Entangle
Separate, and useless alone.
Two halves, two different holes.
Seen in Marina Abramović and Ulay, Rest Energy, Amsterdam, 1980
Try it on your work
Split the thing you're working on into two parts that must stay physically separate. Remove something different from each so that neither works alone and each has exactly what the other lacks. Stop when both tests hold: apart, nothing; together, whole.
Write your project's description twice, each version missing a different essential: one without the what, one without the why. Give them to two different readers. Stop when each reader's question is answered only by the other's page.
Divide one piece of work between two people so that each holds a capability the other cannot do without, and neither can finish alone. Stop when one of them tries to and cannot. That is the test; do not fix it.
How it has been used
A lichen is an intimate association in which a fungus builds a protective structure and retains water, while an alga or cyanobacterium makes food through photosynthesis. The partners are not identical copies and do not contribute the same thing; their differently incomplete capabilities make a durable life form possible in places where either partner would struggle alone.
Where it leads
Grouped under Put different things into contact