This is part of my Guru Talk series, deciphering Stephen Covey’s 7-Habits of  Highly Successful People. 

In Covey's 6th Habit, he states: Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table.

Locate the process of ‘creative cooperation’ and you will locate synergy.

Myth makers (Hollywood, Madison Avenue, etc.) will have us believe that ground shifting events emanate from a single magical moment of inspiration that happens in a mere instant. Inspiration certainly can happen in a moment, but inspirations only get legs and go somewhere when they are fostered in an ongoing environment - or habit - of creative cooperation.

Creative cooperation is a process. A process is a series of useful and repeatable actions with discernible outcomes - completions.

Practice these actions and the process will reveal itself. Practice the process, and your team will develop a wonderful habit. Habitualize the process to deliver the synergy and creative inspiration we all desire.

The Global Creative Experience

Synergy rarely occurs at the last minute. Adrenalin and excitement occur, but not synergy. Global Creatives love to participate, but can struggle with processes.

A process is highly sequential with time sensitive pivot points. It’s not just the meeting that counts. It is the preparation prior to the meeting and what you do after the meeting that defines the collaborative process so central to creative cooperation.

What do you bring to ‘the table’?  What do you do with what you take away from ‘the table’?

This is the art of completing the loop. Every process is cyclic. Locate the cycle and your role in the cycle and you will set the stage for developing this habit of creative cooperation.

Unsure of where to begin? Give some attention to the pre-work and post-work around a collaborative event. Ask some goal clarifying questions:

- What will I bring to the discussion? - What does preparing look like here? - How will I carry this beyond the meeting? - What does completing the loop look like here?

Enlist others’ support to practice a process. This will foster development of what we all strive for – synergy.