Challenge sessions, brainstorms and debates can be great ways to get the creative juices flowing. Most of us enjoy working as part of a team, so it comes as no surprise that group thinking is a good way to foster creativity because it gets people to consider new ideas and gather inspiration from places they would not normally look.
Recently the New Yorker published a piece on how creativity is largely now a group process and that many of us are more creative when we are teamed up. The Pixar Animation building and Building 20 at MIT are just two places where collaboration is encouraged by mixing different groups of people with a range of skills in communal spaces and open working environments.
One of the areas where group collaboration has had the most impact is in the field of science. Scientific researchers are often highly specialized in one area and as some of the most interesting scientific questions cross more than one discipline, scientists often have to work together to come up with answers. As Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General accurately put it “Together, nothing is impossible”. Very Saatchi & Saatchi. One Team, One Dream. Nothing is Impossible.
