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#CuriousCollab, Creativity and Cooperation: It’s All About Empathy in a Digital World
This June, I launched a creative venture in 2.0 mode, stretching wider with MindWise — a consultancy that’s driven by collaboration and curiosity. The design above serves as a wellspring for me throughout this process… Art nouveau meets modernity; past and present merge and advance to future, and the kaleidoscope of connections illuminates. In the center of the wheel, two birds, facing out, taking flight, wings outstretched; their tails slightly overlapped, mirrored intention joining as one. Yes, there’s symbolism here.
My number one reminder, in the midst of this process of expanding an enterprise: it’s all about connections and relationships; all about collaboration and cooperation. Creativity works the same way, for me — it’s what I call (and tweet!) #curiouscollab. It seems to be about taking what I know, and collecting and connecting with what others know; seeking new knowledge out of a curious drive, and creating new meaning and new connections that are valuable. Many people have been using the word “tribe” to represent their web of connections — my tribe seems to be the world, and I allow my own curiosity and empathy to let me step into others’ shoes, see from their views, and learn… It’s as much about differences as it is about similarities. And, by working together for a form of good — by analyzing and questioning and re-interpreting, we can collectively create something better.
In fact, we might call this form of creativity innovation if it serves to make society better. George Couros does just that in his book The Innovator’s Mindset: “Innovation can come from either “invention” (something totally new) or “iteration” (a change of something that already exists), but if it does not meet the idea of “new and better,” it is not innovative.”
Creativity is not a new topic… it’s been a focus for decades, as innovators look to modernize, improve, express and produce, running the gamut from whimsical to practical, across the arts and sciences alike. A quick entry into Google’s Ngram engine yields a rather steady rise in the terms “creativity” and “creative”…
