A big concern about hybrid and remote work is that it will stifle ad hoc innovation and collaboration opportunities. With a minimum of effort and foresight, a lack of innovation can be avoided.
It has become an exercise to state the obvious to mention that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world, especially the world of work. However, video conferencing, remote work and hybrid models were not inventions of the pandemic and, in all cases, are technologies and approaches that a portion of the workforce has been using for decades.
To be sure, the pandemic has made remote work the norm for most of the world's knowledge workers. As companies contemplate a return to the office or some type of hybrid model, many workers are on record with their preference to continue remote or hybrid work.
The challenge of remote work
Before the pandemic, remote work was not carried out on a large scale in most organizations. Even people who were not tied to a specific office were encouraged to “go to the office” periodically as high-profile organizations like IBM and Yahoo reversed their “remote-first” policies and required a return to the physical office.
The difficult transition from “two weeks to flatten the curve” to long-term “social distancing” policies proved without a doubt that many knowledge workers, and entire teams and organizations, could work productively outside of a traditional office. This forced global experiment was the final nail in the coffin for productivity-based objections to remote work. However, many executives and leaders still expressed a desire to return to office work whenever possible.
The most common reasons cited for preferring office work were generally a variation of culture and innovation. Culture is a separate topic, but leaders worried that hundreds of nomadic workers would not feel a sense of connection to the company when they were away from the office.
When it came to innovation, leaders rightfully feared that remote work would eliminate the opportunity for “improvised innovation.” The classic example was someone from one department talking to someone from an unrelated department while waiting for coffee or at the water cooler and discovering an opportunity to collaborate and innovate.
This thought seems reasonable – most of us probably don't make regular trips to a random colleague's office or pick an unfamiliar name from the company directory and set up an impromptu chat on Zoom or Teams. Obviously, there is a benefit to collaborating with others outside of your usual network. This seems particularly relevant for technologists who may have broad experience with different parts of the company and can stimulate innovation when paired with an expert from another department.
However, in a tight job market where remote productivity has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, can companies justify another mass workforce transition in the hope that random “hallway conversations” will turn into the next innovative program?
You are already innovating remotely
There's an emerging set of collaboration tools, from Zoom's native whiteboard feature to apps like Miro that try to recreate the experience of putting sticky notes on a whiteboard. Of course, tools alone don't create innovation, but many experienced teams have found techniques that work well in a remote environment and that you can likely find and scale within your organization.
Innovating remotely
It's true that it's difficult to replicate a full-day in-person session, surrounded by whiteboards and people shoulder to shoulder in a remote environment, but it's not impossible to innovate in such an environment with some forethought. One of the biggest challenges is dealing with “video fatigue,” the tendency to lose energy more quickly when working via video than in person. One of the best ways to combat this tendency is to use videos for short, focused moments of collaboration, followed by an hour or two of “with the cameras off” one-on-one work.
I believe 90-120 minutes is the maximum time for video-based sessions where intensive collaboration is required, so maximizing the value created during this period is key to successful remote innovation. Some of the best ways to maximize this time are:
1) Consider forming broad innovation teams made up of people generally interested in exploring new ideas from diverse backgrounds within your company. Invite them to sessions outside their areas of expertise to duplicate the “water cooler interactions” of different departments collaborating in an unplanned environment.
2) Use a “pre-read” document to share background information and any other background content needed to effectively participate in the session. Not everyone will read the document, but if you make it short, sweet, and provide information about how long it will take to read it, you will maximize acceptance.
3) Have experienced facilitators guide the session with a defined plan. Try alternating between “presentation” and group discussion. Avoid and ruthlessly detain individuals who monopolize the group's time with long exposures. There's nothing that kills remote collaboration faster than a single individual rambling and dominating the discussion.
4) Capture group thinking publicly. This can be as simple as sharing an empty document and taking notes as the discussion flows, or as elaborate as creating templates and worksheets that are completed “live” based on the discussion. Showing visual progress keeps the group motivated and focused.
5) Share results and next steps after the meeting so attendees see the results of their efforts and how they will inform the organization.
When planning your session, consider the participant experience, striving to make it fun, collaborative, and valuable. If you create something productive, engaging, and fun, you will develop a powerful ability to innovate remotely. With an added focus on the participant experience, word will quickly spread that innovation is not only possible remotely, but is an activity worth participating in.
Remote innovation may not duplicate the long, intense focus of an in-person session, but you can group several short sessions together to create a similar effect. Take advantage of the “processing time” between each session to refine and document ideas and perhaps further develop a concept that would otherwise be left aside during a day-long session. You also gain the ability to engage employees, partners and external experts without the restrictions of geography or the expense and hassle of travel and logistics.
Done well, remote innovation can be a different but equally valuable element of your overall innovation strategy.
