Can remote work go hand in hand with creativity and innovation?

Recently, many headlines have focused on companies requiring employees to return to the office, citing creativity and innovation. Executives believe physical presence boosts these qualities, but is this true? A research paper from the Oxford Martin School at Oxford University reveals some intriguing learnings.

The paper explores how the rise of remote collaboration has shaped the pursuit of new ideas in scientific discovery. To systematically distinguish between disruptive breakthroughs and incremental discoveries, the paper uses data from over ten million research teams – publishing in eleven fields of research from 1961 to 2020.

From that, we learn that on average there was a significant negative impact of remote collaboration on breakthrough discovery in the early years. However, beginning in the 2010s, the negative impact tapers off and even becomes positive. The paper provides evidence suggesting that the reversal is driven by improvements in key technologies needed for effective remote collaboration.

Notable, the research paper stresses that findings should not lead to conclusions that face-to-face interactions no longer matter. In particular, digital technologies still only allow for interactions that are planned at least in one end, meaning that the kind of sporadic encounters that have driven innovation historically are still relevant today.

I very much agree that sporadic encounters and informal communication stimulate innovation as do interactive discussions around a whiteboard. With tools like BeZoned virtual office these sporadic moments and whiteboard sessions are indeed possible when working in remote/hybrid environments or in teams distributed across several office locations. If you like to learn more, then check out www.bezoned.com.