Creating a thriving organization: co-creation is key
Whether we like it or not, no matter how big or powerful we think we are, none of us has dominion over the universe, and we’d better learn to work with that reality. Co-creation is a powerful tool to help us work with that reality: it’s the wave of the future and the hallmark of a healthy business, organization or society.
What is Co-Creation?
Co-creation is the process of seeing our relationship to one another and to life itself. How do we, differentiated individuals, relate to the collective of which we are a part, whether that collective is the people we work with, those in our family, our country or the world? How do we relate to the forces of the universe, including forces other than people? And how can we support better outcomes, which are for the highest good of all?
Whether intentional or unintentional, co-creation follows the same process, and Becoming Co-Creative is the way we adjust to the realities of that process. Here’s how it works:
We co-create reality with the universe in a subtle dance of intention and allowance. Co-creation is the way the universe operates. Outcomes are the result of the intersection of all intention, including our own. If we consciously choose co-creation, we can overcome our own limitations and experience richer lives and more fulfilling outcomes.
Co-creation is the process of intention and allowance, instead of domination and submission. Easy to say; not so easy to do. First, let’s get a better sense of each element: intention, allowance, and co-creation.
What is Intention?
Intention is the process of focusing our energy on a desired outcome or direction. It is an attempt to impact the universe in such a way as to meet our individual or collective needs for survival, self-expression and wellbeing. Individuals intend, and collectives intend. Everything intends.
What is Allowance?
Allowance is the process of relaxing around reality. It requires us to take a breath and let go of the struggle to impose our will. It facilitates us to examine how the universe has responded to our intention. It leads to new intention. It can lead to the reinforcement of our original intention or to a shift in direction. It leads to our growth. And it always begins with a pause and a willingness to see and hear.
What is Co-Creation?
What occurs in life is the result of the collective intention. Co-creation is the way the universe works. It is the result of the intersection of the intention of all involved. To practice co-creation is to be in harmony with this process. It begins with the acknowledgement that we all have intentions, and that we need to accept that everyone’s intentions will intersect. We intend and allow. Once we are impacted by the response of the universe, we intend and allow again.
Why do I use the word allowance, rather than acceptance? Acceptance can simply mean taking in. For example, I accept your invitation, your love, your donation. Allowance does not necessarily mean that I am taking something in, only that I am allowing that it is. I may not take in your criticism, but I allow it. I may not take in your anger, but I allow it. Allowance contributes to our being in a more neutral place about harmful realities. I cannot fight all the abuse on the planet, I may do my best to help change it, but I must allow it, while it exists. Otherwise I am caught in impotent rage.
How Co-Creation works
Intention, allowance, co-creation. Let’s see how this works. Here’s a simple example. My child is being failed by his teacher, and I think it’s unfair. The teacher won’t listen to me, so I go to the principal. My intention is to get the teacher to pass my child. I talk to the principal. I’m clear and impassioned. But what will be the result? My impact will depend on the intention of the principal. Is the principal willing to listen, or does she already have a fixed perception of my child and the teacher? Is she intending to be open-minded, or is she being impacted by insecurity about her job and an unwillingness to conflict with the staff? Isn’t the outcome also impacted by the totality of my intention? Am I there only to talk and argue my point, because my ego is at stake, or do I want to help my child? If I want to help my child, do I intend to listen in order to discover if there’s something I can learn from the principal? And what of the intention of the child? Does his performance demonstrate an intention to work hard or to slough off? Does my child’s intention bolster my argument with the teacher or undermine it? We can see that the results will depend on the interweaving of the intentions of the child, the principal, and me.
The teacher will factor in as well. If the principal sides with me, she may talk to the teacher. If the teacher’s intention is to be open to whatever is right, the teacher may see my point of view and pass my child, or fail my child but give her more attention. Or, if the teacher feels the need to give in, she may pass my child but be even more resentful or negative toward her. All of the intentions of the rest of us can be blocked or deflected by that of the teacher.
How do I know what will transpire? How do I know what the result of my intention will be? How do I know what will be the result of the intersection of all our intentions? When I connect to any part of the collective, I am exercising my will. I am intending. But I am not determining the outcome. That depends on many other factors. And that’s where allowance comes in.
Co-creation is bringing what I have to the table with whatever intention I have and working with, or allowing, the result, which is dependent on the intention of others. Co-creation teaches me that everything is impacted in the process. When I connect to the collective, my views may change or be reinforced. When I connect to the collective, my direction may be shifted. When I connect to the collective, my goals may be reshaped. When I connect to the collective, it might shift as well.
Learning to Become Co-Creative requires an incredible degree of humility and self-discipline. To keep expressing our intentions, to keep working toward goals and at the same time, to keep learning from others and the universe requires us to understand and accept our connection to the ALL. It requires the humility of being teachable. And it challenges us daily to remember that those who thwart us are “us” as well, because we are an aspect of the collective that defeated “us.”
How Do We Become Co-Creative?
Now that we have briefly described the way people and the universe co-create, how do we become more conscious co-creators with the universe? How do we become more intentional about being co-creative?
- Embrace the experience of intention and allowance.
- Confront our ego’s need for credit and reward.
- Acknowledge that life’s problems are greater than our limited consciousness.
- Realize the value of what others bring.
- Join with others to accomplish that which I cannot achieve myself.
