We can take in many lessons from music, and this video with Bobby McFerrin and the crowd shows what working together…collaborating…is all about. Listen to the way that the maestro tells his collaborators what he envisions, and then lets it come alive freely amongst all participants. This is the nature of collaboration: the freedom of the association and what that freedom allows to come into being.
As we look around our world over the past year, we’ve seen many examples of collaboration coming to life because of the digital world. We’re in a struggle between what we’ve been used to and what is possible. Will we allow standards to rule our future, or will we be able to use them as bridges to move into what is inspiring about trekking into unknown territories? Or in other words, will we continue to let our fears let stand barriers that can sometimes stop true progress. Progress isn’t always physical. Many times it is overcoming emotional breaks.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this after reading about Ken Ilgunas‘s trek to follow the Keystone XL pipeline. It truly reads as a great learning lesson not only for seeing past the status quo, but of seeing what comes from collaboration. If you read about the families and friends who are joining together to not only learn about the truths (as close as we can get), then you get the sense that we really are not as splintered as we feel. All around us, people are joining hands and minds to create a future that is being built upon the best of our past.
- Spain’s alternative markets
- Greece’s exchange market
- Worker-owned cooperatives
- Marjorie Kelly
- Richard Wolff
And all of these actions stem from one thought that many share:
This is where our real emotions can help prompt us to the right actions, so that this quote becomes a thing of the past. Because one want should never overcome another’s need.
