TEACHING CREATIVE TEAMS TO BECOME MORE EFFECTIVE COLLABORATORS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

In an earlier published study, the authors examined attitudes of creative teams comprised of advertising writing students and design students. Classroom projects involving advertising writing classes merged with digital media design classes put these teams into a semester-long experimental situation, involving two major creative projects with multiple parts. Assignments revolved around (1) a snack food item and (2) a mobile phone/plan. The first project focused on concepts that were developed into print materials. The second project focused on interactive media. The co-joined classes were scheduled at the same time to facilitate team meetings and instruction. An attitudinal survey was administered at the close of each project. The article showed that students clearly saw differences in roles and responsibilities. It also reported that students saw increased creative opportunities and improved quality of work.

This subsequent study, replicates the semester-long project experiment in similarly combined creative class teams. Prior to these projects, a collaboration attitude survey instrument was administered. The instructors increased the number and intensity of discussions/exercises/demonstrations about collaboration leading to creative output. Post-project survey results showed a significant increase in awareness (p < .001) that the project concept changed based on team involvement. It also found a significant increase (p < .01) in positive experiences from that team interaction, consistent communication throughout the project and that partners shared equally in the completion of the project.

The experiment demonstrates the value of fostering collaboration among teams, especially in developing creative communication and marketing and advertising messages.