A Musing on the Art of Collaboration
I’ve been thinking about compromise.
We are taught that compromise is the secret to getting along. Each person gives a little, each person sacrifices something, and somewhere in the middle, we arrive at an agreement. But what if the middle isn’t where the magic lives? What if, in our eagerness to reach an agreement, we settle for something smaller than either of us imagined?
I’ve begun to think that true collaboration asks something entirely different of us. It asks us to listen—not simply to find the places where we agree, or to prepare a defense of what we believe, but to discover what might be possible because someone else sees the world differently.
An idea is offered. Another person turns it slightly, revealing something its creator hadn’t seen. A new possibility emerges. And suddenly, neither person is defending the idea they brought to the table. They are both reaching toward something neither could have created alone. And, magically, no one has to lose for something extraordinary to be born.
It can be difficult because it requires the courage to offer an idea without insisting that it remain untouched. It also requires the freedom to say, No, that doesn’t feel right. But what if we tried this? With collaboration, the goal is not to win. Nor is it to meet halfway. The goal is to keep building until something emerges that surprises both collaborators.
Compromise finds the middle. Collaboration discovers what lies beyond it. Collective creativity can build new universes.
Isn’t that an extraordinary thought?
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