Coworking: Like riding a bike

”It is the same with people as it is with riding a bike. Only when moving can one comfortably maintain one’s balance,” Albert Einstein wrote to his son in 1930.

In sum, once you learn certain things you never seem to forget. The required skills will come back almost immediately when needed. Coworking is similar and seems all to do with collaboration.

Coworking is a global movement owned by everyone, so coworking spaces are great places to learn how to be a better collaborator. The founders of the best coworking spaces tend to look to their members as collaborators as opposed to customers. Those who work together, with each other and with the space itself, tend to have the deepest bond with the community.

Coworking works. Why? Because it removes so many of the bad habits we’ve learned and sets the focus back on people.

Collaborators working in coworking spaces tend to be very similar. A good collaborator will even earn trust first, spending a lot of face time with the others in the space, guiding, supporting, and helping each person find their own way.

Now, back to the bike. Thinking back, learning to ride one is a series of trials and errors that are emotionally draining and often painful. Even though you might have seen someone else do it, you’re still likely to fall the first time you try. On the other side of the coin, when you go to teach someone to ride a bike, it requires the teacher to be a good collaborator to guide, support and help the learner find their own balance. Trust is a huge factor as the amount of time spent together before an achievement is often great.

If a collaboration is done right, it’s a two way street-- abling each person to provide that experience for the other at some point in their time together.

Coworking provides one of the best natural environments for this to happen.

Author: Katey Crean, Hello Social Co.