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How to Get Out of a Creative Collaboration Slump

Let's face it, everyone experiences burnout. Here are some of our favorite tips for getting out of creative collaboration slumps.
By CROOW Staff Feb 23, 2022
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While you probably wish you could create your best work from 9 am to 5 pm five days a week, it is just not realistic. Experiencing burnout or hitting a roadblock are frequent challenges that creatives face when producing their craft. Knowing that everyone faces a creative collaboration slump every now and again means that you can implement strategies for your team to push through them. Creative collaboration is an integral part of the future of agency life, and it requires that your team is equipped with a growth mindset and knows ways to work through challenges when they inevitably occur.

Here are some of our favorite tips for getting out of creative collaboration slumps:

Use tools to kickstart creativity 

CROOW is one of our favorite tools to harness the power of creative collaboration because it allows you to seamlessly work on projects together. Regardless of your role within an agency, creativity is most likely at the forefront of the skills you use on a daily basis. Creativity is a muscle that must be exercised and strengthened over time, and it is also a skill that takes time and can sometimes require that you do things differently than you have done them before.

Using a platform like CROOW can help you better understand how your team works. After you have an understanding of their daily process, you will be able to gain an understanding of what their needs are and how you can support them throughout the creative process.

Redefine your process 

If you find that these slumps are occurring within your team more often than not, there could be a problem with your process. This could be due to a lack of proper communication, poorly defined roles, and responsibilities, or no visual success. Getting an agency workflow that functions best for your company is fundamental to beating the worst of creative slumps.

Having a streamlined process should make workflow a breeze, rather than adding extra tasks to your workload. Once you have identified what areas need changes or updating, your team can assess what needs to be done to help get everyone back on track. Redefining the way you work does not have to be complicated or costly, instead, it should simply be a way to get everyone back on the same page to creatively thrive together. 

Change up your group patterns 

When your team is stuck, chances are they are not able to see beyond a problem and push through it. In order to combat this and prevent it from happening often, try changing up the group’s normal schedule or daily work routine. Changing places can help change their mindset, which opens their eyes to a new solution they could not previously have thought of. Some exercises you can do when your team is stuck include hosting brainstorm sessions and creative reviews. One of the best ways to get out of a slump are to bounce ideas off of another person from your team, and having another viewpoint can help positively influence your project.

Consider taking a walk or having your collaboration session in a new location if your team is working in-person together. This can help shock your system in a healthy way, and can give you a new or different perspective to your project. Or if your team is working remotely, consider doing a fun activity during your usual team meeting that will change up the structure of your regular sessions. You can also encourage your team members to move to a new location within their space if possible, as it may help them get out of their usual routine. Depending on your team’s structure, these could be implemented for individuals or for groups.

Check out CROOW’s complete guide on creative collaboration to read more about how it can benefit your team.