Creative energy flows when it’s channelled. Rules and constraints can really boost the creativity of teams—as long as they’re the right ones. Rely on your culture makers and the examples of other successful teams to guide your exploration of implicit or explicit operating procedures.
The rules themselves are not as important as the respect team members have for each other. The practices of heroic teams are all about the appreciation of differences and the commitment to make the best use of everyone’s time, energy and ideas.
Safety is a precursor to open and transparent collaboration. Creating space for individuals to share their ideas and disagree with each other regardless of individual status or team hierarchy allows for the best ideas to come to light (and for the bad ones to be avoided). An effective social contract allows your team to disagree on matters of substance, not semantics. Co-creation is a human technology that amplifies our efforts and brings joy to our work.
