One of the things I’ve found most useful from understanding my Myers Briggs type, as well as from taking other personality type quizzes like the Enneagram, is how I relate to others around me.

Understanding that not everyone values time-keeping like I do, helped me understand why one of my best friends always arrived slightly late, and very nonchalant about it.

When it comes to collaboration – something that I believe all creative introverts can benefit from – understanding each other’s personality type, preferences, strengths and weaknesses is vital.

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‘Creative differences’ and ultimately fractured relationships, comes in the most part, from lack of understanding each other.

Say you’re months into a collaborative project, and you’re wondering why you’ve stalled. This might be because neither of you have the skill of following through and working to deadlines. You’re both idea generation machines, and love starting projects… but get distracted before you finish.

This is really useful to know rom the get-go, because you can prepare yourselves for potential sticking points: that part in the project where you might need someone else who is more driven to finishing projects and hitting deadlines.

OK.

So where to start on the creative collaboration journey?

Once place to start is with you. Take an audit of what you’re working with: that way you have a point of reference for when it comes to finding your ideal collaborator.

If you haven’t already, please oh please take the Creative Type test. This is a great starting place (based on Myers-Briggs but with a creative spin) for the following questions:

1) Identify your strengths

These can be a mix of character traits ‘I’m great at seeing the big picture’ as well as technical skills ‘I have a great eye for colour’

Write down as many as you can, even if you’re not sure how relevant they’ll be for your collaboration. Get em out there!

2) Identify your weaknesses

I don’t want to be a downer, but we all have less developed areas. Again, list a mix of areas you see as weaker than average, both in terms of character traits and more technical skills.

You might also make a note of things you simply don’t enjoy, regardless of your skill level. On the whole, I dislike spending an entire day or even half a day on one task only. I like to mix things up in my working day, and this is something I’m going to want my collaboration buddy to know about.

3) What needs to be done?

Now, you might not know what project you want to collaborate over. That’s OK.

But you might have a vague desire to expand your portfolio, create something in a medium you’re not familiar with or reach a larger audience.

In each case, a collaborative partner can help. For example, you might be an illustrator who wishes to animate their characters, but you need someone who can help you storyboard and can use the animation software.

You might want to work with someone specific, because you think their audience might also be interested in your work, and vice versa. This works well for musicians who collaborate over a track. They don’t know what the finishsed result will be, but they know who they want to work with.

I know writers who have collaborated over novels - something I thought would be virtually impossible - and they did it successfully! Check out Joanna Penn, J.Thorn, Lindsay Buroker and Zach Bohannon’s collaborative masterpiece.

In short, don’t worry if you aren’t crystal clear on the end project just yet.

Let yourself fantasise for a bit, and jot down a list of ideas that you could collaborate on.

4) What can you bring to the table?

In any case, you’ll want to be able to communicate your strengths when you pitch your potential collaborative partners.

Go back to see what you wrote in step 1) for inspiration. Ideally, you can give examples of how these strengths are going to assist your collaborative project. You can also go further: write about your audience (even if it’s teeny tiny) and how you can spread the word about the project to them.

Even if you’re a bit allergic to the old self-promotion, keep in mind that it’s much easier for most of us to talk about other people’s work than our own. Similarly, a collaborative project isn’t just yours: I promise that knowing you’re sharing for the sake of your collaboration buddy too, is going to make this SO much easier and more rewarding.

5) What gaps do you need to fill?

Look back through what you wrote for step 2) - your blindspots. This is one of the best reasons to collaborate.

Whether it’s technical skills like using a piece of software that you lack, or personality traits, like lack of attention to detail (I’ll raise my hand here): there will be certain gaps that your partner may be able to fill: so when you combine, you become SUPER CREATIVE EXTRAORDINAIRE!

It also might be worth thinking about teaming up with a more extroverted partner.

Jackson Pollack was a man of few words, especially in relation to his art.

Fortunately, he had his chum Clement Greenberg; an Extrovert – who was able to put Pollack's paintings into context: giving them meaning.

He could showcase Pollack's work in a way that attracted press, an audience and ultimately create the Abstract Expressionist movement.

It can be tempting to gravitate to people just like us: but there’s a lot to be said for opposites attracting.

6) Who might be able to help?

In most cases, you won’t know the exact Myers Briggs type of every one of your potential Twitter contacts or whoever else you have in mind.

That’s ok.

The first step is just getting a long list out of potential folk who might at least be interested in your creative dream.

Again, this is assuming you know what you want to do.

It might be the case that you aren’t quite clear on what your project should be exactly, but you know you stand to benefit from a collaboration, whether it’s for your career, to expand your audience reach, to build your portfolio or grow as a person.

In my experience, collaboration has given me all of these things.

I keep a private list on Twitter called ‘Collaborators’ which I regularly add to. That way, when I feel an itch to collaborate I can hit up my existing list.

Think small and big. Local and distant. You never know who’ll end up being the Jobs to your Woz.

7) Reach out to one person this week.

Just one. And it’s OK if you don’t hear back!

You can reach out to someone else next week.

This is part of the collaboration process to: learning how best to communicate your passion or flash of inspiration to someone who might not even know you.

And don’t worry about asking them straight away ‘HEY D’YOU WANNA COLLABORATE WITH MEEEE?’

At the risk of sounding a wee bit looney.

Try starting the email with how you found them: was it something you saw online? a book? a podcast interview? Did you meet them in person or see them speak?

A little bit of flattery at this point goes a long way.

Next, if you have your idea - even if you have a LOT to say about it - hold back! It’s good to be a little vague and mysterious at this point. Above all, you want to keep it brief.

‘I’ve had some ideas about a collaborative illustration project I’d love to start work on. I think I could really use someone like yourself to make it happen. Would you be up for talking about this (over Skype/in person)?’

Then make it easy for your recipient to reply: take off any pressure (‘I 100% understand if you don’t have time for new projects right now, but if you are interested…'

And then… you wait!

Keep going, whatever happens: you have so many more things to gain by simply going through this process itself than in whatever resulting project you create.

I kept this in mind when I undertook the creation of a two-day live event in 2017. I barely knew my collaborator before we decided to take the leap and make it happen. All I knew was that regardless of the outcome, I’d learn a LOT.

And I did! I also had a great time - stressfull moments aside! – and forged a new friendship and business partner from it too.

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Now, moving onto our second live event undertaking, we’ve learned enough about our own strengths and weaknesses that getting a third collaborator makes sense. This third team member has the skills we lack (namely, attention to detail, an interest in logistics and ability to spot potential risks… which we are not inclined to!)

I hope that’s enough for today. Collaboration is a huge topic, but I’d love to encourage you to give it a go. Yes, we’re introverts: but that doesn’t mean we isolate ourselves all the time. Magic happens when more than one person unites over a creative idea.