How Can Human Design Help You Become a Better Collaborator?

Last year, I started to brainstorm and collaborate with an awesome individual. It’s a collaboration that I’ve been waiting for for awhile… it’s one that feels compatible, creative, inspiring, and natural, where I can show up as my genuine self in all my glory. And it isn’t by accident that there is a great spark between our minds and a profound alignment in what it is we hope to achieve together.

Although this collaboration is in its infancy stage… and as of now it is more talk than walk… I have great confidence in our ability to collaborate to a level beyond what I’ve yet experienced to this day. Not just because at the surface level there appears to be great compatibility and alignment in our values, but also because we have started to build our business relationship on the understanding of how each other shows up best with an awareness of what we both need to keep in mind when supporting each other to stay in our own zone of genius’, in an environment and with boundaries that feel good for us both.

Perhaps you’ve had experience starting a project or relationship with a fellow collaborator where there has been a great deal of assumptions, bias, limiting beliefs, or steam rolling? I know I have. And what has come with that is a lot of frustration, lack of understanding and recognition, and misalignment of intent, which never fails to feel completely icky.

It’s with these experiences that I’ve really grown to value compatibility in my collaborators and it’s because of this that I am starting to limit my efforts of trial and error and experimentation to those activities within the collaborations, not with the collaborators themselves.

But how do I know if a collaboration is going to feel right without actually trying it out? After the initial check-in with my intuition and noticing if the energy feels right with this person, I have found it so incredibly impactful to turn to Human Design as a tool for my collaborator and I to use to understand where we compliment each other, where we can uniquely use our own super powers, and how we both need to show up differently in our relationship.

Sounds simple right? Well, it is and it isn’t.

Running a Human Design compatibility chart, understanding it, and practicing it are all different levels to reach that collaborative harmony and in my opinion it really is the ultimate tool that can give you that deeper insight before you even get started.

So, when it comes to leveraging your and your collaborators human design, I encourage you to consider the following:

HONORING YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS – In human design we learn that decision making, taking action, and sharing our wisdom is different for everyone. So understanding what that looks like for the both (all) of you can really help you avoid any misunderstanding or creation of assumptions. Some of us work very quickly, some of us need more time to process. No way is right or wrong, but creating space for both of you to follow your design is essential to both of your success and alignment.
COMBINING & UTILIZING YOUR GENIUS AND SUPERPOWERS – Feeling as though you and your collaborator are a force to be reckoned with is one of my favourite feels. When you can combine your energy in a way that is built on leveraging each others greatness instead of on competition or the belief that your idea is the right idea you can open new doors within your collaboration that you perhaps wouldn’t have come up with otherwise. And when you are able to also separate some of the work load by the tasks that you individually enjoy and are good at there can be even more magic that appears. Take the time to make an inventory of where you both can use your unique gifts within the bigger picture of how you will work towards your shared goal.
COMMUNICATING THROUGHOUT THE COLLABORATION – It might be too simple to say that just by reading over each other’s human design charts that you really grasp the full reality of each others unique needs or how you can best support each other to use your genius. As humans we will naturally turn towards building bias or assumptions and it can be critical to keep the lines of communication open when it comes to sharing how you like to work or what is or isn’t working in your collaboration. This can look different between every collaboration whether it is noticing if one of you has the gift of asking the right questions, taking the lead to spark conversations, or respond to what is happening around you. Whatever it is, know that you can still experiment in how you show up together and communication makes that a whole lot easier.
ELIMINATING EXPECTATIONS TO OPERATE THE SAME – It’s safe to say that in our society we have been conditioned to believe that we have to work hard to be successful and if someone doesn’t put in the same level of effort or time we tend to see them as lazy or hold resentment towards them not pulling their weight. The frustration I would feel when I was putting in all of this effort and the people around me weren’t was so incredibly real and draining. Human Design has helped me change this narrative for myself and is what first gave me permission to realize that my own genius and success isn’t reflected in how hard I work but rather how I can be invited to share my wisdom in a way that feels good. I encourage you to open your mind to understanding how each HD type works differently and that the value your collaborator can bring to the table may look different than you when it comes to the time or effort made but is no less important.

Although I am not a human design reader or expert I wanted to share this with you because HD has become a tool that has changed how I collaborate with others and because collaboration will always be one of the greatest priorities in my business and work. My genius lies in asking the right questions to folks that are ready to unlock their potential, so when it comes to helping people collaborate in a way that feels aligned, inspirational, and safe I want to be able to share all of the resources that have made this possible for me as well.

If you are interested in how you can build a better understanding of how to collaborate effectively or show up authentically in your collaborations, you won’t want to miss tomorrow’s podcast episode with Brand Storyteller and Human Design Reader, Stephanie Zhong.