Wednesday Stretch: Open Desert

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." - Rumi, Sufi Poet

American can-do spirit seems to have morphed into competitive spirit and then mutated into polarization - politically, socially, and in our business dealings. Even in the face of the positive history of a practice like coopetition (that's not a typo, there's a book on this very subject), polarization seems to be sucking the strength from American culture.

What to do? Create a clearing. And no better place to do it than our Open Desert. One of our greatest resources is our literal and figurative wide open space, meaning this: we have relatively blank slates. A young state with young cities and towns has many opportunities and choices that have just been made or are yet to be made. As the prinicipal of my kids' elementary school says on the PA each day, "It's your choice. Make it a good one."

Take a moment today to look at your choices. Are they polarizing? Coopetitive? Collaborative? Or even unifying? I'll be reflecting today as I work, asking the same questions of myself.

BTW: Google the words "Open Desert" and you'll find our neighbors in Coachella Valley, CA have started a group by that name (and note that I pinched a photo from their site.) At first glance, it appears to have no rudder in the water. When you dig a little deeper, it turns out that this is actually a kinder, gentler networking group. This could be an interesting model for business networkers here to consider.