuable and necessary but is it really the full extent of collaboration?
In the purpose-led, socially-conscious sector I believe that our ability to collaborate and the extent to which we do it is what really makes a difference in the world, perhaps more so than the product or service we have designed and created. Goodmakers do the work they do because we are passionate about making the world a better place. We see a disconnect between how the world is and how we think it could and should be. We are so aware of the broken relationship between each other and the world we inhabit. We hope our efforts will bridge that gap, provide alternative ways of being or provide solutions to the problems we see.
Somehow, sometimes it doesn’t quite feel enough.
Perhaps we can add in another ingredient — collaboration.
Regardless of our individual or collective transformative ideas, I believe the practice (and I do believe it is a practice) of collaboration is not only a true act of resistance but that of healing and restoration.
Why is this an act of resistance? The pull of capitalism and individualism is strong. Competition and demand drive prices, wages and arguably shapes the social contract we have with each other. Regardless of how we feel or relate to capitalism we cannot deny that there are consequences to this system. For example, the nature of competition dictates there will always be losers. A fixation on price and profit opens the way for exploitation of people and the planet. How does collaboration resist or counteract this? Let’s begin by considering what the world would look like without collaboration. People are isolated, lonely, suspicious of each other, trust is non-existent, winners take all, resources are squandered, ‘every man, woman and child for themselves’ is the common mantra. Relationships are broken, enemies are greater in number than friends and teams only ever consist of contracted individuals with the common goal of receiving payment for work done.
Unfortunately, this isn’t just a ‘what-if?’, it is our reality. Individual success is celebrated more than collaborative success, protecting intellectual property rights is a real and lucrative part of our legal system, we write and sign contracts with extensive Ts and Cs for nearly every part of life, from downloading apps to getting married and we second guess the person or organisation that offers us something for ‘free.’
A collaborative world would look quite different. We would share more, smile more, learn more, be more empathetic and we will certainly create and innovate more and not be hampered by a perceived lack of resources to make ideas happen. Suspicion, mistrust, and isolation are blockers of creativity. When these blockers are removed, trust, connection, abundance and inspiration can flow. The image of the lightbulb has become shorthand for an idea, inspiration and imagination. Most people think that Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb. A lone inventor, who woke up one morning with the sketch of a lightbulb in a cloud above his head and set to making his idea a reality. The real story you can read in many places, but one being Steven Johnson’s book, How We Got to Now: Six Inventions That Made the Modern World. Here Johnson tells us that some inventors had already created a lightbulb years before Edison. Edison’s task was to create one where the filament lasted longer than five minutes and he did this not with a solitary flash of genius but with a group of people working together in a laboratory, known as Edison’s Labs. What we can credit Edison with is his ability to make teams creative and collaborative.
We can read books aplenty on creating collaborative cultures and tasking our leaders and organisations to embrace collaboration but if we really value it, and we want to see more of it then perhaps as individuals we need to practice and demonstrate it. If collaboration is more than teamwork and has the potential to change the world, how do we know if we’re doing it? How as individuals can we change to be more collaborative to encourage ourselves and others to flourish?
I believe there are three areas we can work on to achieve this: Vulnerability, trust and generosity.
1. Vulnerability
Vulnerability will look different for different people and personalities. For those used to being self-reliant, they may need to begin with a reality check about their abilities and capabilities even before acknowledging they need collaborators. If you think you have all the answers, can do all the jobs and have all the ideas are you really being honest with yourself? Others might need to be less afraid to show emotion. Sharing your need for more input, or your passion, anger and frustration might be just thing to attract your most loyal collaborator.
We might need to be more vulnerable with our ideas and our dreams. Another concept Steven Johnson talks about is the ‘half hunch’. His research has proved that many of the innovations that have changed the world arose out of several peoples ‘half hunches’ and failed experiments colliding and forming complete ideas. If we hold on too tightly to these ideas or hunches, we might squeeze the life out of them. Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Big Magic, with a glint in her eye, will tell you that a mistreated idea will pack its bag and find someone else to make itself known in the world.
One of the participants of a course I run, Make Good, came with the wonderful idea to create a range of cards aimed at women and girls, that rather than compound the flat messages that girls are pretty, fabulous and sparkly, they are also fierce, creative and full of potential. The course allowed her to work on the idea and develop it further. But to get Out of the Box cards really off the ground, Jenny needed to practice vulnerability by sharing her passion for this idea and what she needed for this thing to happen. By doing so she found her co-conspirators that believed in her and the idea so much they generously give their time and expertise to this endeavour.
All this vulnerability might make some feel that they are opening themselves up for being taken advantage of. It doesn’t have to be this way, Brené Brown talks about us having strong backs, soft fronts and wild hearts. She is not suggesting we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of but rather that in knowing our boundaries and foundations we can be flexible, express feelings and acknowledge need then take risks. Even by acknowledging and communicating the smallest of needs gives others the opportunity they need to help meet that need or share their own.
