Have you ever found yourself in a meeting where everyone is trying to collaborate in a shared document, but it feels like you’re all just getting in each other’s way? Or perhaps you’ve tried to understand a complex project by reading through a messy whiteboard snapshot? If so, you’re not alone—and there’s a better way.
Here’s a truth that took me years to learn: The tools that work best for creating and collaborating aren’t necessarily the same ones that work best for sharing and preserving information.
Let me share a recent example that illustrates this perfectly. A client reached out for help planning a kickoff session for a new product initiative. The end goal was straightforward enough: create a one-page charter document to guide the team’s work. But here’s where it gets interesting.
The tempting approach would have been to jump straight into a shared document and start writing together. After all, a document was the end goal, right? But documents, while excellent for presenting and sharing information, aren’t great tools for the messy, creative work of collaborative thinking.
Instead, our client made a smart choice. She designed an interactive Miro board where the team could freely share ideas, move things around, and build on each other’s thoughts. The visual, flexible space allowed for the kind of dynamic interaction that generates great ideas. Then, once the thinking was done, she used Miro’s AI summary feature to transform those scattered but valuable insights into a document that she edited for sharing.
This two-step approach worked brilliantly because each tool was used for what it does best:
- Miro provided the interactive, visual space needed for collaborative ideation
- The document format delivered a clear, shareable record of the team’s decisions
It’s like choosing between a kitchen and a dining room. You want a kitchen’s workspace and tools when you’re cooking, but you probably prefer serving the meal in the dining room. Different spaces serve different purposes. Eating at the kitchen counter isn’t ideal; nor is cooking at the dining room table.
This got me thinking about how often we default to using whatever tool is most familiar or handy, rather than what’s best suited for our desired interaction. Maybe we’re trying to brainstorm in a spreadsheet, or document complex processes in chat messages, or maintain important reference information on ephemeral sticky notes.
Take a moment to consider your own toolkit:
- What interactions do your current tools make easier?
- What do they make harder?
- Are you matching the right tools to the kind of interaction you want at each stage of your work?
Sometimes, like our client discovered, the best approach is to use different tools at different stages—collaborative tools for creation, presentation tools for sharing, and reference tools for preservation.
What tool choices might you reconsider to get better interactions in your work?
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