Make your own serendipity
This is what I learned about creative collaborations from Richard Watkins, Peter Mandeno, and Miquel Mora after speaking alongside them at a DesignMakeDo event in London.
After having spent lots of time thinking about creative collaborations at work, it was refreshing to hear Peter Mandeno talk about reaching out to the wider world for an unexpected mixing of ideas. It sounds great but how do you make it happen? Peter’s insight is to find ways to get people together and open up to one another which is which is where great ideas begin. He has enabled this process through Wok+Wine — an ‘experiment in social chemistry’ that stimulates conversation and creates unlikely connections, and Serendipity Week — designed to help people discover people, places and experiences across London.
Peter writes: “Wok+Wine has been described as a ‘no reason party’ as there is no set agenda or theme. When they don’t have a set reason for being there, most people revert to a more authentic version of themselves as they have nothing to sell or prove. As a result, they share whatever they’re passionate about and that’s almost always the story that others would rather hear.”
This wider collaboration fits with what I found from speaking to colleagues at FremantleMedia and reading around the subject. The research of Frans Johansson, points to the importance of getting people of diverse backgrounds together:
“Innovation is more likely when people of different disciplines, backgrounds, and areas of expertise share their thinking.”
Closer to home, I found that Mark Sidaway, Executive Producer of The X Factor seeks input from a broad range of people when a fresh approach is needed.
“What is really vital is encouraging people who might not call themselves creatives. You can encourage people who are production secretaries or accountants to also throw in ideas so we often offer a prize — a bottle of champagne or a bottle of wine — if you can come up with a great idea. Last year for example one of our accountants came up with a fantastic visual idea for one of our open days which we used.”
This all goes to show that by bringing together diverse voices, you can make your own serendipity in creative projects — don’t sit around waiting for it to come to you.
Look out for Richard, Peter and Miquel’s words on creative collaboration coming to the DesignMakeDo Medium page very soon.
Steve McInerny is Senior Design Manager at FremantleMedia, where he works on off-air creative projects for shows from American Gods to The X Factor. He is active within the creative community, and champions in-house creativity of all kinds.
