Team collaboration will lead us to mutual success”. Maybe we often hear the statement, but do we know what is meant by “collaboration”? Collaboration is a form of interaction, discussion, compromise, collaboration related to individuals, groups or several other parties, both those involved directly or indirectly. In addition, collaboration means having the same and strong values as a component of effective collaboration. For example, having the same goal direction, common perception, a sense of mutual compromise, determination to find solutions together, and so forth.
Collaboration is very much needed in the world of work. Yep! Work collaboration is instilled in many companies so that all employees have strong team collaboration. It is true that collaboration does not always bring benefits to us. Even so, like everything else, collaboration also has several disadvantages for those who carry it out. One of the disadvantages of collaboration is that we will experience stress because of too many conflicts. Logically, the more people there are, the more ideas will be conveyed, and the conflict will be more diverse.
Even so, collaboration remains an important thing to apply in the workplace. The importance of collaboration is also one of the keys to success for geniuses in ancient times. There have been so many famous inventors and geniuses until now who used to rely heavily on collaboration.
In the book written by Vera John-Steiner with the title “Creative Collaboration” tells about how the success of intelligent people like Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein was greatly influenced by partnerships with people in their day. Creative collaboration is still needed today. Moreover, technological developments have made it easier for us to collaborate with each other by using existing technological advancements.
For example, your fellow readers have one idol singer, and your idol singer can collaborate with other music bands and use more interesting song arrangements. That can be said as a creative collaboration. Another example, a reader company is engaged in education and training. Maybe on other occasions you can collaborate with digital companies, where both companies make business related to digital training. It can also be said as creative collaboration, which we might often find in the modern era like today.
What Are the Ways to Increase Creative Collaboration?
Creative collaboration is needed so that we can still excel together with the team. Reporting from entrepreneur websites, there are 4 ways we can apply to enhance creative collaboration. Anything? Let us consider the following explanation.
- Ensure All Team Members Are Really Included.
The first and foremost thing for us to think about is ensuring that all team members are truly involved in every work process. Don’t let them feel left behind or feel “left out”. Believe me, that is a very painful thing. When there is one or several team members who feel left behind, then creative collaboration will not form properly.
Hightail survey results show that 60% of employees feel that leaders who play an important role in every work project are not too detailed and do not provide careful supervision of their employees, so many of the employees are not included in the work project process. Usually this often happens to people outside the core creative team.
So, what can we do to increase creative collaboration in this matter? The solution, we need to use digital power. We can use a common digital space that is easily accessible to all employees or team members. The goal is that they can all share their ideas or creative work. In this way, leaders will not forget to include all team members in the process of creative collaboration.
- Reduce Use of E-mail as Collaborative Media.
The use of e-mail is still very well known today. In a recent survey conducted by Hightail it showed that one third of respondents worked on creative collaboration projects that were not completed on time (late). Wow, why did it happen like that huh? In fact, 66% of people in the project only reviewed the project via e-mail. Meaning, they see and check visual documents sent by e-mail such as pictures and videos. Unfortunately, only 30% of people use email as an effective collaborative medium for providing feedback on these visual documents.
Logically, how can we create creative collaboration if there are only a few interactions and feedback. In addition, only 30% actively participated, while 66% of them only became silent observers.
Then, what’s the solution? Instead of being too fixated on email as a collaboration medium, why not use more effective communication methods such as direct discussions (presentations), video conferencing or online meetings.
- Increase Frequency in Communicating.
One well-known scientist named Alex Pentland was amazed by the way the group collaborated that could run actively because each member felt compelled to convey the creative ideas they had.
To the extent, one team from Alex who works at MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory is trying to find information and understand the secrets behind excellent teamwork collaboration. One of the methods used by his team is to use electronic sensors to capture interactions between group members in real time.
And … the results were quite surprising, colleagues! The results showed that teamwork with excellent team collaboration always maintained their communication regularly. That is, their frequency of communication is very frequent. All team members chat, interact, listen to each other. They are also often involved in informal communication such as drinking coffee together outside the office to look for ideas together or just enjoy the beautiful afternoon with colleagues. Communication that is established with a high frequency will facilitate the formation of creative collaboration.
- Make Sure We Recruit Talented Team Members.
To maximize the creative collaboration process that we want, we need to make wise and selective selections from the start. Collaboration requires people who are tough and truly talented. That’s why one of the keys to effective creative collaboration is to ensure that all team members have shining talents.
In other words, we may not just choose to include someone in our creative collaboration process. Avoid buying “cats in a sack”, because with the right selection process, creative collaboration will be easier to create.
