Creative problem-solving and idea generation are key CEO priorities these days – a critical capability to keep pace with changing customer needs and competitive challenges. It’s also, as one might imagine, a prominent theme at the 2018 Cannes International Festival of Creativity, where I’ll be reporting from this week.
But for creative leaders inside companies – and particularly for the creative directors activating in real-time in Cannes this week – how do you get the best creative ideas even when you can’t get everyone in the same room for a brainstorm? How do you get ideas flowing faster when everyone is just trying to catch up to a never-ending email thread? In a global, mobile, millennial world, what needs to change?
The solution for 30,000 companies worldwide is a collaboration and productivity platform called Workplace by Facebook. It takes zero time for employees to learn (because it works like Facebook) and gets adoption rates of 80-to-90 percent, or more.
As a Premium Partner for Workplace, we help companies accelerate change in productivity, alignment and collaboration by getting them up and using the platform, fast. We’ve seen first-hand how Workplace helps companies overcome the traditional boundaries of geographies, time zones – all while collaborating in a familiar, dynamic and community-based environment.
The five creative hacks below are examples of how we’re using Workplace throughout the Cannes International Festival of Creativity to connect our delegation with creatives and client directors back home, many of which you can apply to drive collaboration and borderless thinking among your own teams.
1. Make Virtual Brainstorms More Fun:
With Workplace, you can reach colleagues across the globe via for 1:1 or group chat without ever needing a phone number again. Try using group chats for a live brainstorming session. You can share your screen and be on camera with your team, while sharing images and files instantaneously. This is a simple way to drive more dynamic interaction and ideation than a conference call or traditional virtual meeting.
2. Discover Ideas People “Like”:
Workplace offers users a variety of reaction options to posts and features like survey polling to test ideas and gauge opinions among a group. Especially with a large group, polling is a great method for testing draft concepts or making a decision. Give your own team members a voice by using polling for voting on the theme for the annual holiday party, selecting a new name for the conference room or voting on most important topics to cover at the next all company meeting. Co-create ideas with your clients or customers by using polling and assessing their reactions (like, love, haha, wow, sad, angry) to content you post in the group.
3. Think Beyond Your Own Walls:
Take “thinking outside the box” to the next level by inviting clients to join a multi-company group. They don’t need to have a Workplace account to join – you can invite them by simply using their email address. Using a group helps you stay connected with your client or customer between meetings, share creative deliverables and files for review, edit and leave comments related to draft materials, industry news and best practices – all in one place. Also, consider inviting a guest expert from outside your company to join a brainstorm group on a special topic, or use a multi-company group to hold a virtual focus group with stakeholders outside your company.
4. Share “Aha” Moments in Real Time:
Use Workplace Live video to share updates and key insights from events and client activations to help the rest of your team take part in the experience. Get up close to show how an activation is set up properly and teach other team members to do similar work. Share inspiration of the week with a leader video series, featuring a different creative leader each week sharing their latest creative inspiration in a 60 second video. Host live all-company meetings to keep the entire organization informed of the latest company news and inspired by the latest creative motivations.
5. Get the Right Brain Power on a Problem:
Need someone specific to weigh in on a creative challenge? Create a call-to-action by tagging a colleague using the @ symbol and they will be notified of the post. If you’re not sure who to tag, you can tag entire groups or events or use the search function or organization chart to find a colleague with the expertise you’re looking for.
Want to learn more about using Workplace by Facebook to drive creative collaboration within your own organization? Connect with me or visit daggerwinggroup.com/workplace.
