For me, with Collaborative Innovation, there’s only one thing: finding common ground, common identity, listening generously to each other talk, asking questions, and even for a few moments, finding a new freedom to choose. 

My biggest barrier is my own sense of self-importance; what I think I already know, for sure. The only refuge I’ve found from my own self-importance is to know that there is no refuge, no escape, except to transform myself into the refuge of “us”, the power and the release of being together and creating together. 

Collaborative Innovation comes with the experience of “us.”  

What happens is that I usually discover that my emotional and mental obstacles aren’t real. In World War Two, in the battle for Stalingrad, Vasily Chuikov said, “ …, he ordered us to stand fast and save Stalingrad. So, we knew then that it was ‘do or die’. We could not retreat. It was just “us”.

I talk every week to my friend Tony Turnbull and I can’t tell where I stop and he begins. We connect and move on, connect and move on, go deep, never get stuck, and move to the next thing . The experience is all “us”. There’s no win-lose, dominant-avoid domination, self-importance. Fear or caution never stops us. It’s a place of creativity. His identity and my identity don’t get in the way. What’s actually there is “us”. It’s the experience of Collaborative Innovation.

Usually, when I’m with people, it feels like “I am not you.” This never happens with Tony, even when our opinions are different. Sometimes, there is even a momentary possibility of a world that can work for everybody. Years ago this was never true for me. I never felt safe enough, relaxed enough, to combine intention and flow. I was an intention freak, pressing my goals, avoiding fears, and looking outside myself for the cause of things and the answers I didn’t have.

The magic seems to come from being awake to what’s happening in this exact moment, not awake to what’s happened in the past, or what I want in the future. Just being there. No agenda. I think it’s a lifelong practice. I don’t know if anybody gets there, if there even really is a ‘there.’ But it’s an experience of freedom and real choice I’ve never been capable of before. It’s a gift.

There were bits and pieces and glimmers of this over the years, and there were moments that put the power into an application in my own life. Doing a program at the Gestalt Institute in Cleveland opened my eyes to ideas and practices, and ways to behave I’d never heard before, that made sense of my life and the world in a thrilling new way.

As I look back, there were moments and periods of Collaborative Innovation, not from any plan I had, but all in a way I couldn’t explain, didn’t even try, and they opened up a universe of possibilities that wasn’t there before.

Some years ago, I was part of and a coach for The National Peace Academy Campaign. The vision was to create a National Academy at the level of West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy, which was devoted to research, practice, and action in nonviolent dispute resolution, in the United States and around the world. The idea was to create a national ethic of waging peace with equal conviction to our capacity for violence and war.        

On one hand, it seemed like we were Don Quixotes, Tilting at Windmills while on the other hand embodying a noble, worthwhile and committed purpose with leaders who really meant it. While we didn’t accomplish the vision of a nationwide American commitment to peacemaking, it was a visible step in the right direction.

Congress eventually passed a bill to create the National Institute of Peace. It’s now a beautiful building located on the Washington Mall, and does extensive global conflict resolution, research, and facilitation. This was Collaborative Innovation, both imperfect and at its best.

Over several years, there was passionate Curiosity about what was true and what would help the cause. Curiosity is the urge to know more about something. Being Curious is interest in others’ concerns, wondering, ready to poke around and figure something out.       

In mathematics, a square is the result of multiplying a number by itself, e.g. two times two. In Curiosity, among individuals or groups, Curiosity is squaring the acceleration of mutual wonder, such that “I” becomes “Us.” 

If there is just one thing about Collaborative Innovation for me, it’s that energy, a kind of vibrational internal energy in my body. It is what I trust, and need to trust, to invent and sustain something really new. 

Albert Einstein said, “I’m not smarter than anyone else. I’m just way more curious.”   

What does curiosity consist of?

•  Curiosity for information
•  Curiosity for play
•  Curiosity for possibility and meaning 

Curiosity can be applied to any situation with three simple steps:

•  Be interested: “That’s interesting.”
•  Ask: “What is this really about?”
•  Wonder: “What can I create with this?”

Above all, Curiosity creates the experience of “us”. This is the Philosopher’s Stone, which turns the base metal of people’s fear and reactions into gold.

Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man on the moon, said it all:

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