Establish your roots

We are focused on supporting our people above all else to foster interaction, trust, and the discovery of new opportunities.

If relationships between members are like a skeleton, then when cared for, trust is the tendon and muscle that makes a community strong and healthy.

We always begin by trusting ourselves and trusting each other, and knowing that sets a stage where trust is a valued part of being in this community.

“You can’t do collaboration, you have to be a collaborator.”—Derek Neighbors, Gangplank

Coworking works because it integrates many of the past challenges with the ‘workplace’, and puts the focus back on people.

Collaboration isn’t something you do. Collaboration means being a better collaborator. 

We value trust and high engagement.

coLab cultivates a focus on the formation of trust and deeper relationships between people. We remove office politics, hierarchies, and succession planning from the equation.

Further, we create opportunities for people to interact in a highly engaged environment. The serendipitous nature of our this space means that people are often spending far more time face-to-face than in a place where people only interact when they are required to.

People like to throw around the term “knowledge economy”. But in truth?

We live in the creativity economy. Because while your knowledge is what gets you into your industry, your creativity is what determines how far you go.

Creativity is what happens when our existing knowledge bumps up against some kind of new, unexpected input. Which means in order for creativity to happen, you need some kind of an outside catalyst to spark it. That catalyst can be an image, a phrase, a fact, an event, or a person. But no matter what the catalyst is, you won’t find it if you just hide yourself away from the world forever.

Creativity requires community. At coLab, we’ve built a community of like-minded people who are open to new ideas, open to learning, and open to creativity. We’re all about coming up with new ways to do things. We’re all about challenging the status quo. We encourage our members to do the same. And we love it when our members can be creative together. 

coLab is all about aligning with your core purpose, your why, AND taking action to get stuff done.

Purposefulness is being aware that each of us is here for a reason. We value our lives by discovering the part we are uniquely meant to play. We discern our intention and focus on it mindfully. We visualize it happening. We set goals and achieve them step by step, resisting distractions. We give each task single minded concentration and excellence. We invest our full enthusiasm into even the simplest job. In the flow of our lives, there are many turns and unexpected events. Within it all, there are lessons to be learned and gifts to receive.

Purposefulness is trusting the journey.

Celebrating and having fun at work is an essential function for building a positive workplace culture, helping our members blow off steam, and fostering new ideas. Plus, it’s just plain fun, and life is too short to work in an environment that makes you miserable.

The coLab admin team loves providing opportunities for our members to have to express joyfully at work. While we won’t force you to participate in our initiatives, we do make it a priority to ensure everyone is having an enjoyable time.

One caveat about fun: We value organic fun. Fun looks different for everyone, and it isn’t fun when it’s forced. That’s why we love getting our members involved in fun every step of the way, so they can dictate the kind of fun that happens. We won’t force you to get involved, but we will give you opportunities to have fun with the people around you.

Whether it’s a lunchtime game of foosball, a social meetup, or just some casual banter, at coLab, having fun is every bit as much a priority as getting work done is.