Three tips for better creative collaboration
Collaboration isn’t just working together—it’s creating something you couldn’t have achieved alone. But too often, collaboration becomes a polite tug-of-war, with ideas diluted instead of amplified.
Here’s how to fix that:
Celebrate friction. Great ideas come from creative conflict. Don’t avoid it—lean into it. Disagreement means someone cares enough to think differently. Instead of defending your position, ask, “What’s the piece of the puzzle I’m not seeing?”
Ditch ownership. Collaboration isn’t about whose idea wins, it’s about which idea wins. Drop the ego, share credit, and build something bigger than your name on the presentation.
Prototype early. Don’t debate endlessly. Test. Build a quick version of the idea and let it guide the conversation. Getting real world evidence beats theorising every time.
The secret to better creative collaboration? It’s not harmony, it’s progress. Work like you’re solving a puzzle, not protecting a piece.