Alright — Stop! Collaborate and Listen: Radical Collaboration is the New Normal
“The Stand”, “The Road”, and “The Walking Dead” got it wrong about humanity and oddly enough Vanilla Ice got it right. Apocalyptic writers foretold that we would go into survival mode, tear each other apart, and prey upon the vulnerable in the most horrific ways possible. Instead, COVID-19 is forcing us to socialize, collaborate, and care for one another in unprecedented ways.
The old normal was a scarcity mindset where “I win, you lose”, “You win, I lose” reigned supreme. The old normal was internalizing capitalism so that our value as humans was tied to how much we produced. The old normal was creating an economy full of inequities and privilege for the few.
“We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.” Sonya Renee Taylor
Things are beginning to shift. Even though we are physically separated we are more connected than ever before. There is hope. Seven billion humans have collectively quarantined themselves for the sake of the greater good. Yes, there are feelings of disconnection, sadness, and collective trauma. Instead of paralyzing despair, we have found solace in our collective separation. The world is beginning to wake to the idea that stakeholders, those who have vested interest in the communal success of a project/company/community are far more valuable than, shareholders, ie profit over people. At the core of humanity, we just want to belong.
From huge corporations donating millions to COVID relief efforts, to CEO’s taking a pay cut to protect their workers, to Fortune 500 Companies creating grants to support small businesses, to coalitions of people supporting each other in the best way they can. Helping others is one of the best ways to reduce stress, anxiety, learn about other communities, and start creating an economy that works for everyone in the economy.
So where do we start? What are the next steps to collaboration? Anna Burrell, Co-Founder of Twiggs & Co, has some visionary ideas.
- Don’t think of people as the competition. That comes from a scarcity mindset. There is so much abundance in the world with really smart people doing really incredible things. People are proof of the concept that your idea works in the market and are potential teammates. We get to stand on the shoulders of giants.
- Everyone has superpowers. Knowing that people are teammates, rather than competition, there is an immense collective intelligence in any room (or Zoom). What are your superpowers? What is there’s? With our powers, combined- we can be Captain Planet.
- Identify the place of Inequity. There are all kinds of stupid solutions that are false fixes. Find them. Talk about these problems with your new super coalition.
- Yes and. “Yes And” is an improvisational concept that you are always finding a way to agree with someone, a way to continue the conversation, a way to be open and more collaborative.
How do you want to be radically collaborative? What are your superpowers? What are some of the inequities you have seen? How can we come together to create an exponential impact? Let’s start a conversation! Let’s get social — Tweet me @VCD4Good or connect with me on Linkedin. #radicallycollaborative #exponentialimpact
