Principle #6: Develop collaborations, partnerships and symbiotic relationships.
This principle, again, flows on from the previous principle, enabling you to scale up your regeneration by turning some of your life-giving encounters into more stable patterns of collaboration. In Nature, Life creates the conditions for more Life primarily through weaving complex patterns of symbiotic relationships, where interactions between two entities help both of them grow. Similarly, in the journey of growth as individuals, groups and organisations, it is through the creation of win-win relationships that it becomes possible to create a climate of trust that forms the basis for resilience. To achieve that, remember that intrinsic motivation is much more potent than extrinsic motivation, so move away from thinking primarily in terms of What each of you could gain, so that you can explore together Why it might make sense for you both to collaborate. To paraphrase Simon Sinek, this means exploring what will want to make you both work in this collaboration with blood, sweat and tears, rather than just for the money.
In practice, how can you do that?
- Challenging one’s own and one’s partners’ mindsets about the possible form that collaboration might take by allowing oneself to think “outside the box” with respect to classical business models;
- Giving equal (if not more) importance to agreeing on the underlying principles and exploring the deep intentions of the partners, rather than agreeing on figures;
- Make sure you regularly take time to review how things are going. For conversations on this topic to be truly life-giving, you can, for example, use such tools as Generative Dialogue to make explicit obstacles to the relationship.
- Over time, ensure that relationships with the stakeholder ecosystem are built on mutualistic principles – this will help strengthen the regeneration and resilience of your organisation.