Creative Collaboration: Giving Credit Gets You Credit

When it comes to giving or taking credit, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a creative project or a home mortgage; undue credit is harmful to everyone. There may seem to be momentary gain for the perpetrator, but eventually reality will catch up and everybody loses. The recent sub-prime mortgage meltdown is a painful example.

In many industries – particularly the creative ones – credits are the currency of getting future work. The next time you watch a theatrical film, be sure to notice the end credits. Those end credits generate enormous value for the cast and crew. Years ago, I worked on a few dozen theatrical films and it still gives me a great feeling when people tell me they saw my credit.

It would be difficult to affix a specific monetary value to credits, but it doesn’t cost anything to do, and in some circumstances, credit is even more important than monetary rewards. That’s why it’s so important that creative credits be handled properly.

The rules are simple:

1. Give credit where credit is due. Be accurate, be thorough, and be generous.

2. When taking credit, do not claim credit for anything that you didn’t do, or that diminishes anyone else’s legitimate credit. Be accurate.

One of the worst mistakes is to take credit for someone else’s work. Having recruited and hired hundreds of creative professionals throughout my career, I have been occasionally shocked by improper credit in portfolios and resumés.

I remember one designer’s portfolio that that actually included some of my own work. I’ve never seen a job interview end faster.

Another designer showed me a piece of work in her portfolio that was a faithful reproduction of a TV main title that I had done. Only the name of the program had been changed. She could not understand why I was not pleased that she was calling this her design.

Another time, two people were both taking credit for the same work. I was never able to determine the truth. That was a very troubling situation.

Almost as bad, is to neglect to acknowledge someone’s contribution – especially when that contribution is substantial. It has happened to me, and I can vouch that it’s something you never forget.

Once upon a time, when my former company was young, we did one of our first large-scale projects. We were all very proud of the groundbreaking work we had done. Our client was also very pleased and proud, so he made arrangements to showcase the project in a presentation at our main industry conference. The room was packed with our peers. The people in the audience were aware that we had done this large project and were eager to learn more. And then a funny thing happened: our client neglected to mention us – at all. You would think that our client had done the work all by himself.

Since it was well-known that we had done the work, the whole audience (i.e. the whole industry) immediately recognized his faux pas. Our client seemed to sense his error after the presentation, but didn’t know how to undo it. I remember feeling so stunned that I couldn’t imagine a proper way to talk with him without a confrontation or making him feel like a fool.

The damage was done. Our client made himself look like a buffoon. We had been shut out of an opportunity to shine before our industry. The people in the audience, rather than leaving the presentation feeling inspired by the work were shocked by the client’s glaring faux pas. It was a lose-lose-lose situation.

In contrast, if the client had given proper credit and perhaps included some of our team in the presentation, he would have looked like a smart leader, and the spotlight would have certainly helped our young business. This would have cost the client nothing, and the presentation would have been enriched with first-hand perspectives among peers.

The big lesson of the day was to give proper credit where credit is due, and don’t take excess credit for things you worked on.

If you are a creative person, be honest and accurate with how you represent your credits. Claiming greater credit than is due will only get you into trouble.

If you manage creative people, acknowledge the specific contributions of the team members diligently, accurately, and generously. In my experience, it’s usually the insecure and incompetent who do otherwise.

If you are the client of a creative project, remember that giving proper credit to the people who did the work is as vital to their prosperity as their financial compensation for the project. Proper credit costs you nothing, and provides great value to the people who have worked so hard for you.

At my former company, Pittard Sullivan, we developed a great way to assure that credits were properly acknowledged. We documented credits immediately upon completion of every project. We gave open access to all team members to make sure that credits were properly acknowledged and recorded. We then published these credits to the whole staff. I still have a notebook that includes full credits for every project we did between 1995 and 2001, and it still comes in handy. The trick is to determine credits immediately upon completion of the project, and to build consensus about those credits.

It’s a small world. Handling credits properly is directly related to your personal karma.

