13 collaboration challenges for creative teams and strategies for overcoming them

Creative work is fundamentally collaborative.

While it’s possible to develop stellar ideas on your own, working with others is often what takes them to new heights. Consider famous collaborative duos like Paul McCartney and John Lennon, or Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Ideas and perspectives (and some spirited debating) from both collaborators were necessary to make the Beatles and Apple so successful in the long run.

There are two crucial types of collaboration for creative teams: internal collaboration between team members, and external collaboration with stakeholders and clients. Many teams experience challenges when working collaboratively, especially as the need for creative assets continues to grow and teams become more distributed.

Here are some of the most common collaboration challenges creative teams face and how to tackle them within your own team.

What we'll cover

1. Aligning vision and goals

Before creative collaboration can start, everyone involved needs to be on the same page. A shared vision and goals sets the tone for the project and provides inspiration for team members.

However, some teams skip the important step of defining their vision and goals before work starts. Without a strong shared vision, your team members might feel confused or lose motivation, ultimately resulting in subpar deliverables, conflict between team members, and (worst of all) unhappy clients.

Solution

Schedule team meetings before the project starts and periodically throughout. These meetings should involve all relevant internal stakeholders. Encourage team members to share their ideas and concerns during these meetings. Outline your vision and goals so that everyone can reference them throughout the creative workflow.

Be as specific as possible with your vision and goals to avoid confusion. Then, put it in writing. For example, a specific goal for a product launch video might be something like, “Create a 30-second ad for an upcoming project that generates at least 50 pre-orders.”

This is where creative briefs come in handy. These documents are a roadmap to a successful, cohesive project, including valuable details like project goals, timelines, stakeholders, links to inspiration and resources, brand guidelines, project scope, and more. Creative briefs are a great way to ensure consistent quality between projects and keep everyone aligned along the way, leading to less confusion and fewer revisions.

Successful workplace collaborations typically have defined processes for developing, submitting, and approving content. Without these processes, your team members will quickly hit frustrating roadblocks, sapping the team’s productivity and morale.

For example, a lack of pre-defined work processes will make it difficult to share proofs, add and reply to comments, compare versions of each asset, and get final approval. This can be particularly challenging for teams with large workloads. Instead of focusing on creation, teams end up struggling to figure out these administrative processes.

Solution

To fix this collaboration problem, have your leaders put together a project management plan with defined workflows. These workflows don’t have to be complex — in fact, keeping things simple can prevent confusion.

Your work processes should encompass the entire creative process, from the initial brief to the final assets. For example, your step-by-step process might start with creating a brief and getting it approved by the client, and then have your talent generate the assets in a creative tool of your choice. Then, you can use Ziflow to seamlessly share drafts, get feedback from stakeholders, and approve the final product. 

3. Clearly communicating between team members

Communication is the backbone of effective collaboration, whether it happens in person or digitally. Even a small miscommunication between team members could throw your entire project off track, especially when it comes to deadlines or key project requirements. For example, if a member of your creative team gets an outdated brief, they could end up creating an asset that ultimately doesn’t align with the goals of the project.

It’s easy for the nuances of a creative concept to get lost in translation when it’s shared multiple times. This is particularly true when communicating via digital channels like email or Slack, where multiple threads easily get lost or overlooked.

Solution

To prevent miscommunications, individual team members will need to take responsibility for their own communication skills. This includes practicing active listening and asking for clarification when necessary.

A dedicated review and approval tool can also help standardize and guide your team through key communications across the creative process. Collaborative tools like Ziflow allow team members to tag each other throughout the revision process, rather than having to go searching through Slack or email messages to find the right notes. 

When you do opt for an in-person meeting, be sure to get important details in writing to prevent miscommunications moving forward. Things like deadlines and client specifications should always be solidified in a written document.

To make the meeting run as smoothly as possible, it’s recommended to attach an agenda to the meeting so that all participants can properly prepare and gather any necessary materials that would help the meeting run more efficiently.

4. Centralizing communication

One of the biggest challenges of collaborating asynchronously is managing multiple uncoordinated communication channels. The more channels you use and collaborators you have on your team, the more difficult this becomes.

Let’s say someone leaves a comment on a project file but fails to share that feedback via Slack or Microsoft Teams. That feedback could end up falling through the cracks. Communicating via email can also be challenging for large teams, because it’s easy to accidentally leave an important collaborator off an email thread, or for emails to get lost in spam folders. 

In hybrid office situations, a piece of feedback may be shared casually between meetings or in passing. That communication won’t be captured anywhere other than in that moment, leaving others out of the loop and potentially confused when they see the next version of an asset.

