As a female entrepreneur, you are probably already playing in the generative zone at the intersection between business self-interest and the common good.
You enjoy a large supportive network of fellow entrepreneurs, belong to several communities, and amplify positive effects coming from your business in the culture and your environment.
Sometimes however you may have the persistent, unsatisfactory feeling that any way you are alone in your endeavor.
Deeply inside, you may ask yourself: “Am I really getting the opportunity to be supported, confronted and inspired in a truly constructive way, in a caring yet non-complacent context?”
In a previous article, we talked about the importance of tapping into energy and the benefits of “the village” in your female generative enterprises. Embracing the village means for you going to deeper levels of female synergetic entrepreneurial efforts together with fellow entrepreneurs. The collective intelligence of female entrepreneurs is crucial for you not only to support and empower each other but also to open a space for generative solutions for your challenging endeavours.
However what you encounter most often in your networks and communities is a surface level of collective intelligence, which is in fact “collected intelligence”.
Think about a puzzle: different pieces come together to make an entire. Sometimes you may think in this way also when you want to bring diversity into your organization: matching different pieces to create a bigger whole.
“Collected intelligence” foresees a “match” of diverse capacities and competencies. It is only the first level of synergy, a surface level. In this scenario, 1+1 = 2
Although you may constantly work for it, this matching of support, competencies, expertise, and talents may lead you to levels of collaboration that result in the classical outcome of 1+1=2.
Making a truly “generative field” of relationships
However, for you to bring about excellence, accelerated growth, and resilience in your enterprise and environment, this may be not sufficient and gives you this unsatisfactory feeling of being alone anyway, although you are investing so much time, energy, and effort in your networking and community-building activities.
To play successfully in the zone of win-win at the intersection between self-interest and the common good with your enterprise, you may enter a generative field of relationships where 1+1 can be much more than 2. It is the space where the collective intelligence of female entrepreneurs is at true play.
As a metaphor for this collective intelligence, think about the molecule of water, H2O.
This molecule is made of two very different atoms, with their own very specific features. When they join to form the molecule, however, the molecule itself transcends the specific characteristics of the two atoms and forms something completely new, with incredible and unforeseen characteristics. We could say clearly here that 1+1 is much more than 2.
The incredible properties of water are made out of the special interaction of H and O atoms. An example where 1+1>2.
This is an image that allows you to imagine that a much deeper level of synergy and collaboration is possible. This can be then a fertile ground to bring innovating excellence, creativity, and anti-fragility to your businesses, with performances that could not be achieved alone. The outcome is indeed much more than just the sum of the parts.
Vital to this deeper level of collective intelligence is the creation of high-quality interactions among entrepreneurs, built on trust, mutual respect, and recognition of each other’s unique resources, capacities, and contributions.
Why is this deeper level of synergy so important for you?
Learning to access deeper levels of support, encouragement, and collaboration among fellow entrepreneurs is about upskilling yourselves for future complex challenges and playing a new level of leadership with your enterprise.
Belonging to a generative space is essential for you to realize your most authentic purpose by accessing a higher level of intelligence together with fellow entrepreneurs. It is about increasing your co-creation capacity and shaping together the future together with like-minded creators.
On the one hand, indeed this deep level of synergy creates the conditions for you to boost your potential beyond your usual capacity and imagination. On the other hand, it shapes and activates the true space of the common good, a space of more conscious interconnectedness, where diverse and innovative businesses cross and communicate for mutual benefit and sustainable growth.
Belonging to a generative space is deeply reconnecting you to your female creative capacity of maintaining a tissue together so as to create a much larger, beautiful social and entrepreneurial tapestry.
As female entrepreneurs, we can make female entrepreneurship more collective, more conscious, and more co-creative, and unlock its full potential for a true impact on society.
alessandrasatta.com 