Please share your comments on my blog, and let me know about credit issues you’ve encountered.

More to come: watch here for future installments. 

Toxic Collaborators: Creative Collaboration Part 8

Creativity is a lot like gardening. Put the right elements into the right conditions and you should get healthy growth. Some components enhance or accelerate growth, but others retard growth or possibly even kill the plant. With creative collaboration, the main components are the people and their behaviors, and like the gardening example, some people and their behaviors stimulate creativity, but some are toxic. Effective creative collaboration is always about getting people in the right state of mind, so nurturing healthy growth and avoiding toxicity among the participants is key to making it work.

The participants of a creative collaboration include the creative team itself, the client (whether external or internal), and the executive and administrative infrastructure directly or indirectly involved in the project. Creative process is vulnerable to toxicity from any of those areas. Toxicity may be a disruption of a creative state-of-mind or a disruption of resources. Regardless of how or where the toxicity comes from, the result is diminished value of the final product, and diminished creative ability for future efforts.

Considering that manpower is the biggest cost of most creative projects, toxic collaborators are very costly in terms of lost value and lost efficiency. Oddly enough, some of the biggest perpetrators of creative toxicity are those who seem to be most concerned with costs.

It happens to all creative people sooner or later. We find ourselves working with certain individuals who are literally toxic to our creative efforts. We find our energy drained by dealing with all sorts of issues that have little or nothing to do with creating great work. Toxic collaborators suck the life out of the project. It can come from any direction: up, down, or sideways, but most frequently it comes from above. So what do you do?

It's tempting to villainize the toxic collaborator (TC), but don't let that consume your thoughts and energy. That kind of thinking will definitely diminish your creative effectiveness. I recommend that you take the attitude that you will be able to overcome any toxicity from any collaborator. To do otherwise is to give up too easily. If you assume you can overcome, you switch from being a victim to being a problem-solver. Problem-solver mode is a much healthier, happier place to be. You remain in control of yourself. This not to say that all toxic collaborators can be overcome, but optimism is a good first step toward overcoming the problem.

In some cases the TC may be your boss, your boss's boss, or a client. In these cases, it's imperative to try to understand the TC's point-of-view. Assume that there must be some degree of validity to their perspective and actions. The ability to dig in and understand how another person sees things is an extremely valuable skill – especially when that point-of-view is quite different from your own. Just by trying, you may gain valuable new insights into the project or possibly the dynamics of human nature. Never lose hope that you will be able to understand the other person’s point-of-view, even if it turns out to be an ugly one.

There is also the possibility that you may learn that the TC is a person you need to get away from. If the TC is a client, the best solution may be to "fire" the client. If the TC is your boss, you may want to start looking for another job. For creative professionals, rarely is it worth the pain, suffering, and diminished creative performance caused by working in a toxic relationship.

If you think you might be a toxic collaborator yourself, consider the negative effects of your conduct. Ask yourself, “Is your conduct helping others be more creative, or is it holding them back?” If your success depends on the quality of the creative work, diminished productivity and a lower level of creative excellence is having a very real negative effect on your bottom line. You may not see it or be able to measure it, but it's there. Also consider that it's a small world and word gets around. The best creative people avoid working with anyone who has a reputation as a TC. Toxic behavior limits your future prospects for doing great work. It's a reputation that can ruin a career or a business.

Seventeen examples of toxic collaborators

1. The Unprepared. Rather than do the work necessary to provide good direction, this person wings it, causing false starts and wasted effort. Typical thing this person might say: “I don’t know why. I just don’t like it. I’ll know the right solution when I see it.”

2. The King or Queen. Organizations frequently outgrow the abilities of the person responsible for starting the organization. If that person has a healthy ego, he or she will have no problem deferring judgment to others in the organization with more qualified expertise, but it’s common that the original leader cannot let go of their authority. As a result, the original leader becomes a limiting factor to the organization rather than a facilitator. This stymies the contributions and initiatives of the other people in the organization. The leader’s actions come more from a need to be King or Queen, than what is best for the goals at hand. This is toxic not only to the work, but to the organization. Typical thing this person might say: “Let’s have a meeting.”