Solution

Instant messaging works well for many work conversations and is a place to start, but there will be times when you need to communicate in other ways. Create a policy that specifies when to use in-person meetings, video chats, emails, and other forms of communication.

For example, brainstorming often requires an in-person meeting or video chat, but sending feedback and specifying details can often be done through email or through collaboration tools like Ziflow for efficiency.

When leaving comments on assets and working through the review and approval process, lean on a dedicated online proofing tool to help consolidate communication and ensure the right people are tagged and notified.

5. Sharing information openly

Information silos happen when departments or teams within your organization don’t communicate openly with others. Silos can also happen when digital systems and software programs are not integrated with each other.

Say your marketing team doesn’t have access to the latest sales numbers or product development strategies. What happens? Your marketing strategy doesn’t reflect your audience’s preferences or your upcoming products and you’ve wasted a ton of time and resources.

While only authorizing certain parties to sensitive company information is sometimes necessary for privacy reasons, it can negatively affect your collaborative efforts: One report found that employees lose an average of 12 hours a week searching for siloed data. Information silos are often unintentional, but harmful to a project’s productivity and general business culture nonetheless.

Solution

To prevent silos, create a library of key documents that your entire organization can access. When hiring new employees or working with contractors, introduce them to leaders across the organization to facilitate cross-functional collaboration.

When implementing new tools and technology, make sure they’re integrated with your existing systems so everything is accessible to all authorized team members. This prevents team members from wasting time searching high and low for information they need to do their jobs!

It’s also recommended to have regular status-based meetings to inform others in the business of the progress being made. These meetings can be as short and simple or as long-form and thorough as needed.

For example, daily standups in the scrum framework are intended to keep everyone on track with a specific sprint. Whereas a quarterly company all-hands meeting is more involved and cross-departmental intended to inform the employees at a business on the performance of all parts of the company. Both are valuable in the proper context.

6. Managing distributed teams and remote work

Roughly 40% of employers now have a remote or hybrid work model. While this is great for employees’ work-life balance, it can present management challenges.

Distributed teams often face more collaboration challenges. Your team might be working in different time zones, making synchronous communication challenging. If you’re working with an international team, navigating different cultures and work norms can also be difficult. 

Even small cultural differences could lead to miscommunication. For instance, some team members might write the date as mm/dd/yyyy, while others might use dd/mm/yyyy. When you’re not seeing your team in person on a regular basis, these small differences can go unchecked for an extended period of time.

Solution

Give your team a variety of ways to connect asynchronously throughout the day. Instant messaging apps, online proofing tools, and project management solutions all help here. When you do have synchronous meetings, record them using a tool like Fireflies or Rewatch and store the recordings in an accessible cloud-based environment accessible by all team members. This way, everyone can access the information they need and no one misses out — even if their time zone means they couldn’t attend the live session.

Additionally, find a way to connect in person on a more casual level if possible. In-formal events such as company happy hours and lunches]. are great. Or more formal company events such as annual company meetups really help enhance communication over time as your team gets to know each other. It can be an investment — but it’s well worth it.

7. Addressing diverse work styles

Every team member brings their own unique work style to the table. For example, one team member might be highly idea-focused, while another might be data-driven.

Although these different (and sometimes clashing) personalities can benefit creative environments, they can also be challenging, sometimes leading to miscommunication or even conflict. That data-driven teammate might struggle to collaborate with someone who focuses more on the big picture. The first teammate might be more concerned with small details, while the other might focus on the broader long-term impact of your project, which makes it difficult to find common ground.

Solution

Prior to starting a project, talk to each team member about their preferred work style and look for ways to find common ground. Have resources in place to accommodate multiple work styles before you start a project. For example, you can offer plenty of asynchronous work time for those who prefer to work independently, but also schedule regular meetings for those who work better in a group setting.

8. Building trust

A lack of trust can quickly erode your team’s camaraderie and creative potential. In order to build a truly successful creative collaboration, trust needs to flow both ways. Leaders need to trust their creative team, and the creative team needs to trust leaders and stakeholders on everything from giving constructive feedback to meeting deadlines.

Without a culture of trust, team members feel micromanaged and anxious; they aren’t able to do their best work. When you have a strong culture of trust, your team will feel more confident sharing their ideas, working independently, and asking for help when they hit a roadblock.

Solution

To build trust, everyone on your team needs to commit to being open and honest. Leaders should encourage their team to come to them directly with any concerns, and commit to finding a solution rather than punishment when mistakes happen. Having regular one-on-one meetings with team members will help you build relationships and give both parties an opportunity to be transparent about their work. Team leaders should also focus on being consistent with expectations and support to build trust over time.

