We are not going to be able to resolve collective challenges divided.

Our true power as a species comes from collaboration. We live in a world obsessed with competition that has us divided by winners/losers. This limited worldview of seeing life through a competitive lense is destroying us with polarization and division. It is time to reclaim the collective power of collaboration so that we can create a healthy, regenerative, thriving global community.

Collaboration is a mindset that allows people to work together to make sure everyone wins. Setting up win/win relationships takes creativity and requires us to evolve the way we see ourselves in the larger community of life on this planet. Each of us reach higher levels of success when we are surrounded by others who are thriving.

We often define ourselves through contrast which allows us to focus on our differences. Yet when we observe the sunset we can see many shades of color between the orange hues on the western horizon and the dark blues of the night sky rising in the east. It is the nuance and blending between the two that creates spectacular beauty. We can still maintain our distinctions while choosing to work together.

"At first glance, collaboration and cooperation can appear to be two words for the same thing. They both focus heavily on the importance of teamwork. However, there is a major difference between the two terms. Collaboration addresses situations in which people work together on a shared goal, while cooperation involves working with others to help them achieve their individual goals." -Radina Skortcheva

Indigenous cultures remind us that all of life is interconnected

A Shared Vision

The concept of collaboration has been quite natural for millennia. Working together, caring about others, lending a helping hand, coming together in times of tragedy, and celebrating shared successes are all central to living in a community. It starts by recognizing our shared humanity and a desire to make things better for all of us.

Our planet, her ecosystems, and human society are changing rapidly. With these changes come challenges and growing pains. Polluted/overfished oceans, poverty, extreme weather events, drug abuse, crime, and the proliferation of war are circumstances that invite us to think, plan, and act collaboratively. We are being called to engage in a dialogue that invokes mutual respect for the needs of all parties to address the challenges we face.

Paradigms are Shifting

Recent social rumblings in the European Union with Brexit, austerity policies in Greece, tensions in Ukraine signify massive shifts in society. The movement towards globalization that favors the freedom of capital over the needs of people has caused a few to become "winners" by amassing great wealth yet has simultaneously caused many to become "losers" through exploitation and war. How can we continue to see a handful "win" while so many "lose" and suffer?

Centralized power and decision-making are not collaborative at all and they invariably lead to corruption. When policies are created by leaders who are far away or disconnected from the actual people/places they are governing there will always be social upheaval, exploitation, and environmental degradation. When competition reigns supreme we end up pitted against each other. When collaboration is our focus we learn how to come together and fix the problems that are causing so much suffering.

Our binary approach of winner/loser is ineffective at meeting the needs of our increasingly technological global society. The internet provides us with tools for collaboration unlike anything we have ever seen in history. Yet we are mentally and socially stuck in systems that are built on the principles of feudalism. This is where personal growth and evolution becomes a stepping stone for global transformation

It Starts Within the Individual

Collaboration becomes much more difficult when we remain conflicted within ourselves.The individual is the microcosm of society at large. Psychologists used to use the description Multiple Personality Disorder until they recognized that all of us have many different voices and perspectives trying to express themselves within us depending on our mood or situation. Today we understand this illness as Dissociative Personality Disorder.

Dissociation is when we are disconnected with certain aspects of ourselves like our dreams, desires, needs, or fears without acknowledging them. This is now considered a form of mental illness. We are seeing this illness of dissociation and disconnection expressed in the world around us.

If we start from within and resolve our inner conflicts we will change our world view away from a debate-oriented competition of "who is right" into a council of ideas which allows for all voices to be heard and respected. This allows us to find common ground, a shared vision, and begin the journey towards collaboration.

The Evolution of Collaboration

Dr. Bruce Lipton, a thought-leader in the field of epigenetics, is convinced that biological evolution is a conscious and collaborative biological process. We are the result of billions of cells working together to create life for our body. We are in a process as a species of evolving towards optimizing life for all. From the cellular level, to the individual, to society as a whole it is possible and advantageous to create win/win outcomes.

Removing the Incentives for Competition and Division

Competition in the proper context is extremely valuable. It is what causes us to strive to become better, more productive and efficient. That's why it is baked into the framework of our economic system. Along with scarcity competition is central to this system that has been driving society for centuries. However, today we have the capacity to eradicate scarcity and with it our grip on competition will also fall away.

People usually get along when everyone has food, shelter, abundance, and their basic needs are taken care of. Racial and class violence flourishes when scarcity, economic inequality and fear are prevalent. Politics and the news media feed on and profit from the creation of these black/white, binary, good/bad oversimplifications that keep people divided. We have policies that artificially perpetuate scarcity to expand the divide between the haves and the have-nots. This amplifies the worst in human nature.

It is hard to imagine but we have become addicted to scarcity and competition because our economic and political models depend on them. Collaboration threatens the status quo yet our reluctance to work together is threatening our very existence as a species. We are at a crossroads, a potent moment in history where planetary collaboration can change the paradigm and give us a shared vision to create a healthy, regenerative, thriving global community.