3. The Dabbler. Dabbles in the work, but at such a distance that he or she doesn't really understand the work well enough to make a positive contribution. Instead, he or she simply mucks up the process. Typical thing this person might say: “I want to review this before it goes out. I’ll be on vacation for the next three weeks.”

4. The Unbeliever. Seems to think that creativity has little or no value. Tends to come from people whose training and work is systematic such as accounting. Typical thing this person might say: “Exactly how will this contribute to the bottom line?”

5. The Screamer. This person thinks it's okay to yell at people and use a lot of derogatory language. Typical thing this person might say: “You ____ing idiot!”

6. The Credit Taker. More concerned with personal accolades than doing the best work. Typical thing this person might say: “My Art Director finally listened to what I was saying.”

7. The Insecure. This person desperately wants to do great work and be respected for it. The problem is that his or her anxiety and insecurities drive everyone crazy. The work becomes more about their insecurities than the assignment. Typical thing this person might say: a lot of name-dropping of leaders in the field (people they’ve never met), and sometimes a lot of jargon as well.

8. The Naysayer. Puts a lot of energy into why things can't be done rather than figuring how to get things done. Typical thing this person might say: “That won’t work.”

9. The Lying, Cheating, Thief. Creativity is fragile process. Dishonesty has a toxic effect on the process. “Hello,” he lied.

10.The Loudest Voice in the Room. Creative people are generally somewhat quiet and reserved. Loud people who don't edit their thoughts before speaking subvert the creative dynamic. Great creative ideas can be inadvertently shot down by comments from this loudmouth.

11.The Lawyer. Corporate lawyers sometimes misinterpret their role in protecting brands and copyrights, and as a result, actively prevent appropriate creative use of these valuable assets. Brands and copyrighted materials should not be treated as static assets, but as dynamic tools for achieving business goals. Typical thing this person might say: “You’re not allowed to use our logo like that.”

12.The Unqualified Evaluator Who Denies His or Her Lack of Qualification. Like the King or Queen mentioned above, occasionally managers find themselves in positions of authority over creative work for which they are unqualified to evaluate. A manager with a healthy ego will have no problem deferring judgment to those who are more qualified, but others may exercise authority just because they can. The results are likely to be toxic.

13.The Micro-Manager. This person actively blocks creativity by trying to control every aspect of the work. Micro-managing may actually work for routine processes like manufacturing, but it’s toxic to creative work. Creativity is largely a mental process that requires study, reflection, and trial and error. It’s impractical to micro-manage those processes in another person. Goals and deadlines can and should be set, but leave the creative process up to the individual assigned to do the work. Typical thing this person might say: “I want to see and approve everything you are doing, and how you are doing it.”

14.The Second Guesser. This person has no confidence or guts to try anything new, and will always opt for the safest, most familiar solutions – which by definition is not creative. Typical thing this person might say: “This looks a little too out there to me. Let’s tone it down a bit.”

15.The Legacy Maker. This person has a need to always change the work, so that he or she can justify his or her involvement – regardless of whether the input affects the work positively. Typical thing this person might say: “If we change this, it might work.”

16.The Relative. In this situation, a creative team has been given an assignment, which they are proceeding with, when the boss or client surprises them with competing proposals from a family member. It happens more often than you might think. The assigned team is both disempowered and put in the very awkward position of possibly insulting the boss or the client with comments about their relative’s work. Typical thing this person might say: “My daughter is taking art classes at her high school and she had some ideas...”

17.The Charlatan. The Charlatan is a shameless user of people. Think of the wealthy bored housewife type who has a project, but no respect or empathy for the creative “help” hired to do the work. Typical thing this person might say: “I hate this. Let’s start all over.”

