08.04.2021 Josephin Hartmann 3912

How virtual teams stay creative despite distance

From proximity to distance - a turning point for many employees

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the world of work at a time of advancing change. A trend towards mobile offices was already evident in some companies, and the option of video calls was also used where necessary. But the lockdown from March 2020 has had a rapid and massive impact on existing working models, and the cautious innovations in the world of work have been driven forward in leaps and bounds: Those who used to sit in the office now worked in the mobile office, business trips were canceled and collaboration was only possible virtually.

It could give the impression that innovation was difficult to implement in 2020, as many companies were more concerned about contingency plans, short-time working and the mental health of their team members. Regardless of the private situation of employees, working from home had to be implemented.

Declining creativity in the mobile office

In the empirical study "Homeoffice Experience" conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO) in summer 2020, around 2,100 employees were asked about their working situation at home and influences on information flow, work performance and creativity were examined.

It is particularly striking that creativity has the lowest rating of all three success factors examined in the home office. The development of creative thoughts is below average and the emergence of new ideas and solutions is rated the lowest by the respondents.

"Overall, limited creativity is therefore one of the biggest problems when working from home. If you take a closer look at the problem, it becomes clear that it is mainly due to the lack of development of creative thoughts and the emergence of new ideas and solutions in the home office. Only a third of those surveyed stated that they were able to develop new ideas and solutions while working from home", according to the IAO's "Home Office Experience" study.

Furthermore, the results show that employees who require a high level of communication and collaboration with colleagues for their work rate their creativity, information flow and work performance in the mobile office as significantly lower than employees with a high level of concentration and complexity. "These results suggest that the office will continue to play an important role as a place of exchange, and also that people with highly complex tasks should be provided with improved concentration support in the future," the study summarizes.

However, competition never sleeps during a crisis and it is crucial for companies to seize opportunities faster than others. "Sluggish tankers" will be left behind. As mobile offices will play an important role in the world of work in the future, virtual teams should consider what structures and technical resources they need in order to recognize potential opportunities in good time and take advantage of them.

Creativity depends on the right place in the mobile office

But creative thought processes are not excluded in the mobile office. However, creativity and work performance depend on the right place to work. The IAO study shows: "People who work from home in different locations or in a separate study are more creative in their work and perform better than people who work in the kitchen, living room or bedroom".

Video conferences promote the generation of ideas and agile exchange

In addition to the right place to work, a regular and uninterrupted flow of information in the creative process is also important. This is shown by the study "Innovation and Communication Media in Virtual Teams - An Experimental Study (2020) " by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. The researchers assume that team members are particularly dependent on each other in the idea generation phase of the innovation process and that physical proximity facilitates and accelerates innovation. But how does creative performance change when team meetings only take place virtually?

The results show that video conferences generate ideas to the same extent as on-site creative meetings. The group that relied solely on chat as a communication tool achieved poorer results. Improved communication technologies and video calls therefore promote a rapid exchange so that new ideas can be generated anywhere and at any time.

Office of the future as a source of inspiration

As virtual collaboration increases in the new world of work, the question remains as to what function offices will fulfill in the future and how they can promote innovative and creative exchange. What is certain is that the office has clear advantages for networking and the exchange of important information. The IAO study sets out possible hypotheses for the office of the future:

• The workplace must provide the best conditions for productive individual and group work so that employees are offered an optimal alternative to the mobile office or even added value.
• In future, the office must become more important in its role as a source of inspiration that enables employees to exchange ideas and work together, ultimately satisfying not only professional but also social needs.
• The need for retreats for concentrated work will increase. Compared to today's office concepts, the proportion of closed structures will increase significantly.

In summary, the office structure of the future could look like this: A mixture of retreat spaces for highly productive and focused work, paired with hybrid and generously proportioned meeting and project spaces for creative work as well as open, lounge-like work, meeting, learning and experience opportunities.

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