In an ego-driven world, personal success is the ultimate goal. Through joy it is co-creation. But what do we really mean by co-creation? According to Mirriam Webster co-create means to create (something) by working with one or more others. to create (something) jointly. These definitions are well and good, but they are missing a critical component, and that is that co-creation is a creative process between multiple hearts in which all parties must be prepared to authentically engage in the journey without ego, lest the creative process will be compromised.

In joy, co-creation requires accountability that not only one can show up in whole heart but also that all parties be able to sustain a heart-to-heart connection throughout the creative process. This is why at the core of joy the only mechanism that is powerful enough to hold the space for one’s heart to continously smile back at itself for showing in whole self is self-love. Self-love is the most powerful mechanism that can simultaneously offer the power to ground and move, to center and yet expand for all the right reasons, and to cultivate the internal embodiment of wholeself that pathways of oneness become illuminated with ease.

Now, most people approach sustainability of creative energy from the perspective of maintaining an external environment. But that is risky business. Trying to hold the frame for “the right” environment without the appropriate alignment of whole self within oneself will prove insufficient for leaders to do anything more than collaborate for a moment. Even trying to cultivate the right external environment while holeing to emotional intelligence will leave too much variance for outside factors to influence the outcomes, for there being no internal mechanism of perpetual elevation into whole self. Without being aligned in one’s heart (psychologically and energetically) then one is not centered and grounded. This leaves the creative process open for triggers in the outside world that will likely bring about collisions that collaborating parties will navigate with ego.

Further, it must be named that the assurance of providing or holding space for the right environment can be costly from a materials and/or resource standpoint to create the space, as well as from a legal one. Organizations that promise the right environment (e.g., culture, facilities, technological tools, etc.) are liable to be held accountable for any triggers that lurk in the shadows of the organization and/or toxic reactions that occur for the duration of the creative process. Without and internal model of accountability who can hold a soul accountable ( knowing that one or more parties were not emotionally aligned, centered, or grounded enough to participate in a more creative partnership, at any given moment in time) for its role in the process of co-creation.

Truly, co-creation is an opportunity for all hearts, including the organization, to show up and out for all the right reasons. It is a liberatory process through which more than one person can freely bring their wisdom to a space for it to be dynamically connected to and intertwined with that of others, in joy. When approached through joy, all parties are fully aligned, centered, and grounded, then collisions are more accurately experienced as the elevations, shifts, pivots, twists, and tu