Help is available

Chances are you may have been subject to or the cause of one or more of these real-world situations. When you’re in the middle of this kind of situation, it can be difficult to maintain objectivity, but that’s your best strategy for success. A reliable way to get that objectivity is to ask for help from an outside expert. That’s one of my specialties, so call me.

Illegitimi non carborundum

If you’re a creative professional who feels victimized by toxic collaborators, let me help you change your approach so that you regain control of your situation, your state of mind, and your work. Life is too short to live and work that way.

If you’re a manager or a business owner who is concerned that you may be guilty of toxic collaboration, treatment is critical for the profitability of your business. If you happen to be one of the very few people from my past who has perpetrated any of these deeds upon me, I will charge you only a small premium for the extra insight I’ve already gained from studying your toxic behaviors. ;-)

Let me know about toxic collaborators you’ve encountered. Please share your comments on my blog, or contact me directly.

More to come: watch here for future installments.

Be Prepared for Discomfort, Uncertainty, and Failure: Creative Collaboration Part 7

Having been involved in an uncountable number of creative projects, I can safely say that being creative is not about being safe. Safe solutions to creative assignments are rarely creative. If you really and truly want a creative solution, be prepared for uncertainty, discomfort, and failure. Although confirmation of success generally takes some time to appear after the work is completed, the good news is that uncertainty, discomfort, and failure are simply states you may pass through to get to a successful creative solution.

It takes a special kind of environment for truly creative work to happen. Participants need to know it’s okay to break old paradigms and try new things – even when it means foregoing tried and true solutions. When the collaborators know that it’s okay to try possible solutions that might not work out, it will lead to more creative thinking and a better eventual outcome.

When tasked with a creative assignment, it’s not unusual to feel an urge to stick with familiar kinds of solutions that you’ve had success with before, but this “comfort zone” is the enemy of creativity. Some creative people latch onto the first idea that pops into their minds. They jump right into implementing that idea without even considering any options. My advice to people who do this is to push yourself out of that “comfort zone.” If you don’t, you’ll certainly not achieve your creative potential, and you’ll probably burn out at some point. I’ve seen talented people become so locked into one kind of solution that they convince themselves that they are incapable of coming up with other kinds of solutions. Their work becomes one big blur of sameness and you can hardly tell one project from another. When that happens, the cure is to identify what elements you are repeating, and stop doing those things. It might be color, composition, or any combination of many different aspects of your work. You must consciously avoid those habitual solutions and replace them with new habits that keep you from getting into creative ruts. Try to find inspiration in the projects themselves to come up with unique new solutions. Force yourself to try new things and new approaches. This will cause feelings of uncertainty and discomfort, and you can expect a lot of failed attempts, but on the other side of breaking those old habits is the reward of unlimited creative potential.

When you are genuinely going into new creative territory, there will naturally be a certain amount of failure. A good creative process will take this into account and methodically eliminate many possible solutions until the one final solution is arrived at. For example, the multi-purpose WD-40 got its name from having been preceded by 39 failures. Attempt number 40 was so successful it has been a best selling product for almost fifty years and for many of those years it was the only product that the company made.

When your client says they want a very creative solution, it’s important to find out what he or she means by that. It’s probably not what you think, because you and your client probably have very different points of view about what’s creative. In my experience, when a client says they want a very creative solution, two possible scenarios come to mind:

A. The client recently saw something that they liked and thought was creative and now they want you to give them that same thing – but with their logo on it. Of course, this is not creative. Or…

B. The client really does need a very creative solution.

In scenario B, your job is to prepare the client for discomfort. The client needs to know that the degree of creativity of the proposed solutions will be directly proportional to their own discomfort. That is not to say that the more uncomfortable the client is, the better the solution is. Rather it means that creative solutions are unfamiliar by their very nature and may make the approval process somewhat uncomfortable and uncertain.

