The Collaborative Habit

The secret to making fun things even more fun and rewarding.

The Metropolitan Opera in NYC recently invited me to speak at a special event they were throwing for educators.

My knowledge of the opera is pretty much limited to whatever I picked up from watching Looney Tunes cartoons.

Still, even I know the Met is a big deal. Iconic. Historic. Legendary.

I wanted to do this moment justice but didn’t quite know how. They’d invited me to speak, but would I be expected to sing? Did I need to get a tuxedo? Had they made a mistake? My uncertainty turned to excitement when I stopped obsessing over what I would talk about and began plotting who I could invite into it.

So….

I invited more than 100 kids to join me in creating something for the Metropolitan Opera in NYC:

I also teamed up with my wife, Kristi, to create art for their gathering:

This design was printed on shirts for attendees of the MetOpera Educators Conference.

More than 100 students were incorporated into my presentation. Afterward, all the students were sent a full edit of the videos I’d created. They were also sent an official certificate. It states that their voice was officially heard at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City!

These young people can now say they’ve sung at the MetOpera! How cool is that?

Full disclosure: Several years ago, I wouldn’t have invited people into this. I can do it on my own! I’ve got this! Too much to prove! Too much pressure! Too… scared….

I have long had a habit of trying to do things all by myself.

Lately, though, I’ve been attempting to shock my system by doing the thing I never would have done years ago: ask for help.

In her book The Collaborative Habit, Twyla Tharp writes:

“Like creativity, collaboration is a habit—and one I encourage you to develop. Collaboration is how most of our ancestors used to work and live before machines came along and fragmented society. Time to plant the fields? Everybody pitched in and got it done. Harvesttime? The community raced to get the crops in before the rains came. Where were those crops stored? In barns built by teams of neighbors. In the cities, the same spirit applied. Anonymous craftsmen spent their lives building cathedrals that wouldn’t be completed for generations.”

That’s what I’ve been aiming for: a collaborative habit. My first instinct hasn’t always been to invite other people into my ideas or my projects or … my problems. It’s exactly what I need to unlearn.

My best work on YouTube came when I stopped trying to do things alone and partnered with people.

My work in picture books came to life when I finally raised the flag and declared I needed help. The illustrations had become brick walls for me until I officially teamed up with my wife. Now she and I get to work through each detail together. It’s made every project (and our relationship) stronger.

It’s fun to invite people into things.

Sure, speaking at the METOPERA is cool. What’s even cooler? Getting to celebrate it with hundreds of other people. I’m discovering that all of life is that way. Everything is infinitely more fun when everyone is invited into the party.

My New Year’s resolutions are a work in progress. My calendar is not yet filled up. The projects I’ll fully commit to are TBD. So much I don’t know, but I do know this: I won’t do any of this alone.

I’ll need you. And her. And that guy. And a few hundred kids.

Let’s do this! Together.

Signed book bundles and other fun gift ideas can be found here!

You can see and share the reel about my MetOpera project here on IG.

You can learn more about MetOpera Education, including free curricular resources and more here.