The art of collaboration

Consensus is valid only to the extent to which each individual asserts his own relation to the fact and retain his individuality. There can be no genuine agreement, unless each adheres to the testimony of his experience and steadfastly maintains his hold on reality. We can move into the future together with confidence only if each person has told his or her truth about the past and present. Another way of describing it is holographic listening, hearing different stories and rather to see it as a puzzle with different pieces, hear it as a hologram.

 Commit yourself to changing the world. The way to bring the best energy and creativity of those around you, is to commit yourself to serve a larger purpose.

Listen to what wants to change in the world. You have to be able to sense what is trying to be born in the world, to what you have to commit yourself.

This can be done in three steps; first: observe the world through the eyes of customers, of other players, of competitors, of heretics, to see new possibilities and new scenarios. Second; see yourself in the mirror, your own role and influence, your own part in the dance, to be reflective to see your own seeing. Third: be able to see the place where looking at the world and looking at yourself are the same, to see the underlying oneness.

My capacity to change the world depends on my level of personal development: my sense of my own vocation and my commitment to it, the range of my seeing and sensing. And, if you can’t see yourself in the picture, then by definition you have no lever to change the world: if you are not a part of the problem, you cannot be part of the solution. An entrepreneur who is committed to changing the world, but who can’t listen to what wants to change, is a tycoon. Our capacity to see and change the world co-evolves with our capacity to see and change ourselves.

Text from Kahane, A. 2000. Changing the world: The power of engagement. Perspectives on Business and Global Change 14(4): 79-90.