The magic of a healthy creative collaboration is that team members tend to challenge proposed solutions more than we might challenge ourselves when we work alone. That process of challenging ideas can get very uncomfortable, but it keeps us on our toes and keeps us thinking. Discomfort actually fuels the creative process. It takes maturity and the right kind of environment for this to happen constructively, but that’s just another reason why great creative work is a rare and precious thing.

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.

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.

Creative Collaboration Part 4: Be Constructive

Being constructive is at the heart of professional creativity. It’s all about making a series of informed choices and decisions that move you toward a goal or a solution. Negativity can come from the client, or it can come from within the creative team itself. Here are some ways to stay focused on constructive efforts and avoid negative traps.

One very helpful method comes from the world of improvisational comedy. They use a great method called “Yes, and.” Essentially, it means that each new step of an exchange must be accepted and added to. Whatever one actor introduces to the improvised play, the other actors must accept and add to. This keeps the forward momentum going. In creative collaborations, I‘ve observed that using the “Yes, and” method allows the better ideas float to the top while weaker ideas tend to drop away. It definitely keeps the process from getting bogged down with negatives. This is the opposite of those kinds of meetings where you hear things like “yes, but,” or “we already tried that and it doesn’t work,” or just plain old “that won’t work.”

Walt Disney developed a similar technique called “Plussing.” The idea is that no matter how good your idea is, keep trying to improve or “plus” it. It’s another great way to keep a creative a project moving toward success.

Another negative trap to avoid is defining creative assignments on what not to do rather than what to do. A well-thought-out creative brief should provide a clear target to constructively move toward. While it’s true that a good brief may include notes about things to avoid, they should not be the main focus of the brief. If you tell someone to not think of an elephant, of course that’s exactly what they do. It’s almost impossible not to. It’s much better to provide guidance for what to move toward.

When giving feedback, it is important to provide information that the creative team can respond to constructively. It’s of almost no value to give an “I don’t like it” kind of note. It just leaves the team feeling confused and de-motivated. On the other hand, explaining why something is not liked (or liked) can provide valuable clues for the team to respond to constructively.

The creative team members also need to do their part to take feedback constructively. When a team has been hard at work on a project and the client’s feedback is less than stellar, it can be hard to take, but it’s important to use that feedback constructively to improve the work. That feedback is golden if you are truly focused on delivering the best possible final solutions. One common scenario is when the client’s feedback involves some sort of new information that has come to light, or when the circumstances for the assignment have changed. It’s important to embrace this new information to be able to deliver the best final solution. There may be a need for additional charges when this happens, but that’s a different issue.

Adversity, criticism, and dissatisfaction can actually be turned into positive motivation. It is information that can ultimately make a project more successful. When I was developing the ZOOOOS interactive video system which utilizes a universal remote control, my colleague Brian Ring was very concerned that setting up a universal remote was a major hassle for consumers. It irritated me that he was so concerned about that aspect when I wanted to move on to other issues that I thought were more important. My feeling of irritation turned into motivation to solve that problem. As a result, we developed a completely new method for setting up a universal remote that was worthy of an additional patent – and our product was that much better for it.

A can-do attitude goes a long way toward getting things done. Negative attitudes can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is not to say that a Pollyanna approach should be used. Real problems should be recognized for what they are, so that appropriate measures can be taken to deal with them effectively. For example, I once had a client, Joe, who always made a change to whatever we presented whether the change was needed or not. Joe just had to make his mark on every project. Our solution was to include a non-essential element in every presentation that Joe could change. We thought of this as his bone of contention, and we called it “Joe’s bone” in his honor. This enabled us to complete those projects without frivolous changes and Joe got to make his mark.

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.

Team Dynamics: Creative Collaboration Part 3

You can’t put a random bunch of people together and expect them to be able to successfully collaborate on a creative project. You need a few fundamental elements in place. You need the right people in the right roles, good processes that assure on-target results, and a good structure to facilitate it all.

Let’s start with the people.

