Having launched a Health & Wellbeing Centre, held an Open Day for a Complementary Practice, planned seminars with 4 other wellbeing practitioners, and workshops with another 2, it really has been a fortnight of collaboration, which has led to this week’s value in focus.
Definition of Collaboration:
‘process where two or more people work together to realise shared goals’
This definition is technically correct, but collaboration seems to mean so much more. Working together with others can give a great sense of belonging, camaraderie and teamwork. A sense of purpose can be gained from having a shared goal and a fantastic sense of achievement for attaining that goal and sharing the success and celebration with others.
The support we feel when working with others can keep us going when times are tough. Tricky projects can be made so much easier when the thoughts and ideas from a group come together.
To collaborate with other like-minded people certainly can be very motivating for those who enjoy working in a team. This can be especially important for those who love working with others but have chosen to be self-employed and/or work from home, which can be quite isolating.
Collaboration can start small e.g. with one person writing a guest blog for another, then as the relationship grows you can be running workshops in partnership and before you know it, running a company together.
Outside of work, collaboration might mean organising a party together, running a marathon as a group to raise funds for a charity, singing in a choir or being a governor of a school.
As a value, it can be your preferred way of doing things, what I call ‘a value for the journey’ or it can be an ‘outcome value’, something you aim for and work towards.
We might all enjoy a little collaboration, but for it to be a ‘core value’ for us, i.e. in our top ten most important values, then it must be fundamental to the way we prefer to operate and a goal we seek to achieve that will truly fulfil us.
How important is collaboration to you?
For more information on Values, please visit my website, you will find a free values identification exercise to help you discover what is important to you.
www.careercoachlondon.com/values.html
Do get in touch if you would like to work together to put values at the heart of our society.
Lindsay
