What does collaboration feel like?

In this morning's Critical Business Salon, Nitzan Hermon posed the above question to the group. The two things that came to mind for me in our brief reflection period were: 

• 1+1=11

• "Tapping a tuning fork and hearing a harmony" (the idea of resonant frequencies)

1+1=11 

This was perhaps my cheeky take on 1+1=3, but I wanted to capture the idea that you can still see the original contributors in the collaboration (both 1's are in 11), but through their collaboration, they've become something much greater. 

"Tapping a tuning fork and hearing a harmony" 

This was a a play off of Kevin Kwok's description of Twitter. What I liked about it is that collaboration in my mind is about amplifying each other - providing a lens, perspective, skill set, etc that enhances those who we are working with. The best collaborations I've had changed how I see myself and created outcomes that I couldn't imagine on my own. 

The concept of harmony is very alive for me right now, as I've thought a lot about the ways that data needs to be harmonized not just triangulated. By that I mean that you want to use different sources of data that don't just reinforce the same story, but work together to create a new perspective that neither has on their own.

What does collaboration feel like for you?