Editor's Note: This article was originally published when Mike Peng was a partner and managing director at IDEO. In 2025, Mike stepped into the role of CEO at IDEO.

Creative collaboration is not the same thing as collaboration. Yes, both terms mean working well together. But to what end? That’s the difference.  

Creative collaboration is a structured, human-centered process that helps diverse teams generate bold ideas, navigate ambiguity, and come together to do the hard work of innovation. It’s more than getting along well or sailing smoothly through a project. 

In this article, we’ll unpack what creative collaboration really means, why it’s essential for solving complex challenges, and how to guide your team through it with confidence. You’ll hear insights from Mike Peng, CEO of IDEO, who has spent over 20 years helping teams turn tension and uncertainty into creative breakthroughs.

Looking for more? Listen to our conversation with Mike on the Creative Confidence Podcast to explore timeless lessons on how structure and collaboration fuel innovation.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

What Does It Mean to Collaborate Creatively?

The more common understanding of collaboration might conjure images of a track team executing smooth baton handoffs or a dance troupe moving in sync. But today’s business challenges are only getting more complex. We’re asking teams to do more than execute on an existing plan in a more efficient way—we need them to come up with completely new ideas. And that requires a different type of teamwork.

There is no one single answer to today’s types of challenges, says Mike Peng, CEO of IDEO. “That means that we need to come at problems from a lot of different perspectives.”

Creative collaboration is what makes that possible. It’s not just about harmony; it’s about creating space for new thinking to emerge.

What is Creative Collaboration?

Creative collaboration is a way of working that harnesses the power of diverse perspectives to develop innovative solutions, especially when the path forward isn’t clear. The goal isn’t just to work well together, but to generate new ideas that no one person could have come up with alone.

“It's very powerful to bring in creative collaboration when you don't know what the answer is, and you're open to having different types of solutions come about,” Mike explains.

Bringing a larger group of people together increases the number of ideas you can generate. Sourcing a diversity of perspectives expands the kinds of ideas that will surface. Fostering a culture that encourages and welcomes those ideas improves the likelihood that people will feel comfortable pushing beyond the safe ideas and sharing the more risky, scary, and potentially genius ones.

At IDEO, creative collaboration is more than a single moment; it’s a choreographed, repeatable process. It’s how teams move from uncertainty to clarity, from individual perspectives to collective solutions.

Why Creative Collaboration Works: A Real Example

Mike recalls a project IDEO did in Thailand centered around the question “How do we motivate a whole new generation of farmers to get excited about farming again?” Farming contributes to a large part of Thailand’s economy, but younger generations were showing signs of disinterest in the industry. This challenge was big, ambiguous, and in need of a radically new solution—the perfect candidate for creative collaboration.

The IDEO team started by gathering a wide range of stakeholders. While the original hypothesis assumed higher crop yield would lead to greater job satisfaction, the team found that younger farmers were motivated by the ability to bring other interests, like uniform design, into the farming world so they could expand the definition of what it meant to be a farmer.

“Bringing farmers together along with the company themselves, designers, and different types of creative collaborators, I think we came to a solution that none of us, individually, would have been able to think about alone,” Mike says.

Think of creative collaboration as “a way of thinking that helps teams of all sizes and teams from all different types of industries come together to try and navigate ambiguity.”

How to Lead Creative Collaboration When the Path Isn’t Clear

While creative collaboration might look messy or spontaneous from the outside, gathering the right people is just the starting point. Enabling a team to generate bold, original ideas takes intention, structure, and thoughtful facilitation. 

“Collaborating doesn't mean just getting a bunch of people into a room and letting a free-for-all happen,” Mike says.