Trust is a two-way street and is earned over time through consistent behavior. It’s a deep relational concept written and discussed at length in hundreds of business books and other mediums. It’s highly encouraged to invest in building a culture of trust at your organization to enhance business performance and overcome collaboration challenges.  

9. Creating high levels of team engagement

To collaborate successfully, your entire team needs to be engaged and care about the outcome of the project. Low levels of morale and burnout can quickly lead to subpar work quality. Burnout can also make it difficult to retain your talent, as workers who are burned out are three times more likely to be searching for another job than workers who aren’t.

This often happens when team members don’t feel appreciated, or when they’re juggling large workloads without enough support. When your team isn’t putting out their best work, it can negatively affect your brand, and can also cause damage to your work culture internally.

Solution

Making employees feel valued and appreciated is often the first step to keeping them engaged. Make sure you personally acknowledge each team member for the work they’re doing and show your appreciation when they create something truly stellar.

Leaders should proactively offer support for their team members, rather than waiting until morale gets low to solve problems. Ask each collaborator what they need to thrive, and be flexible whenever possible. Small things like allowing a flexible work schedule or providing more detailed feedback can go a long way toward keeping your team members engaged.

10. Providing a collaboration infrastructure

Without the right digital tools and infrastructure, it becomes difficult to work efficiently. Your team will end up switching back and forth between different platforms like Slack, Teams, and email, as well as creative platforms like Google Suite and Adobe. This results in wasted time, and important communications can slip through the cracks.

Solution

Look for online collaboration tools that integrate seamlessly with your existing systems and support the type of assets you’ll be creating.

Ziflow is a platform built with creative collaboration in mind. With Ziflow, your team can review assets and share feedback in the format that works for you, whether that’s written comments, markups, or interactive discussions.

You’ll also be able to track creative workflows, manage different versions of each asset, and get approval when you need it. Ziflow also integrates with the creative apps and product management tools you’re already using for a more seamless creative experience.

11. Improving productivity

If you can’t be productive, you won’t get creative assets out the door. Staying productive through an endless run of roadblocks, however, is easier said than done.

Your team may struggle to be productive if they don’t have the training and resources they need to do their jobs successfully. A distracting workplace environment can also inhibit productivity. This could be anything from a noisy open-plan office to a digital environment where coworkers send “urgent” messages regularly, often tagging the entire team (even if it’s not relevant to them!). These frequent distractions will cause your team to stop and start their work throughout the day, which limits productivity.

Solution

Start by assessing the training and technology your teams have access to. Small changes like providing online video tutorials or using project management tools to assign tasks can make a big difference. This way, team members don’t have to contact supervisors or clients directly every time they need more information about the project. To reinforce this, you can also establish a communication policy that outlines why and when to tag the entire team in messages.

Additionally, give your team flexibility when it comes to their work environment. Some people thrive in a vibrant, social office space, while others need quiet in order to work productively.

12. Balancing collaboration and independent work

Teamwork is necessary for many creative projects, but there are also times when it makes sense to work independently. This is particularly important for introverted employees who often do their best work solo. This also tends to be true for younger employees — in a study of Gen Z professionals, 31% of respondents said that they work better alone.

For example, if one team member prefers to work independently, while another prefers a more social work environment, the first team member might feel overwhelmed by frequent requests for meetings. Alternatively, the second team member might feel frustrated when they aren’t able to work collaboratively with co-workers. Striking a balance will help both team members feel supported.

Solution

Successful collaborative work means finding a balance between autonomy and teamwork. To ensure that everyone has enough independent work time, encourage employees to schedule a few hours each week that are free of meetings and messages. This “head down” work time can be extremely helpful for productivity.

13. Celebrating individual or team successes

When you’re working hard, celebrating your wins is crucial. This can range from informal acknowledgments in meetings to larger team celebrations for meeting major milestones. If you fail to acknowledge individual or team successes, it can leave everyone feeling under-appreciated and negatively affect morale for future projects.

Solution

Implement recognition programs that align with your organization’s values and the types of projects you’re doing. For large-scale recognition, consider giving awards, hosting celebratory events, or even publicizing your team’s wins on your social media.

On a smaller scale, make sure your leaders regularly shout out your team's wins. You can also encourage your team members to support each other with peer-to-peer recognition. Tools like Workvivo, Simpplr, and Empuls can help you recognize your team members without disrupting their workflow.

Discover how to facilitate creative team collaboration with Ziflow

Successful collaborations in the workplace require commitment, teamwork, open-mindedness, and organization. Having the right tools at your disposal will help creative projects flow seamlessly.

Ziflow is a collaborative proofing platform designed to eliminate roadblocks to creative collaborations. With Ziflow, your entire team can create, share, and leave feedback with ease, making creative projects more efficient and improving your asset quality.