Collaborating means your idea might die so a better one can live. That’s the deal.

Working with people is not just dividing up tasks, it means handing your ideas into a process that can reject them. That stings in a specific way, because the thing being passed over is yours and the room is choosing out loud. The payoff is that a group sees what one person cannot, and the result is often better than either of you would have reached alone.

Go into the next session willing to lose an idea you like. Argue for it once, clearly, then let the group decide and get behind the outcome. Notice whether the final thing is better, which it frequently is.