Practicing Becoming Co-Creative brings many gifts. It allows us to look forward to defeats almost as much as victories, because of the lessons we may learn. It allows us to hold on to our faith in the face of adversity. Faith in what? Faith that I may not create my life exactly as I intend, but that with a mature adaptation to life’s curveballs, I can be a student of life until the day I die. I can learn. I can grow. I can evolve.
Practicing Becoming Co-Creative brings us other benefits, as well. It brings us the realization that failure to realize our intention is not a statement of our weakness; it is part of the process of life. It relieves us of the need to prove our power or our rightness, because we aren’t that powerful, and we’re certainly not “right.” It releases our energy, because we’re not constantly butting up against the universe in a futile effort to get our way. It relieves us of the shame of not getting our way and relieves us of the fear of failure. And relieved of that burden, we experience less pain when our hearts’ desires are thwarted.
Sometimes I see the wisdom of the collective, the wisdom of the universe, and I feel at peace about the process of intention and allowance. I realize that by bringing my own views and intentions into play, we as a collective are able to create a fuller and more productive movement of energy. In those moments, I’m glad that I am not the emperor of the universe. Sometimes I do not see the wisdom of the collective, the wisdom of the universe. I believe we are being self-destructive, and I see needless suffering. In those cases, I feel grief. Whichever I feel, however, I know that intention and allowance is how I relate to the universe. I can’t change it, and I’d better make the best of it!
This post is an excerpt from the book, Living with Reality: A Book of Wisdom, by Beth Green, and is taken from Platform 3, Becoming Co-Creative.
Are We a Fit? Take This Short Quiz
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“That’s Not It!”
Have you ever heard words come out of your own mouth that sound really good, but fall flat? Why is that? Somehow, what you are saying and who you are being are not in synch.
Since we’re sentient beings, we frequently notice these subtle discrepancies in ourselves and others, but we rarely do anything about it. We just let it slide by.
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Beth Green has always had a deep rooted commitment to follow her convictions. She’s fearless. She’s bold. And she is a passionate advocate for your potential. Learn more about Beth Green.
Nourishing Our Seeds: Having Faith for the New Year
What makes the new year new? Of course, we can all point to things we want to have or that we want to have happen. But is that truly what makes the new year new?
Sometimes new opportunities or relationships can cheer us and give us hope for the future. But how quickly do our own ugly patterns recur and bring with them the pall of past failures that dampen the promise. If we are not new ourselves, the opportunities are lost, and our future begins to look sadly like our past.
This year, we are committed once again to renewal. And what makes the new year new is us: our growing ability to be fresh in our responses to old challenges and innovative in our response to new ones.
How do we do that? To begin with, we can start by asking new questions. When a familiar situation arises, a situation that we have encountered before and which we find discouraging, we can ask: Is this situation actually the same? Or does it just look similar? Is this similarity real, or am I interpreting it as such?
Supposing after inquiry, we determine that the challenge is the same, then we can still ask new questions: Are all the players really identical to those from the past? Is this current person really the same as my former partner? Perhaps not at all. But even if he or she has similarities to people from the past, am I putting them in a box, or am I giving them space to find and draw on other strengths in themselves? Am I giving them the chance to respond in unexpected ways, or am I reacting to them as though they had already proved their inability to be different?
And what about me? Let’s say that I have given in before, or I’ve tried to overpower and control my partner in the past; let’s say I see myself doing it again. But am I the same? Am I not able to shift to a different behavior, once I really see my patterns dominating? Haven’t I grown?
The fundamental question is: Am I locked in the past? Have I been looking at the elephant in the livingroom for so long, that I am blinded by the image? Is my memory overlaying current reality, so that I cannot see what is actually there?
Let’s take a moment to inventory ourselves. In the past year, how have I changed? What new responses have I been developing, if even at a minimal level? What insights have I achieved? What potentials have I been unleashing?
Can’t I have faith in myself? Faith in my ability to grow? Faith in my ability to change? Faith in my ability to listen where I have been deaf before? Faith in my ability to see where I have been blind? Can’t I have faith in you – whether or not you are a new partner, friend, employer or boss, or you are someone I have known for years? Can’t I believe in the miracle of growth?
When we see the plants sprouting from the ground, we are not surprised, and yet their emergence from the soil is miraculous. If we did not know that the seeds were there, we would not expect them to sprout. And even when those seeds have been planted by the human hand, we cannot know if they will take root and emerge
Seeds have been planted in us, the seeds of change. And it is no more or less miraculous when those seeds take root and burst forth with the youth and vitality of new life. Sometimes these seeds have been consciously planted by us through our participation in programs of growth or through other therapeutic processes. Sometimes these seeds have been planted through the natural course of our lives and the observations and experiences we have had.
No matter how the seeds were planted, let us nurture them. And for that, we need to recognize they are there and take the time and effort to bring them the resources they need to flourish.
Being different can be challenging and requires time, effort and a lot of consciousness. This is equally true for us and for the people around us. We need faith in ourselves to inspire us to provide the nurturance we need to grow, and we need faith in them to offer the crucial ingredients of support that allow a spindly young sprout to truly thrive.
This year, let us have faith in ourselves and one another, faith in our ability to change. Let us recognize our old patterns and believe it possible to be different. Let us see one another’s potential and keep reminding ourselves that our potential is no less real than our patterns. And let us, together, have the courage to risk it all, to throw the dice of life, betting on our capacity to thrive.
Happy New Year!
