I am collaborative

         There's just something about teaming up with another person, or people, and working on something together that is just so much fun.  Collective creative energy mingling together to create something new.  Collaboration is not without its hardships, but it can be a great opportunity not only to forge new bonds, but to expand your mind and learn something from another's perspective.

        Now I know most of us have had to do a group project before in school, but I'm not taking from those experiences when I discuss collaboration.  For me, the earliest and some of the best memories I have of collaborating goes back to good ol' two player couch co-op games.  One of my best friendships was forged this way.  It's misleading because they call the games co-op, for co-operative, and sure there is co-operation involved, but collaboration is also a big part of the experience.  Collaboration is about both wanting to reach a desired outcome, where as cooperation is about obtaining help to complete your own personal goal.  So as much as our games are called co-op, they're really games of collaboration.  What was it that we achieved together you may ask?  The obvious one is that we beat the game, the greatest achievement was building a lasting friendship that started on the pretense of just playing a game, but was actually about sharing a common interest and discovering that we had much more in common.

        My biggest sense of collaboration has been in my business.  From its conception I have been collaborating with various people.  I collaborated with an investor to get the idea up and running and to make sure that I had a plan in place to meet my overhead costs.  I collaborated with an interior designer to create a space for all to enjoy and that flowed well; a space that reflected who I was as a business owner.  I constantly collaborate with my front-end team to make sure that both they and our customers are taken care of and to make sure that our daily business operations go smoothly.  I collaborate still with my practitioners to ensure that we are giving the best care we can, while creating an environment where we can take care of each other too. Even in my day to day, I am collaborating with my clients to get them feeling better, whatever the ailment may be.

        Collaboration takes place within the Kwoon too.  Be it creating a team form for the tiger challenge, putting together a demo, or creating a dragon dance.  For me, it is the dragon dancing that I feel the most amount of collaboration.  There is a lot of working parts to the dragon, and each individual is responsible for their segment, but all together we make the dragon come to life.  Every piece of the dragon is important.  Doesn't matter if you're the head, tail, or any other piece, all are equally integral to the dance.  We have to collaborate to make it all work, otherwise the dance won't work and we'll have a dragon that is very disconnected.  There is a great sense of accomplishment to be had when a dance comes together, something each individual and the team as a whole should be proud of.

*GIF is taken from a game called It Takes Two*