Collaboration

Excellence is achieved when collaboration is encouraged and promoted.

I got to have a conversation yesterday with a mentor. I was asking, "How do you do that?" And he goes, "Well, it's very intentional."

I've been in rooms with this guy, and people are there, and they're excited to be there and share and collaborate.

When I invite people into a room, and when I ask people to be a part of a conversation, I share with them that their ideas are essential. I'm going to bring a seed, maybe, but all the fertilizer, the water, the sunshine, comes from other people.

If we leave a meeting and all we have left is the seed, and we have the opportunity to grow this big, magical, life-giving plant of an idea, then I didn't bring the right fertilizer. I didn't get suitable water.  I didn't bring the right sunshine. I didn't get the right soil into that meeting.

The difference between collaboration and simple cooperation; cooperation means "I'm just going along with it, I'm listening to whatever you say." Collaboration is based upon sharing expectations. It's our role and our opportunity to share with others the benefits of collaborating. That is an expectation set that starts at the beginning, but it is only left there.

Do you see all of a sudden, the conversation going off the rails?

Hey, please bring it back.

Bring it back to say, "Hey, we're here to share ideas to make each other better."

There's no ego here. My idea is not the best.

If it were the best idea, I would have already done it, but I know I can be better.

That's why it makes me better when you share your ideas with me.

I can only take the seed that I have, and with the fertilizer, the soil, the water, the light that you shine on it, make it all better.