The 2 Modes of Creative Collaboration

While iterative, there is a defined process for creative collaboration. It starts with understanding the two distinct modes teams cycle through:

• Divergence → exploring widely, surfacing many different perspectives and possibilities

• Convergence → narrowing in, focusing the team’s energy around the strongest ideas

Understanding these two modes of thinking will set a strong foundation for creative collaboration. As a leader—whether you’re managing a team or guiding a cross-functional group through a project—your role is to signal what stage of the process the team is in, the mindsets they should embody at any given moment, and when to shift gears. This takes practice and experience that can only be developed by going through the creative process many times.

Why Creative Collaboration Feels Messy (and Why That’s Normal)

Many leaders assume that collaboration follows a clean, linear path: gather ideas, pick the best one, move forward. 

But it’s not so much a funnel as it is “a dance of going out, coming in, going out, coming in, until we get to the best solution,” says Mike.

While this may feel messy or like you’re going in circles, it’s all part of the process. The art is in knowing when to cycle through and shift gears.

Structure Makes Collaboration Work

Diverging doesn’t mean letting ideas run wild without purpose. The best collaboration happens inside the right boundaries: time, goals, focus, and trust. Mike says, “We need to have some sort of structure in order for creativity to thrive.” And convergence doesn’t mean rushing to choose one idea. Often, it’s about remixing. Taking pieces of what’s working, reshaping them with the team, and aligning on the next experiment to test. That’s still collaboration. And it’s still creative.

Tension Is a Sign You’re Doing It Right

Many teams try to avoid tension in group work. It feels uncomfortable. It slows things down. But when it comes to creative collaboration, tension isn’t something to eliminate; it’s something to work with. “Tension can be very, very productive for creative collaboration,” Mike ensures. 

The right kind of tension isn’t personal, it’s intellectual friction between strong but different perspectives, held in service of a shared goal. That kind of discomfort often signals that your team is pushing beyond the obvious, where better ideas live.

This type of tension comes up naturally in a group setting, especially one where you’ve gathered a wide range of perspectives. In fact, if that tension isn’t there, Mike says it’s a sign that “we're obviously not pushing on each other to make our ideas better.”

Not All Tension Is Harmful. Here’s How to Use It.

Tension shows up naturally when people care. When they bring different lived experiences, functional expertise, or instincts to the table.

But instead of rushing to smooth it over, the most effective leaders:

• Set shared ground rules early (this is where constraints help)

• Define what the team is trying to solve for

• Welcome disagreement as long as it’s in service of the work
  

In order to manage tension between ideas, it’s critical to prepare in advance. Mike works with his teams to create a set of constraints that everyone can use to evaluate ideas and decisions. Then, once you’re in the moment, it’s easier to evaluate if an idea is inside or outside of the “box” you’ve set for yourself. If it’s in the box, that’s your opportunity for a really valuable conversation.

“You get to that point, and you feel that friction in the room—we call it a hot spot—and you know that's the place where innovation has to come about because that's where people are holding too tightly to preconceived notions,” Mike says. Those moments, while messy, are rich with possibility. If you’ve created the right foundation of trust and purpose, tension becomes a catalyst for sharper thinking, not a threat to group cohesion.

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“You know that's the place where innovation has to come about because that's where people are holding too tightly to preconceived notions.”
Mike Peng

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How to Avoid the Most Common Collaboration Challenges

Even with the right intentions, creative collaboration can easily stall or go sideways. Ideas fall flat, teams rush to premature conclusions, or tensions surface without direction. As the person guiding the process, your role is to spot these friction points early and help the group stay in a productive flow.

1. Letting Judgment Creep in Too Early

During divergence, your goal is to go wide with ideas, no matter how rough or unconventional they seem. But this is often where judgment slips in. Eye rolls, side comments, or even subtle body language can shut things down fast.

“If we're all on the same page to create solutions we haven't thought about before, we need to be okay with having ideas we haven't thought about before,” Mike says. “And sometimes that can be really uncomfortable.”

When you notice hesitation or critique showing up too early, pause. Recenter the team on purpose: this is not the time to choose, it's the time to explore.

