Cultivating Creative Collaboration

Tap into diverse perspectives to foster creative thinking
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Effective collaboration is about more than harmonious agreement or efficiency. Today's complex challenges require teams to navigate ambiguity, unearth bold ideas, and embrace a new way of working—one that harnesses the power of diverse perspectives and creative thinking to push past the obvious, safe solutions to the truly innovative ones. Gain the skills and techniques you need to foster creative collaboration and unleash the potential of a team.

Course Outcomes
  • Unlock your team’s ability to generate new ideas and reach better solutions by tapping into diverse perspectives.
  • Overcome inertia and uncertainty by guiding your team through an iterative process designed to spark creativity and gain alignment.
  • Establish the cultural conditions that teams need to thrive with thoughtful rituals and agreements.
  • Turn tensions between ideas into opportunities for your biggest leaps forward.
Part of Certificate Programs
Foundations in Creative Leadership Certificate
Course Themes
Leadership Collaboration Brainstorming
Format Online Cohort Course
Start Date
Quantity
Duration 5 Weeks
Time 4 Hours/Week
Price
$599
$599
Download Syllabus

What You'll Learn

Week 1: Introduction

Learn how creative collaboration harnesses the power of diverse perspectives and creative thinking to develop innovative solutions.
Watch a sneak peek
  • What is Creative Collaboration?—the power of creativity and diversity
     
3 Video Lessons
  • What is Creative Collaboration?—The power of creativity and diversity
  • Essential Collaborative Behaviors—Be open, be curious, be vulnerable
  • Mentor Moment with Heather Currier Hunt—Advice for senior leaders
1 Assignment

  • Take Stock of Current Conditions—In this assignment, you will use reflection and observation to assess the behaviors that are encouraging or undermining psychological safety on your team.

2 Discussions

  • What surprised you about the three key behaviors that help build psychological safety?

  • How do you, or leaders you know, try to set the right conditions for your team?

Week 2: Build a Foundation

Create a culture of belonging and align your team through a set of agreements.
5 Video Lessons
  • Align the Team—Three steps for crafting team agreements
  • Mentor Moment with Heather Currier Hunt—Three ways to align teams at kick-off
  • Culture and Creative Work—Design for diverse teams
  • Mentor Moment with Chris—Three tips for designing rituals for belonging
  • It Starts with You—Model the behaviors you want to see
1 Assignment

  • Craft Team Agreements—In this assignment, you will design and run a session to craft a set of team agreements.

5 Discussions

  • What are some team agreements that you currently have, and are they explicit or implicit?

  • Are there any other tools or rituals you like to use when you kick off with a new team or project to help get everyone on the same page?

  • What are the ways that you have felt encouraged or discouraged to be more of yourself in a professional setting?

  • What opportunities do you have for designing rituals on your team?

  • What are your authentic leadership qualities and how might you leverage them as you encourage your team(s) to try working in a new way?

Week 3: Choreograph the Work

Set the conditions for creative thinking with intentionally designed meetings and modes of thinking.
3 Video Lessons
  • The Creative Process—An overview
  • Design for Divergence—Expand ideas and multiply options
  • Design for Convergence—Narrow and focus
1 Assignment

  • Choreograph a Meeting—In this assignment, you will design and run a moment of convergence or divergence for your team.

3 Discussions
  • Would you consider yourself more of a diverger or a converger? Why?
  • Think of the last meeting you had with a team that was supposed to be divergent in nature. What did it feel like?
  • When your team gets together to evaluate ideas does it feel creative, like convergence should feel? Why or why not?

Week 4: Tackle the Hard Stuff

Get techniques for managing emerging tensions and frameworks for giving and receiving constructive feedback.
4 Video Lessons
  • Diverse Perspectives and Tension—Use tension to evolve ideas
  • The Power of Conflict—Three steps for using tension to improve team dynamics
  • Mentor Moment with Annette—Designing spaces for tough conversations
  • Navigate Tough Conversations—Give direct, caring feedback that serves others’ growth
1 Assignment

  • Harness Tensions—In this assignment you will identify an opportunity around tension by reflecting on past experiences to gain insight, making a plan for how you will manage or provoke tension with your team, and holding a session to address it directly.

