How To Maximise Global Creative Teams
Are you leading Global Creative Teams? Every organisation strives for innovation as it makes a business a market leader. Although most revolutionary products come from certain departments or side projects of established firms, it’s always the creatives—tenured and new—who incubate the ideas and start the ripple effect. These teams are rarely centralised. This means that they come from various walks of life and are based in myriad locations internationally that’s why the schools of thought are diverse as well.
We will talk about how this setup works. Contrary to the traditional workplace and COVID remote culture, creatives don’t need to spend 8 hours in cubicles or even take Zoom calls all day in pyjamas to make an impact. It is more of having a routine with dynamics and not repetitive. It takes phases to ideate, test and execute the idea. One phase could take weeks or months before they transition to a “season” when they have to do entirely different tasks. Here are 5 key points to take note of:
1. Cultivate a Safe Space
When meetings or workshops are aimed to juice out innovative takes, the members need to let loose. If the superior in the room steers the conversation, there’s a huge tendency that other attendees will default to a hive mind. When this happens, it is unlikely to come up with something extraordinary. So it is pivotal to take a bottom-up approach when sourcing opinions in a group discussion whether that’s virtual or in-person. One of the ways to do it is through the diverge-and-converge technique. Also, remind everyone that there is no right or wrong answer. This will create the notion that you are inclusive of everybody’s point of view as certain cultures and practices could be opposite from your perspective.
2. Experiment in your Laboratory
The difference between professional debaters and scientists is that debaters argue to win. Scientists, on the other hand, argue to learn. So when they get to the dead end of an argument, they can finally come up with a hypothesis to test. In addition, if the theory never failed then it’s a bad one. It’s supposed to fail so that you can learn from iteration. What isn’t applicable in business though is that you don’t simply settle for a conclusion. Every product or service should be set into a continuous improvement program unless the customers are signalling, “Don’t fix what isn’t broken.”
3. Provide Constructive Criticism
All of us know someone creative. They’re usually that person in your circle that you would tag as the artist. Like many artists, we know that a lot of their work is dependent on their emotions. If someone tells you that they do business without being personal, they’re lying. So if you want to be professional, detach the craft from the creator but empathise first with their processes and backgrounds to articulate the best feedback possible.
4. Measure Controllable Metrics
There are hideous tales that equate mouse clicks with productivity. As expected, they weren’t happy endings. Instead of aiming for 100,000 followers alone, set goals that can make that possible like producing 100 videos and a/b testing 2 titles and thumbnails per video. This relates to having the O (objective) in OKR but focusing on KR (key results) instead. If your teammates know how they contribute to a common goal then they will feel like they are a part of something bigger than them. This is not a fluffy way of doing it as operations in the Philippines for example can substantially impact a headquarters’ output in Australia.
5. Use Methodologies and Document What Works
In the book, Zero to One, Peter Thiel talked about how the majority of the best inventions were built from something that already exists: from cabs to Uber, from hotels to Airbnb, and from DVDs to Netflix. Which proves that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be ingenious. For instance, Google Ventures (GV) uses a methodology called Design Sprint and it still works to this day. Leveraging your people’s experiences and favoured perks in their countries could spark fresh suggestions for your target regions.
To wrap it up, it’s quintessential to be inclusive of your team’s uniqueness as it largely underpins their creativity. By anchoring on their causes, you are playing by their strengths to reveal untapped potential. Half of the time, offers don’t fit the market as the number of ideas doesn’t start with the diversity of the people in the room. To think differently as an organisation, have individual thinkers.
Our partners’ staff are more creative and enthusiastic towards day-to-day work activities due to the creative open spaces that we strategically create for them. We are constantly measuring and assessing output to understand deliverables and how these can be maximised through R&D. Contact us here or you can book a free strategy call on this link to get started.