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A checklist for creative management: from theory to practice
For years, academics and practitioners alike have been exploring the best way to ‘manage creativity’. The two words in themselves seem like opposites– by its very nature creativity is chaotic, whereas management strives for order and efficiency (we first wrote about this in two posts a few months ago - The Messiness of Creativity and Working [...]
Bracket Salon: the strategic role of design
For our second Bracket Salon, we brought together a group of experts across different design disciplines – digital, communication, service design and research/textiles – to demonstrate the strategic role that design can (and should) play in companies. In their discussion, the team covered how designers are gaining new roles in facilitation and social innovation, and [...]
From idea to execution: tips for keeping teams and projects moving
Our energy and commitment – and thus a willingness to tolerate the sometimes painful process of execution – are naturally high only when an idea is first conceived… Our ideas become less interesting as we realize the implied responsibilities and sheer amount of work required to execute them Scott Belsky in Making Ideas Happen Something [...]
Un-clarity, un-risk and un-management: words from Ije Nwokorie, MD at Wolff Olins, on leading a creative business
Facilitation is a word that Ije Nwokorie, Managing Director at Wolff Olins (international brand consultancy), uses with pride. He sees it as one of today’s most important management skills. So he made it his mission to make it something that Wolff Olins would become famous for, and he’s well on the way to achieving this. [...]
Getting stuff done: workflow for creative teams
For the fourth post in our “Doing, not talking” series, we’re looking the “doing” during a project – developing a workflow so that a creative team can concentrate on what they do best. An online search for the word “workflow” is not particularly inspiring – returning a lot of technical-looking and process-heavy results. But considering [...]
What’s your problem? – a briefing template
For our theme of “Doing, not talking”, we’re providing practical methods and tools for supporting collaboration. In an earlier post, we gave some insight into our process for building a top creative team. But before you start your search for talent, one of the most important things you can do is to produce an effective [...]
Start with the individual: the personal audit
This month, we’re looking at “Doing, not talking” and providing some practical tools that can be used to help teams work better together. Since collaboration starts with the individual, for our first post we’re trying out the personal audit – a tool to be used by team members to review their own position before the [...]
Doing, not talking
Throughout May and June, the theme for our Bracket Mondays posts is: Doing, not talking. Last month, we were at the Business Design Summit in Berlin. The two-day event brought together 11 leading authors and business experts, plus practitioners, to share their latest tools for strategy and innovation. And it demonstrated that the best way, [...]
How to build a top creative team: an insight into our process
As a Collaboration Catalyst, you’ll often find yourself responsible for mobilising teams at the start of a project. There are different ways that these teams might have formed – an existing team might have a new challenge presented to them, or a conversation between new connections may identify an opportunity that they can address together. [...]
Bracket Salon: How can brands embrace both digital and analogue?
This month, we held our first Bracket Salon of the year. Bracket Salons are monthly events where we hand-pick a team of freelancers from our network, bring them together and facilitate a fast-paced, 2-hour session to debate and generate ideas, and explore how the team can work together. We brought together freelancers from disciplines across film, [...]