2. Trust
What does it look like to practice trust? Start by considering your worldview. What are your foundational beliefs about people? This is an excerpt from Airbnb’s website:
Airbnb is a business fueled by trust. When we started Airbnb in 2008, people said it would never work. “Strangers will never trust one another,” they said. But we believed that people are fundamentally good and that we could design a system for strangers to trust one another. Our real innovation is not allowing people to book a home; it’s designing a framework to allow millions of people to trust one another.
For the most part, guests and homeowners trusting each other have revolutionised the tourist industry. However, the magic of Airbnb is being somewhat dampened by the increasing lists of ‘rules’, verification processes and the drive for profit by holiday homeowners and professional Airbnb Hosts, which makes it an increasingly transactional experience and the trust that once existed is being slowly eroded. What is true is that the sharing economy is growing but as the monetisation, commercialisation and expansion go up, the trust needed to operate it goes down. One way to mitigate this is to start small. Extend your trust to people you have connections to, clients, friends of friends, neighbours, recommendations from other trusted sources. If you find trusting strangers tricky, maybe start by engaging in an app like Nextdoor. Someone, one of your neighbours, will post a need to borrow a bike while theirs gets fixed and maybe you could lend them yours? Grow your sphere of trust as you feel ready.
Trust is something we can get better at over time. As we practice it and reap the rewards, we more easily do it again and again. When we trust and we are disappointed we build resilience, we learn from that experience and maybe we do things differently a second time. Doing things differently does not mean not trusting. It might just mean learning a bit more about the person or organisation before embarking on a partnership. Are you both clear about Managing risk can also get more intuitive? Weighing up the gain of trusting versus not trusting, considering what is the worst that could happen but then most importantly the likelihood of that happening. Don’t throw out the contract or not write one but consider contracts as safety nets that are stored in the bottom drawer, rather than a veil (or filter) through which a relationship is conducted.
Nearly 10 years ago I was starting a catering social enterprise, working with women experiencing homelessness in London. During a networking event where I talked about this project, one of the attendees, a friend of a friend, mentioned she had met someone who was providing lunches at a swanky new co-working space in Westminster wanting to start a catering social enterprise. My first thought was not, “oh crikey, competition!” But, “how interesting, I’d love her number!”
I met Naomi and discovered we shared a similar vision for how social enterprise could be an amazing vehicle for vulnerable women to find empowerment and hope. She needed a kitchen and a place to work safely with her trainees. I had a commercial kitchen, some start-up funds and a group of eager women, but I didn’t have any catering experience or access to the events market in London — Naomi did. Within a week we started working together on what was one of the most rewarding ventures I have ever undertaken. Made even the more rewarding because of our relationship and friendship. It became so much more than just a swapping of resources. The project is still running but Naomi and I have gone on to do other projects in similar fields. I don’t get to see Naomi nearly as often as I would like but I still cherish this relationship and time spent working together as one of the most special in my career.
3. Generosity
As eluded to earlier, true collaboration is more than just a transaction of goods or services. There is a sense of something being shared, this could be shared trust or shared risk or shared vision as well as shared resources. This means that a collaborative relationship at least must be reciprocal but at most, it could be generous.
To ensure a collaborative relationship does not feel transactional or indeed exploitative, looking for opportunities for generosity might guard against this.
Rather than generosity, sceptics might term this ‘added value’ or at worst ‘bad business sense’. The idea that you’re giving more than what is expected can only be for repeat business or because you failed to price something correctly in the first instance. This is not what I mean by generosity. The key to practising generosity that won’t leave you feeling exploited or overworked is to only give what have, not what you don’t, and just as important, to not expect something back. Being generous is not just giving away money. It can be time, ideas, equipment or contacts. Making an introduction to someone on behalf of someone else can be incredibly trusting and generous. I have experienced the lawyer billing to the minute and the counsellor ushering me out her door after my 50 minutes is up mid sob. I have also experienced coaches and mentors who gladly give me that extra 10 minutes (or more), that extra phone call, extra proofread. I know which way of working inspires me to do the same to those I interact with. Even in busy periods, I have been able to find the time to have a coffee with someone working on their idea for a new social enterprise and offer advice and support, because I know some people will do the same for me.
I am prepared to give more than I expect to get but I still hope that the generosity might be returned in some way at some time, but it might not come from the same individual or in a way I could imagine. I’m operating with an abundant mindset, that my resources are not finite or only mine to steward, they are ours. Stephen Covey coined the terms scarcity and abundant mindset. More as a way of viewing success than generosity but he says:
People with the Scarcity Mentality see life as having only so much. As though there were only one pie out there and if someone were to get a big piece of pie, it would mean less for everybody else…
The Abundance Mentality…flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there, enough to spare for everybody…It opens possibilities, options, alternatives and creativity.
Generosity is holding what you do have less tightly. Can you see now why this is such an act of resistance to the way of the world?