Inter – between. Action – doing, acting.
The middle ground.
We often long for interaction. A real meeting where we focus on something we have between us.
And at the same time, we talk a lot about the need for cooperation. Many organizations are struggling to increase collaboration, build collaborative cultures.
Many many buzzwords here: collaboration, co-creation, collaboration.
Co- as a prefix means something that is common, shared.
An interesting difference compared to the prefix inter-. Inter as a prefix is points to something that is between us.
When the meeting and what we are going to do together are placed between us, instead of it being immediately shared, it may create another space for doing. And perhaps even more a space for seeing more clearly different perspectives and of more degrees of complexity.
And that space can also allow the meeting to take place between independent parties. At least two perspectives that can create movement and new insight.
Sometimes we might be help by choosing interaction rather than collaboration. To not make the task at hand share but place it between us and work in that space, in the meeting between our perspectives.