Collaboration

Collaboration in the creative process

Collaboration is an increasingly important element in the creative process and vital for projects that involve public funding engagement with diverse audiences and the general public.

The idea is to get everyone on board to share ideas and knowledge, with the ultimate result of improving the project outcomes and being more efficient or productive. In theory it’s fantastic, but in practice this can be difficult to achieve.

Often a raft of tools such as web conferencing or project blogs are suggested but these often just create forums for everyone to add noise to the project. Collaboration within the creative process is works best when carefully managed, with input at the right stages rather than a total free for all.

Carefully structured collaboration

In our experience a structured approach works best, bringing in collaborative sessions and group input at key stages and always with a clear goal. For example a typical project might include collaborative workshops to understand the project and audience needs, perhaps group brainstorm sessions to kick start the idea generation process, then collaborative input during conceptual design/proof of concept stages.

Robert Pinfold, Creative Director at Mickey & Mallory, says: “It’s about allowing project stakeholders input into key project areas, producing valuable and sometimes unexpected results. We use a comprehensive set of tools to elicit feedback and ideas, keeping project stakeholders and decision makers up to date at regular intervals.”

Managing the collaborative input in this way gives all stakeholders a voice and allows the agency to develop a strong creative approach that is not confused or watered down by unstructured input.

Coming soon:

• Is open source technology the best route for collaboration?
• Successfully managing collaboration in public, private partnerships.