5 Ways to Encourage Your Team to Creatively Collaborate
A church’s creative team is made up of many people with a wide variety of skills, talents, and creative styles.
One of the most overlooked parts of having a great team is the need to encourage team members to collaborate with one another during the creative process. Let’s talk about five ways you can start encouraging your team members to work together creatively, so that you can get the best results.
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1. Media Meeting Project Previews & Discussions.
Set aside 10-15 minutes at your next meeting for some creative group discussion. Ask team members to bring current projects with them and let the group have a few minutes to go over each person’s work and give some insight. Give the team time to discuss each project but remember to keep it positive and constructive.
2. Set A Theme and Rally Your Team.
Once you have a project lined up, you need to make sure that everyone is rallied behind the same mental imagery. A great way to do this is by making sure that the stage designers, lighting directors, marketing directors, and other team members are all on board and working together to support a central project theme with a specific imagery.
A theme ensures that the music director is supporting the feel and atmosphere of the event with his song choice, and that the lighting director matches your graphic designer’s color palette, and so on. Cohesiveness in your events is crucial and the best way to achieve that is by working together creatively.
3. Share The Wins.
A great way to encourage your team to work together is to let them share in a project’s success. Highlight and recognize different team members who help make your biggest events special. Public recognition of achievement is a great way to keep your team motivated and on track. It’s also a great way to remind your team members that they are in fact “part of a team”. Share the love and keep your team motivated and connected.
4. Event Follow-Ups.
Once you’ve finished up a project, call your team together while the event is fresh on their minds and discuss what was done with excellence, what could be improved next time, and what you would have liked to have seen added! Giving your team time to bring their thoughts to the table will help improve your next project, and it will help your team to focus on each others strengths while revealing potential areas for growth.
5. Team Collaboration Software.
Keeping your team together on a project can be incredibly difficult. One of the handiest tools in any creative leader’s toolbox is a good piece of team collaboration software. Programs such as Trello, Slack, and Asana can help keep your team in contact with one another and on task. You’ll have to do a little legwork to find the right program or combination of programs for your team but they are essential in keeping everyone on track.
A team is meant to work together. Sharing in the creativity behind an event is a great way to encourage teamwork, build relationships, and improve on your existing programs.
Whether you choose one, two, or all of the options above, working together to achieve a creative vision will help you to go places you’ve never thought possible with your next worship service.
