Today I met with my rockstar web designer, who’s been so busy helping everyone during this pandemic to get their online presence up to speed that, honestly, it’s been a challenge to connect and collaborate on my new 2020 website upgrade.
Our Zoom call started with catching up. After all, we are both humans first. I learned about his professional dreams and directions, and about hospitalizations and illness in his family. He learned about my crazy 2020 so far. We prayed together about the important stuff and a blessing over the work. And when we got to business, in spite of slow internet speeds, drafty air conditioning, and challenges with speakers, the work was clear and smooth and fairly easy. We got more done in an hour together than we had over the past 5 months emailing back and forth. And we got know one another better.
At the end of the call my web designer told me, “You know, I just don’t do this. This way of working doesn’t usually work for me. But with you, it was different. It really worked well.”
We celebrated how much we had accomplished together, and we committed to our next session and what work we will complete beforehand so we can accelerate the launch of my new site.
When you collaborate, do you start by caring about the human being you’re working with? What do they care about? What is going on with them that can impact your work together? What do you care about? Does your collaborator understand your cares?
When you share cares, when you have a meeting of the minds and the wills, watch the work. It will seem easier, lighter, more joyful.
Try caring to collaborate.