This months task

This month we will practice mending and tending through the principle of ‘Collide and Align’ which is all about blending ideas from different places to create something new.  It’s also about (neuro)diversity, cognitive difference, cultural considerations and recognising and valuing different people and experiences.
 
Colliding can create energy, sometimes dissent and challenge. We can learn from our own reactions to conflict. Conflict shows us where things need mending, I encourage you to create space, listen deeply to yourself and others and think about how to repair. Dissent and repair is a normal part of group work and often is the birthplace of innovation.  Colliding creates collective intellegence and expansive understanding.

Aligning is about collaboration, it brings in ideas of tolerance that we explored in last months ‘filter’ principle. Aligning means actively seeking out where the Venn diagrams of our beliefs overlap. Aligning creates harmony, enabling difference to exist together.

We need to both actively bring in colliding ideas, people, differences and work AND align and blend if we want to create new things.  Idea generation, based on diverse thinking is a solid skill you can develop to collide, align and create excitement and innovation!

This episode of Healing Centred Transformation, our podcast, explores what is means to Collide and Align with others. Taking this Healing-Centred Design principle and the outcomes of A Brilliant Thing’s recent Reflective Research they look at what helps and what’s a hindrance to collaborating…and why it’s so important to have clear expectations from the start.v

Decision-making

If we are going to create innovation we need diversify thinking and become idea magpies! Use this worksheet to help you practice stretchy thinking!

You might also like this resource from Heather Plett, particularly page 3 which is about holding space for conflict.

We love this animated video, The Power of Diverse Thinking by Matthew Syed.