My first job out of college was working as a website designer at a small agency. As a 23-year-old, my perspective on creation was self-centered. School had taught me that ideas come from the minds of single individuals. I remember crafting my homepage designs with care – falling in love with what I was creating. Then I would present my idea, and colleagues and clients would offer feedback. “Let’s change the colors.” “Maybe we should move this section down below the other.” My initial reaction was always irritation. Why are you changing something that I have already decided? I only wanted reinforcement of my ideas, and praise.

Over the years the practice of meditation and the wisdom of mentors have helped me let go of attachment to my own ideas. Today I see collaboration as the silver bullet to producing the most creative and effective products. I use the term collaboration broadly. Sometimes collaboration is myself and my team.  Other times I consult my mom or my kid. Sometimes it’s a walk in the woods and a “conversation” with the trees and the birds that leads to creative ideas.

Moving from a me-centered-creator to a collaborative-creative-facilitator has required me to take ideas seriously. One of my favorite books is Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. She believes ideas are “…a disembodied, energetic life-form. They are completely separate from us, but capable of interacting with us—albeit strangely. Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will.“ This way of interacting with ideas is freeing. Rather than “owning” an idea and being precious about it, I can fully engage with it. Then, when I share it with the world, I must let go and be open to seeing it grow up. Sometimes that means totally scrapping portions of what I’ve done. Other times it means adding new elements, or taking someone’s seed of an idea and merging it with mine.

I’ve been changed by collaboration. I don’t hold on as tightly to concepts. There are time when an idea needs an advocate. Often, though, working with others is an opportunity for me to practice not taking my ideas too seriously. I’ve learned so much through creating with all different kinds of people and their varied communication styles.

Artificial intelligence cannot do this. I have tried collaborating with Chat GPT but the energy isn’t there. There’s something about a conversation – the flow, the pauses, the questions, the unsure answers, the willingness to be wrong, the beautiful alchemy of personalities. I’m really glad to be a human, in partnership with other humans, creating our world together.

‍