A good exercise to foster intra-agency collaboration

A sports analogy for you...a lot of good wide receivers in college and pro football used to play quarterback. Obviously innate talent has something to do with how good they are, but what also contributes is their understanding of the QB's perspective. They know how he approaches his job and what he needs from his receivers to be successful. Thinking about this brought up an exercise I recommend trying within your agency.

As someone on the account side, it's your job to (at the very least) have a basic understanding of what someone from the creative, planning, media or interactive disciplines needs to do their jobs. At the end of one of your briefings, everyone has the specific information they need to move forward. If your agency's goal is improved integration, why not give a few instances where a creative briefs the media team about the project, or a media member briefs the creative team about a project (and so on)?

By compiling a project brief, gaining unique perspective of what other departments need not only helps them do their jobs better within their own discipline, it will provide different jumping off points for brainstorming, concept development, media planning, or simply finding different approaches to solving age-old marketing challenges. As an account person, you can make sure things are steered in the right direction, but make sure whoever is doing the briefing takes the time to complete the brief with some help from you, but with a lot of collaborative conversation.

Just a thought. I'm curious to hear yours...