Today's word is "Collaboration."
From an improv perspective: Collaborating is all about working together to build our scenes, and to grow our teams. It's such an important skill that CSz WorldWide includes it as one of our core values! I was talking about this with a friend of mine recently, in regards the metaphor "Bring a brick, not the cathedral." On stage, everyone is expected to bring offers and details about the world we're building. The world isn't pre-built or dictated by only one player. We all add our individual bricks to create something marvelous and unique.
From a professional perspective: For many of us at work, we collaborate with people all day long. Regardless of your job, you probably have a team of people with whom you create your projects / maintain day-to-day mechanics. You probably have also worked with that person who brought the whole metaphorical cathedral. They probably didn't leave room for input from you and your other colleagues, right? And was that project as successful as it could have been? What would have happened if your whole team was able to bring "bricks" to build up and fortify the "cathedral"? You might get a result that's stronger, durable, and unique.
From a personal perspective: I'm planning a wedding. It's 2020. Thank goodness I didn't arrive to the planning stage with the whole "cathedral" in tow. In fact, my fiance and I have spent our entire relationship evenly distributing "bricks." We each make offers and compromises about everything from what's for dinner tonight to planning our future family. We each feel heard and we're in the process of creating a beautiful life together.
From a social justice perspective: If you look around the world, think about who has been bringing the most bricks and cathedrals, and think about who hasn't had the chance to bring their own. When you're showing up as an ally, are you bringing your own cathedral? Are you bringing more bricks than the people you're supporting? Sometimes we need to step back and let our friends bring a few more bricks.
From a behavior analyst perspective: This is a specific shout-out to people working in the ABA world as consultants or therapists. Many of us show up to a metaphorical cathedral that needs some restoration or renovation. Do we bring a brand new cathedral? Or do we bring our own pile of bricks to support and fill in the gaps for what's already there? Do we hoard our bricks, or do we allow caregivers and clients to be able to add their own bricks? When we leave, do we take all our bricks, or do we teach our caregivers and clients how to renovate their cathedrals on their own? When we're looking for long-lasting and socially-significant change, we want to make sure that there's collaboration between us, the caregivers, and our clients. It's how we build the strongest cathedrals.
What are your perspectives on collaboration? Where do you bring bricks instead of cathedrals? And where do you need to share your bricks more often? Together, we can create a world full of beautiful cathedrals.