During my last semester at college, I took a course titled “Collaborative Workshop”. The entire course focused on how to best collaborate within a team setting. We were placed into groups of 4 or 5. These were our “creative director” groups. As creative directors, we would be directing our project and leading a group of designers. This was my first taste of creative directing. Here’s what I learned…

在大学的上学期中，我参加了一个名为“协作工作坊”的课程。 整个课程的重点是如何在团队环境中实现最佳协作。 我们分为4个或5个小组。这些是我们的“创意总监”小组。 作为创意总监，我们将指导我们的项目并领导一群设计师。 这是我对创意导演的第一次尝试。 这是我学到的...

让您的团队为成功做好准备 (Set your team up for success)

When leading a project, you obviously want the project to be successful. You want your team to feel proud about the fact that they worked on a successful project. Initially, I thought creative directing meant giving your designers creative freedom to explore. When drafting our brief, I decided to give our designers guiding principles to follow and clear deliverables, but I let them have the freedom to figure out the solution on their own. We didn’t know what we wanted, so we thought we’d let our team figure it out.

当领导一个项目时，您显然希望该项目成功。 您希望您的团队为他们在一个成功的项目上工作而感到自豪。 最初，我认为创意指导意味着给您的设计师创造探索的自由。 在起草我们的简介时，我决定给我们的设计师以指导性原则，以遵循并明确可交付成果，但是我让他们可以自由地自行解决。 我们不知道想要什么，所以我们认为我们会让我们的团队弄清楚。

I quickly learned that if you give your team an open-ended brief, they’re just going to be confused and frustrated. Furthermore, if they don’t meet what you were expecting of them, you’re going to end up right back at square one. This isn’t setting a team up for success.

我很快了解到，如果您给您的团队一个开放式的简介，那么他们只会感到困惑和沮丧。 此外，如果他们没有达到您对他们的期望，那么您将最终回到第一方格。 这并不是建立成功的团队。

Constraints allow for creative freedom. Set clear expectations around the project brief and tell your designers exactly what you want. Don’t make them guess.

约束允许创造自由。 在项目简介中设定明确的期望，并告诉您的设计师您到底想要什么。 不要让他们猜测。

At first, I thought this would seem too bossy. But that’s kind of part of the job. If you want the project and your team to be successful, you have to be clear and upfront with them of what’s expected. Let your team own the work, but provide them with clear direction.

起初，我认为这似乎过于专横。 但这只是工作的一部分。 如果您希望该项目和您的团队取得成功，则必须明确并提前告知他们期望的内容。 让您的团队拥有这项工作，但为他们提供明确的方向。

帮助他们成长 (Help them grow)

Good leaders care about the growth of their team, as a whole but also as individual members. In our second and third project stages, we held 1:1 sessions with our designers and learned about their personal goals. What do they want to gain out of this project? Where do they see themselves in the next couple of years? Now, how can the creative director help them get there?

优秀的领导者既关心团队的整体发展，也关心个人的成长。 在第二和第三项目阶段，我们与设计师举行了1：1的会议，并了解了他们的个人目标。 他们想从这个项目中学到什么？ 未来几年他们会在哪里看到自己？ 现在，创意总监如何帮助他们到达那里？

Look at the different moving parts of the project and identify the tasks that align with your team members’ goals. Assign it to them. In these cases, it’s important to build an environment around psychological safety. Personal growth can make people feel vulnerable. A psychologically safe environment signals to your team members that taking positive risks is encouraged.

查看项目的不同移动部分，并确定与团队成员目标一致的任务。 分配给他们。 在这些情况下，建立围绕心理安全的环境非常重要。 个人成长会使人感到脆弱。 一个心理上安全的环境向您的团队成员发出信号，鼓励积极冒险。

建立强大的团队文化 (Build a strong team culture)

I found this to be the hardest, yet most important part of creative directing. Most of creative direction is establishing strong team culture. What are your teams values? How do those values shine through?

我发现这是创作指导中最困难但最重要的部分。 最具创意的方向是建立强大的团队文化。 您的团队的价值观是什么？ 这些价值观如何体现出来？

During our class, we were asked to create a team value canvas. We wrote down each of our individual values, strengths and came up with game plans on how we would handle conflict or obstacles. It seemed like a pointless exercise at first, but it held us accountable. It acted as a point of reference for when we lost our way.

在课堂上，我们被要求创建一个团队价值画布。 我们写下了我们每个人的价值观，优势，并提出了应对冲突或障碍的游戏计划。 乍一看似乎毫无意义，但却使我们承担责任。 它是我们迷路时的参考点。

Establishing team norms is important to bond the team together, especially if you’re working with new people. You want your team to feel unified. We did this by creating a collaborative Spotify playlist. The playlist allowed us to learn a bit more about each other, and it also gave us the opportunity to be vulnerable and share our favourite tunes in a judgement-free zone. It ended up a chaotic mess, with songs from Doja Cat to dosii, but still unites us, long after the end of the project.

建立团队规范对于将团队联系在一起非常重要，特别是在与新员工一起工作时。 您希望您的团队感到团结。 为此，我们创建了一个协作式Spotify播放列表 。 播放列表使我们可以相互了解更多，也使我们有机会变得脆弱，可以在没有判断力的区域分享我们喜欢的音乐。 在项目结束后很长一段时间，它最终陷入混乱，从Doja Cat到dosii的歌曲，但仍然团结了我们。

投资人 (Invest in people)

I never really envisioned myself as a creative director (or in any leadership position) until someone pointed it out to me. David Hoang was one of the first to do so. Since then, he’s been helping me and giving me tips on design leadership. That’s what good design leaders do. They identify areas of growth and help you get there.

除非有人向我指出，否则我从来没有真正将自己想象成一名创意总监(或担任任何领导职务)。 David Hoang是最早这样做的人之一。 从那时起，他一直在帮助我，并向我提供有关设计领导力的提示。 好的设计领导者就是这样做的。 他们确定增长领域并帮助您实现目标。

I still have a lot to learn about creative direction. I’m glad that I have some insanely talented and kind people in my corner to help me learn and grow. Find your people, then pay it forward.

关于创意方向，我还有很多东西要学习。 我很高兴我的角落里有一些疯狂的才华和善良的人来帮助我学习和成长。 找到你的人，然后将其支付。