A Collaborative Moment of Joy
By On Your Feet Co-founder, Gary Hirsch
I wanted to share a moment of joy to remind you that collaboration can be a surprising and delightful experience.
For me, one of the fastest ways to find inspiration, surprise, and delight is to make things with other people.
This is (one of the many reasons) why I am attracted to the art of improvisation and invite others to participate in my murals and visual art projects.
Under the right conditions (that improv teaches), people can collaboratively produce things that would be impossible to imagine if they were just working alone.
I recently found an example of this in the On Your Feet archives. It's a clip from a 2015 TEDX Talk where I attempt to collaborate with over 700 people as we co-create the history of a completely fictitious rock band.
Watch On Your Feet Co-founder, Gary Hirsch, and 700 audience members spontaneously create the history of a made-up rock band, an example of creative collaboration in action.
“Yes, and” in Action
This experience was exhilarating. I had no idea how this would go. It could have easily fallen flat: What if no one shouted out a band name, or song title, or didn't sing at the top of their lungs?
The reason this works is that we are creating “flow” together: Ideas are moving back and forth, they are building upon each other, being added to, and we are making something that feels like it could have only been made collectively.
This is a classic “Yes, and” experience. We are listening, noticing, willing to be changed, and letting go of our preconceived ideas.
Rewatching this experience gives me hope: Hope that when people come together under the right conditions, more surprise, creativity, and joy can be found.
More creative collaboration for 150 retail change agents