First, take the time to define each role; what skills are required of each role, and what is expected of the performance of each role. Define each role specifically enough so that it meets the needs of the work, and broadly enough so that you don’t miss out on unexpected talent. Then put the most qualified person in each role. I like to think of it like casting roles in a performance.

The leader’s role is to define project goals, team roles, and then support each team member in bringing his or her abilities to the assignment. In simplest terms, the project leader gets the right people in the right roles, sets up the right conditions, and then gets out of the way and lets people do their assigned work

Once team roles are assigned, it’s important that team members have ownership of their roles and support from management to fulfill those roles. Team members have an obligation to fulfill their roles to the best of their abilities, and management should support that. With this level of personal responsibility in place, each team member can utilize his or her own unique knowledge, skills, and experiences, while the project leader is able to remain focused on overall results rather than the details of how each person is executing his or her role. To be clear, the leader should provide ongoing feedback about the work, but that feedback should be based upon how well the work meets the brief – and not upon how the leader would have done the work himself or herself. Indeed, the execution of the work is likely to be quite different from how the leader would have done the same thing. If the team is well defined and well cast, the results should far exceed what the leader could achieve alone. Therein lies the beauty of 1+1=3.

A successful creative team has good processes.

Good processes are like good habits. They allow you to focus your attention on the special things you’re doing without having to use up resources on the mundane. For example, when you get ready to go to work in the morning, you probably aren’t even aware of the thousand little habits that help you get yourself properly groomed, dressed, and fed. Your mental resources are more likely focused on issues and opportunities at your job or some other important thing. All of those little habits that help you get ready for work free you up to use your resources for those more important things. Those habits also help keep you out of trouble – like forgetting your wallet – or your pants. Good processes are a way of institutionalizing wisdom, so that you don’t have to keep re-learning from your mistakes and successes.

That same principle applies to creative collaborations. Whatever your field is, there are going to be processes your team can use to maximize the benefit of everyone’s efforts, and keep the project from getting into trouble. At my former company, we had a set of processes that we called our Creative Process Map. It consisted of twenty-five distinct steps. We also had customized variations for each of our different disciplines such as branding, broadcast design, interactive design, and advertising design.

Here is an example of a standard set of creative processes:

1. Identify a need.
2. Prepare a project brief.
3. Assign the team.
4. Conduct a kickoff meeting with the team.
5. Gather information, analyze it, and gain insight.
6. Develop a broad range of possible solutions.
7. Test those ideas and refine to a single one for implementation.
8. Produce the work, testing and refining as you go.
9. Deliver and/or implement the finished work.
10. Conduct a wrap meeting to capture the learning.
11. Archive the work elements.

A successful creative team has good structure.

Any creative process is really just a set of decisions; choosing to do this and not that – a thousand times over – by every member of the team. As a matter of fact, if you were able to make every decision instantly, you’d be able to do your work in a fraction of the time that it normally takes. Most of the time spent on a creative project is actually spent making decisions, or re-doing work where the best decisions were not made. A good structure makes it possible for everyone on the team to make better decisions faster.

The most important aspects of structure are chain of command, and who is responsible for what. If the project lacks decisive leadership, the project will suffer and so will the team. That is not to say that the leadership of the team should be making all the decisions. To the contrary, most decisions should be made by experts in their assigned roles. The leaders need to make decisions about issues that transcend individual team roles. Leaders must take the higher view that is not so visible to team members who are working on limited aspects of the project.

Everyone does a better job when they know who is in charge – and when they know that someone is in charge. It also helps if the team believes those in charge make good decisions.

A great team is made up of strong players who play well together.

Just like a sports team requires all of its players to work together in harmony, the same applies to a creative team. Sometimes you can have great people, processes and structure, and yet still have a dysfunctional team. When there is disharmony in a team it is frequently because there’s a conflict in values of those on the team. Workplace values are one of the keys to successful creative collaboration, but that is a big subject and will be the topic of a future installment.

Please contact me with your thoughts and comments. And please, ask for my help. Watch here for future installments.