Throughout our lives, most of us have heard the expression, “what goes around comes around”— usually as a bitter comment attempting to suggest consolation.

Well, it is true. My colleague Annette Clancy of Inter-Actions, is a firm believer in the merits of giving it away: of floating ideas to others, in deepening the conversation, of thickening the broth. Sometimes, the ideas take. Sometimes, they are washed away.

Problem is, for most of us, that our own valuation of what we think and hold gets in the way of our productively using it. We hoard it, treasure it (think of Gollum in “Lord of the Rings”), and think of its preciousness to console our inability to be “taken up” as valued by employers or colleagues.

Well, we won’t be if we don’t use it. Annette’s blog recently referenced Andrew Taylor (commenting on Chris Mackie of the Mellon Foundation and his comment that “collaboration is a muscle”). They’re all right: and righter than they say: not only is collaboration a muscle, but it is a muscle developed only in the sweat and tears of working out: of frustration and its mastery, of walking out and coming back, of thinking “I can’t go on” and going on, and of perseverance: of continuous building from small to large.

In this sense, our concerns about opening up, giving it away, are wholly unfounded. Why? Because the thing we give away becomes meaningful only in context; and likely, only certain contexts will fit. These contexts are not abstractions: but peopled projects: and the people who people the projects can have no idea of your ideas if you don’t give them away.

When an idea “takes” in collaboration, the action of its “taking” resounds back to the giver, who is in a position to move forward with the collaborator. Sure, trust, endurance,perseverance all become aspects of the journey. But these are the challenges of  muscular relationship building; the opportunity for  collaboration only begins with the first step of giving it away.

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