The transition to doing more business-to-business and in-house projects online has made it necessary to rethink the way we communicate and collaborate. Many of our old resources have become difficult to use, or even obsolete. Face-to-face meetings have been replaced by video calls, employees are working remotely as much as possible, and documents can be shared, filed, co-edited, and even signed online.
Creative collaboration through user-friendly online platforms is now an essential part of the workday. Do you have the creative collaboration tools you need to keep up?
Creative collaboration is what happens when you successfully corral the ideas of everyone on your team. The larger the team, or the more moving parts in the project, the more difficult it can become to collaborate effectively, especially online. Fortunately, with the right creative collaboration platform, you’ll have access to plenty of tools, as well as tips and techniques to enhance group creativity.
There are several things you can do as a leader to encourage creative collaboration among your team members. Spend time considering how you can implement some of the following ideas.
One of the best ways to nurture the kind of collaboration you want to see from your team is by modeling and encouraging excellent communication. This may mean that you pass along information using more than one avenue, or that you express it in different ways that appeal to different members of your team.
For example, simply sending an email could mean that someone accidentally skips over the message and misses the information altogether. If you send an email, post it in a shared calendar, and mention it at a meeting, you are more likely to get the information to everyone.
Cultivating creative collaboration also requires clear boundaries and mutual respect. Make sure your team clearly understands their unique role on the team, the rules for sharing ideas, and how to respectfully respond to the ideas of others. Your team should feel comfortable asking the difficult or “stupid” questions, and know they are in a safe creative space. They should also know that even when their ideas are not chosen, it’s not a competition, and their contribution is valuable to the team.
What is the goal the team is trying to accomplish together? Is each team member clear on what this vision is and why it’s important? Are they personally invested in the outcome?
When each individual is able to visualize the end goal and share in a common “why,” they are more likely to work well together.
As a team leader, it’s helpful if you are aware of the different strengths of each staff member. Do you know how to motivate them? Do you have a clear plan for how to choose who gets assigned which task? Do your vision and action plan align with your team’s?
What tools work best for you and your team? Understand that what works for one individual or group may not work for everyone, so it’s important to periodically assess the effectiveness of your tools and processes.
Can you implement an online tool that streamlines important processes and facilitates team communication? Do you have a creative collaboration platform that allows you to engage your team from anywhere, provide them with the latest updates, and give them access to an entire library of relevant content? Can they contribute their ideas and check the status of a project even when they aren’t in the office?
The benefits of online creative collaboration are virtually limitless. For starters, you can easily eliminate physical barriers, such as distance. You can share information and complete projects with companies around the world. With the right creative collaboration platform, you can allow team members to work from home when necessary. You can even social distance within the office without sacrificing crucial interactions that provide valuable feedback and insight.
Cultivating creative collaboration can also lead to improvements in employee satisfaction thanks to lowered frustration with ineffective processes. You may even see an increase in productivity and efficiency by reducing unnecessary activities, such as passing around a paper document until all parties have signed it, making and delivering multiple copies of said document, and filing it for future use. Remember the old days when you had to send a document by courier and wait hours or days for a response?
Tiled is a creative collaboration platform designed to help you engage your audience using interactive tiles and expanded function opportunities. You can connect with your entire team, receive valuable insights from comprehensive analytics, stay current with real-time updates, and customize using tiles and microapps.
Learn more about how Tiled can help you with cultivating creative collaboration and request a demo today.