4 Discussions
  • What was the last tension around ideas that you experienced on your team? How was it handled?
  • Think of a time when your team went through a period of tension that you didn’t process or you waited too long to process. What was the result?
  • How might you design spaces for your team to process tension together?
  • Describe a time you gave or received difficult feedback that led to a stronger bond between you and the other person.

Week 5: Conclusion

Review the different leadership approaches you can adopt to encourage creative collaboration and craft a plan to support your practice.
1 Video Lesson
  • Pass It On—Activate others to guide creative collaboration
1 Assignment

  • Final Reflection—In this assignment, you will reflect back across all the work you’ve done, reflect on any impact you have started to see, and set yourself up for a future of continued practice.

1 Discussion
  • How might you begin to pass on some of the skills associated with guiding creative collaboration?

Meet Your Instructors

Mike Peng

Partner at IDEO & Managing Director of IDEO Tokyo

Mike leads key client relationships and mentors design teams at IDEO in Asia. He is a visiting lecturer at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID), Tokyo University, and more. Mike has a degree in cognitive science and neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Mike Peng

Partner at IDEO & Managing Director of IDEO Tokyo

Mike founded and now helps oversee IDEO in Japan and greater Asia, leading key client relationships, guiding projects, and mentoring design teams. He is a visiting lecturer at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID), Tokyo University, Keio University, and Kyushu University and previously worked as an adjunct professor at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, teaching public policy, urban planning, and nonprofit management students how to use design thinking to solve complex problems.

Prior to joining IDEO, Mike worked as a senior lab informatics analyst at Johnson & Johnson. Mike graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in cognitive science and an emphasis in neuroscience. In his spare time, he plays tennis competitively (his high-school court is named after him!) and is an amateur hip-hop dancer who finds solace in reality TV and celebrity gossip.

Collaborate with a Global Community

Work with Expert Coaches

Our teaching team has extensive applied industry knowledge. They'll help deepen your understanding and application of the course content by facilitating written discussions, live video moments, and assignment feedback.

Expand Your Network

Join breakout discussion groups for deeper conversation, reflection, and connection. Participate in optional virtual live conversations led by teaching team members and available twice weekly.

Receive Feedback

Gain tips, techniques, and a downloadable feedback guide; and share and receive feedback on assignments from peers.

Learn more about the IDEO U Learning Experience

Loved by Learners Across the Globe

Catherine Pisani
Catherine Director, Operational Standards Planned Parenthood Arizona, Inc.
Chee Ming Loh
Chee Ming HR Project Manager Toyota Tsusho Corporation
Kasia Wasko McCabe
Kasia Lead UX Designer Amazon
Marialena Koutli
Marialena Creative Problem Solving Trainer whatanIDEA
Cultivating Creative Collaboration
Cohort Course

“This course provided the framework and tools to dig in and engage in deeply meaningful conversations. I feel like my practices have improved and my team is working much more efficiently. People feel valued and seen within our team now.”

Catherine Phoenix, AZ
Cultivating Creative Collaboration
Cohort Course

"In a world full of wicked problems, we need more people who can help teams be more collaborative and creative. This course gives you a set of very practical tools that you can easily practice and pass on to others.”

Chee Ming Japan
Cultivating Creative Collaboration
Cohort Course

“This course covered information that I've never found before. It's changed my perspective on what leadership looks like and provided me with great tools to help foster innovation and collaboration!”

Kasia Seattle, WA
Cultivating Creative Collaboration
Cohort Course

“The course is very actionable. It strikes the right balance between theory and practice and teaches the new skills in a very systematic and comprehensive way.”

Marialena Greece

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Cultivating Creative Collaboration is part of a certificate program:

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Enroll As a Team

The practice and application of design thinking, innovation, and creativity is highly collaborative and team based—which is why we believe that learning is better together. Take a course as a team and develop new skills and mindsets, have deeper discussion during course kickoff and debrief sessions, and build a shared understanding.

How to Enroll as a Team