Stimulate the Conversation: Creative Collaboration Part 6

Conversation stimulates creative thinking. Verbalizing ideas in a social context causes ideas to be flipped around, and looked at from different perspectives. Joking around can actually be a very positive factor. Playful conversation sparks creativity. Creativity happens when ideas are challenged and things are put together in new ways.

Something happens when we express ideas with language. We have to find the words to describe what we are thinking, and that act helps clarify our ideas. It is usually one of the first steps that we go through when we take an idea from our imaginations and implement it in the real world. Sometimes verbalizing an idea helps us see the idea more clearly and objectively. There have been times when I have an idea brewing in my imagination, but the moment I start to tell someone about it, I can immediately sense certain strengths and weaknesses that were not apparent when it was just thoughts inside my mind. When that happens, I usually re-state the idea with a different set of words that reflect those new insights – and this process can go on and on. Converting ideas into language makes them stronger.

Something else happens with ideas when we have someone respond to what we have said. Sometimes we find ourselves needing a better way to articulate the ideas in our heads, and sometimes, we find our ideas being questioned or challenged. All of those factors trigger our brains to flip the ideas around inside our imagination to be able to respond to that conversation. That flipping around of ideas is almost like magic. Incorporating someone else’s perspectives into our thinking is like a high-speed prototyping and testing process. It also has the advantage of shaking us out of any ruts that might be in our thinking that may be preventing us from seeing better ideas. One idea ignites another. Half-baked ideas can suddenly become whole when exposed to someone else’s thinking.

Extremely valuable conversations can also begin around a topic rather than an idea. At one of the early TED Conferences, I remember one of the speakers telling how a copier company had improved maintenance for their customers’ machines by stimulating conversation between the service technicians. The company created opportunities for the service technicians to congregate on a casual basis, and they started to share stories with each other about how they solved various problems in the field. The result was a dramatic improvement in their maintenance capabilities.

Plan or build opportunities for these kinds of conversations to take place. Provide areas in the workspace where people can easily congregate and talk about the work they are doing. Schedule events that stimulate the conversation. For example, at Pittard Sullivan, every Tuesday we served a light lunch in one of the several open meeting areas around our office. I would prepare a relevant topic in advance and get the conversation started, then everyone would join in and I would take a back seat to the conversation. Since we worked in the media and entertainment business, there was always something deeply relevant and interesting to talk about. These sessions were open to the whole company and attendance was voluntary. It was a very popular event with active participation from every level of the company. The conversations could be heard to continue throughout the company for days or weeks. The design of our workspace and the fact that we deliberately nurtured conversations about our work became a part of our culture and spread on its own.

A disciplinarian might worry about too much casual conversation diverting the energies of a team, but in a healthy creative environment, the participants naturally find a balance on their own between casual and focused conversation. Top-down attempts to quash off-topic conversation can actually chill the whole process. It’s okay to occasionally re-focus conversations, but spontaneous off-topic conversations are a necessary part of loosening up people’s minds to let ideas flow. The randomness of off-topic conversation actually stimulates new thinking about more relevant topics. Creativity is about putting things together in new ways, and randomly introduced elements can bring about all sorts of wonderful new ideas.

Great conversation has more to do with active listening than talking. I used to say “two ears, one mouth, use them in that proportion,” but the proportion should actually be more extreme than that. If you want some great views about active listening, pick up my friend Mark Goulston’s outstanding new book Just Listen.

Please share your comments on my blog, or contact me directly. And please, ask for my help. More to come: watch here for future installments.

Be Inclusive: Creative Collaboration Part 5

The world is changing so fast that it’s literally impossible to keep up. The best we can hope to do is develop a certain comfort level with the accelerated rate of change, and have a pretty good idea of where to go for help. This is especially true for anything that involves technology. Once you cross that boundary into the realm of technology, you’re talking about coordinating the efforts of people from vastly different disciplines. As a result, it’s more important than ever to know how to collaborate effectively with others. Even if your project is a simple one, knowing how to collaborate effectively makes a big difference.

A great collaboration starts with a clear vision of the goals that everyone is working toward. I’ve always found that a well-thought-out, written creative brief is a great way to literally get everyone on the same page. See my earlier blog entry for more detail about that.

Involve team members as early and deeply as possible. The experts who are responsible for implementing the project will bring critical perspectives that can radically affect the direction and success of the project. The earlier they have a chance to influence the direction the project takes, the more likely the project will benefit from their expertise. This is especially important in projects that have significant technical aspects.

An in-person kickoff meeting is extremely valuable. All team members should attend the kickoff meeting. It’s just a reality of today’s marketplace that many projects are composed of virtual teams who never have a chance to meet in person, but every reasonable effort should be made to have an in-person kickoff meeting. Short of that, conference calls or online video conferences are the next best things. An effective kickoff meeting serves several valuable purposes:

• Assures that team members understand the project’s goals, limitations, schedule, budget, available assets, etc.
• Clarifies each participant’s role.
• Helps everyone understand the roles of the other team members.
• Allows team members to meet each other and establish a human connection.

The most important thing about a kickoff meeting is to involve all of the key players from the beginning, and to get those team members talking to each other about coordinating their efforts. Open lines of communication are key to a successful collaboration.

My brother is a contractor and I’ll never forget something he taught me about construction – which is really a form of collaboration. He told me the toughest part of being a contractor was where the trades meet. For example, where the tile meets the hardwood floor. If those two trades aren’t coordinating with each other, you’ll have a permanent bump in the floor where they meet.

Meetings at key points with all the team members are also valuable. Encourage team members to report on how their parts of the project are going, and particularly to discuss any areas where the efforts of different participants overlap or connect. Maintain an atmosphere where people feel safe to express points of view, concerns and/or observations.

Websites are a good example of a creative collaboration that involves several disparate disciplines. I had the pleasure of directing a recent online documentary about a company that has a unique approach to collaboration on websites. The company is Big Spaceship, and the documentary is part of the Creative Inspirations series on Lynda.com. You can sample that documentary at this link. Big Spaceship designed their open office around five team spaces. Each self-contained and complete team fits inside a U shaped workspace. This allows the designers, developers, and project managers to work closely and visibly with each other. The system works so well for spontaneous communication that there are no phones on any of those desks, and email is kept to a minimum. Their system is obviously working because Big Spaceship is responsible for some of the most creative and advanced websites on the Internet.

Please share your comments on my blog, or contact me directly. And please, ask for my help. More to come: watch here for future installments.