Creative collaboration can come in many forms. According to the Huffington Post, collaboration has shown itself to be the most defining characteristic of creativity across various industries, as groups of people within join to share ideas and information as they work. Creativity is an integral part of any business, and the power of its potential can only grow as more people find ways to easily connect and work together, whether it’s in the office or on the go.
Cloud based technologies have really given a much needed boost to traditional methods of the creative process, whether it occurring in the workplace or as part of your personal artistic pursuits. The digital tools available through private cloud connections are currently serving to bring people, and their ideas, together more effortlessly than ever.
The Power of Unified Communications
You might already be familiar with the concept of unified communications, but if you’re not, here’s a quick rundown. Basically, unified communications (also called UC) is a buzzword for the combination of multiple modes of communication into a single experience for the user.
Innovative UC software such as bluejeans collaboration tools, for example, allows you to hold a video conference while simultaneously sharing files with colleagues or friends, or to have a text-based chat in tandem with a video conference. With Blue Jeans Relay software, you can also integrate calendar and scheduling applications across the devices of everyone involved.
The beauty of unified communication is that the possibilities are quickly becoming limitless as more and more interactive technologies become integrated. It’s certainly worth it to check out what’s out there, and discover what types of UC can work for your company or your creative team.
The Millennial Advantage
One might say that Millennials have paved the way for greater use of cloud based technology when it comes to creative collaboration. Entrepreneur notes that Millennials thrive in workplaces that value creativity and change, and being naturally tech savvy, they are open to new ways of sharing information in the interest of productivity and efficiency. If you yourself fall into the Millennial category, you might already be nodding your head, as you’re no doubt familiar with some of the latest apps and technologies available for all preferred flavors of communication. If you’re a business owner or a hiring manager, it might be advantageous to bring Millennials on into your workplace, as they will probably have an upper hand when it comes to current technologies and brainstorming new innovations.
Millennials are also more partial to artistic or socially meaningful lines of work, which once again brings the topic at hand back to the importance of creativity. The seemingly limitless ways of creating and sharing information with UC can create a font of new ideas and encourage new ways of editing and building upon creative projects as a group in the workplace or at home.
Overall, though, a cloud based collaboration system is a worthwhile tool regardless of who might be using it, or how it might be used, in your workplace. With video conferencing and UC, employees can easily work from remote locations or on the go, and have multiple ways to stay connected at their fingertips, at all times.
Let Inspiration Strike, Anytime, Anywhere
In this digital age, where it’s easy to be “plugged in” to social media and communication at all times, meeting face to face is becoming less and less of a necessity when it comes to collaboration. On the most basic level, a text message, an email, or a photo sent to a friend or colleague can quickly communicate what’s on your mind, and begin a dialog between the two of you, no matter the distance between you. Furthermore, the New York Times recently observed that groups who worked together online, without seeing one another, had the same high performance, communication, and participation as groups who worked together in person. Therefore, even when the option to hold something as direct and personal as a video conference is unavailable, keeping text based communications and file sharing accessible in a cloud is still intensely valuable to your team. In addition to those texts and emails, you can use the cloud to work together to input ideas on a spreadsheet or other document, for example, individual time permitting. You might want to consider this as a way of taking notes as a group, and since your files remain safe and accessible in the cloud, you can bring them up for your whole team to see your collective progress the next time you get together for a more focused video conference or group chat.
As a general conclusion, cloud based communication is really changing the face of creative collaboration both in and out of the workplace. There are countless ways to utilize this growing technology, and so many areas in which its separate parts are beneficial to basic information sharing and keeping connections with others.
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