Are Your Creative Teams Ready To Be Agile?
- Adilla
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Since the existence of social media, the creative industry trends can evolve almost every hour, to say it in a dramatic way. But we cannot deny how often they change, so much so that creative companies are having a hard time getting ahead of the curve
While it is important to be able to keep up with trends, are your creative teams equipped to be able to handle it? Are your teams ready to adapt and be agile with the creative trends?
Table Of Contents
The Creative Industry: What Makes It So Dynamic?
Without getting too into detail about the factors that make the creative industry the ever-changing chameleon that it is, the diverse cultural and social influences are the main factor in why it is so dynamic. Creativity can come from anything, whether it is an original idea evolved into another idea or purely from imagination.
Imagine what will happen when 8 billion people on Earth decide to just produce 1 creative idea in the world. That is what’s technically happening to our creative industry. We don’t have enough time in the world to try out every creative idea that is presented to us, especially through social media.
So, why do creative companies need to catch up to trends? To only gain traction and profit? Not mainly. It’s all about the perception and the first impressions of customers and audiences when looking at a brand.
What happens when you don’t keep up? Your audience would see that your brand is outdated, and you start losing credibility, especially if your competition is evolving with the trends. Staying relevant to the creative industry and trends helps your brand stay competitive. Plus, it will be an interesting challenge for your creatives to align the brand’s identity with any viral trends.
Adapting Agility in Creative Workflows
How can creatives keep up with a constantly changing industry? They will have to be adaptable and agile. Being adaptable is good since this means your creatives can adjust themselves to new ideas and challenges.
However, are they quick enough to respond to the changes? Are they agile enough? Agility is the ability to respond to changes quickly. Speed is key to keeping up with evolving trends.
So, how do we not only be adaptable but also be agile in creative teams? Creative project managers play an important role in shifting their teams to have those abilities.
Effective Strategies to Stay Agile and Adapt
1. Lead Instead of Command and Control
When it comes to managing a creative team, some form of flexibility and creative freedom is a must. A culture that focuses on command and control could stifle creative teams, as it is akin to micromanaging. A leader who promotes adaptability and agility is someone who provides guidance and support where it is needed instead of directing and controlling tasks.
For example, if a leader finds that a team member is struggling to do a task, rather than taking over or directing the team member, they will provide the resources to help guide them in their task. In other words, it is a leader who is suited for the unpredictable nature of creative works.
2. Flexible Project Management and Timeline
This goes without saying: any creative project requires flexibility that will be able to adapt to ever-changing trends in the creative industry. Creative project managers need to set and approach agile project management for creatives.
Rather than setting a hard deadline, creative project managers are encouraged to add both a buffer time and a soft deadline, fitting the need to adapt and be agile. This prevents their creatives from feeling pressured or anxious, which could diminish their creative workflow.
To make it easier for fellow creative project managers to manage their projects more effectively, it would be great if they were able to use a project manager tool that specialises in giving a visual overview of their team’s workload to meet deadlines that would suit them.
Our TESSR Woohoo shows a calculated completion percentage of projects, which shows the work progress of your team members. This will help you give a brief insight into planning and balance workload better.
Other than that, we have the Insights module, which shows the key performance information of your team members. This feature helps managers to understand their team better and enhances transparency in their collaborative experiences.
3. Promote An Environment for Creativity and Innovation
With a flexible project timeline and a management style that encourages creative workflow, your team is on its way to promoting an environment that empowers creativity and innovation. To develop this further, it is encouraged to nurture an interactive and collaborative feedback culture when it comes to reviewing work updates.
By providing space that encourages creatives to bounce ideas with each other, it will help encourage ideas and solutions that are innovative and competitive. Indirectly, this will inspire our creatives to take risks and see it as an opportunity to grow their abilities
Conclusion
Adaptability and agility are learnt skills that can be grown in the right environment. Creative project managers who understand the demands of the creative industry are equipped to lead and improve their teams’ abilities, so adapting to creative industry trends is less daunting than it seems.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why is keeping up with trends important?
By keeping your design up to date, you indirectly inform audiences or customers that your brand is relevant and competitive.
Should we follow every trend that appears?
It is not recommended to follow every trend that appears, as it might affect your brand identity. Follow what works with your brand and find the balance between marketing your brand while ‘jumping into the bandwagon’.
How do you stay motivated amidst ever-changing trends?
There are a few ways to keep yourself motivated as a creative in a constantly changing industry. One of the ways is to regularly seek inspiration and collaborate with your peers to nurture your creative spirit.
Author’s Bio
With a background in Arts English, Adilla has been a casual writer for various hobbies, including parodies of animated shows and plots for board games like Dungeons & Dragons. She loves to read anything and everything from fantasy stories to articles on tips and tricks. Currently, Adilla resides in Malaysia and is a creative writer at TESSR. One day, she is eager to publish her book. To know more about her, check out her LinkedIn.
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