2. Converging Before the Ideas Are Ready

Another common misstep? Jumping too quickly into convergence. Even if a few strong ideas have surfaced, the group may still be circling something better—something they haven’t articulated yet.

“If you can just hold back a little and let the process flow, I think you'd be really surprised at what would come out,” Mike says.

Giving teams just a bit more space can surface unexpected possibilities—especially if they’re building off each other’s thinking.

3. Creating Franken-Ideas to Please Everyone

When it’s finally time to choose and shape ideas, resist the urge to combine everyone’s favorite parts into one bloated concept. That might keep the room happy—but it often leads to compromise over clarity.

Encourage your team to be honest about what’s working, what’s not, and what can be let go. Strong concepts emerge when ideas are remixed intentionally, not when egos drive the edit.

4. Struggling With Remote or Hybrid Collaboration

Virtual teams come with added complexity: time zones, tech friction, reduced body language. But they also offer reach. More voices, more perspectives, more potential.

“Being remote enables us to be in touch with so many more people than we had at our disposal before,” Mike says.

Plan ahead:

• Gather async input from teammates in other time zones

• Ask someone remote to synthesize insights after a live session

• Use visual tools to bring clarity across formats

Creative collaboration can absolutely thrive remotely; it just takes more intentional facilitation.

Ready to Lead Creative Collaboration with Confidence?

This kind of teamwork has enabled IDEO to come up with groundbreaking concepts, products, and services across many industries and many decades. And the ability to think creatively is in high demand. Nearly 60% of CEOs cited creativity as the most important leadership quality in an IBM survey.

As teams are increasingly asked to generate creative solutions to new and difficult business challenges, the need for creative collaboration—and people who can facilitate this unique flavor of teamwork—will only increase.

It’s easy to fall back on old ways of working. But creativity doesn't thrive on autopilot. It thrives in environments where people feel safe to think differently, where structure supports freedom, and where collaboration has a purpose.

Whether you’re leading your first brainstorming session or shaping the culture of a large team, learning to guide creative collaboration is a leadership skill worth investing in.

Keep Learning with IDEO U:

• Cultivating Creative Collaboration: This 5-week online course led by Mike Peng gives you a practical foundation to structure collaboration, harness diverse perspectives, and build habits for ongoing creativity. Perfect for team leads, project managers, or facilitators.

• Creative Leadership Workshop: A new 2.5-hour online workshop for leaders ready to scale their influence. Build confidence, stretch your mindset, and coach others in how to lead creative collaboration at every level.

Key Takeaways

• Creative collaboration is a structured, intentional process—not just teamwork or brainstorming.

• It involves moving between divergence and convergence, again and again, to unlock the best ideas.

• Tension between perspectives is not a problem—it’s a sign of creative potential.

• Leaders play a critical role in guiding collaboration by signaling the process, shaping group mindsets, and creating safe containers for risk and disagreement.

• Collaboration can thrive in remote or hybrid settings—but it requires extra intentionality and structure.

• You can build the skills to lead creative collaboration through practice, reflection, and learning.
  
  

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is collaborative creativity?

A: Collaborative creativity is when people build ideas together rather than alone. It’s the combination of individual creativity and collective input that helps teams go further than they could on their own. The most powerful ideas often emerge when people listen, stretch, remix, and shape thinking together in a structured way.

Q: How does collaboration expand the creative process?

A: Collaboration expands the creative process by unlocking perspectives, experiences, and ideas that one person alone might miss. When done well, it encourages teams to challenge assumptions, remix ideas, and explore more possibilities. The process becomes more dynamic, iterative, and generative—turning individual sparks into bigger, bolder outcomes.

Q: Can creative collaboration work in a remote setting?

A: Yes, creative collaboration can work beautifully in remote settings when it’s intentionally designed. While virtual work introduces challenges like time zones and limited nonverbal cues, it also expands who can participate. With clear facilitation, inclusive tools, and thoughtful structure, remote teams can collaborate creatively across boundaries—and often with more flexibility and richness than before.

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