Innovation Doesn't Start with Ideas. It Starts with Trust.
We spend considerable time trying to make our organizations more innovative and focused on improvement. We introduce new processes, organize brainstorming sessions, launch innovation programs, and encourage people to think differently.
Some organizations even bring remote and hybrid colleagues back to the office because they believe innovation is harder when people work remotely. But after working with distributed teams for decades, I've come to believe we're starting at the wrong end.
I've seen how much relationships matter when people need to work together, particularly when they're not in the same location. Before someone shares an unconventional idea, challenges an established practice, or admits something isn't working, they need to feel comfortable with the people around them.
They need trust.
Why trust matters for innovation
Research provides good reasons to take trust seriously.
In 2016, Breuer, Hüffmeier, and Hertel published a meta-analysis in the Journal of Applied Psychology, examining 52 studies involving more than 12,000 people across 1,850 teams.
They found a positive relationship between trust and team effectiveness. [TK1] Interestingly, that relationship was significantly stronger in virtual teams than in face-to-face teams.
In other words, trust appears particularly important when colleagues work apart.
Amy Edmondson's pioneering 1999 research also established a relationship between psychological safety and team learning behavior. When people feel safe taking interpersonal risks, they're more willing to ask questions, acknowledge mistakes, and challenge assumptions.
A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Psychology added another perspective. It found that trust among colleagues was positively associated with knowledge sharing in geographically distributed teams, with psychological safety playing an important role.
These findings don't establish that trust automatically produces innovation. But they suggest that trust and psychological safety support the knowledge sharing and learning behaviors that make innovation possible.
Trust develops in everyday interactions
When I think about the colleagues I've worked with over the years, the relationships that developed weren't built through formal status meetings alone.
They developed through everyday interactions. Asking a quick question, helping someone solve a problem, sharing an experience, or having an informal conversation that had nothing to do with the task at hand.
Over time, these small interactions help us discover who is approachable, reliable, and willing to help. And that builds trust.
In a physical office, many such moments happen naturally. Colleagues see each other, recognize when someone is available, and start conversations without arranging a meeting.
In remote and hybrid teams, those opportunities often require more deliberate attention.
I think we've become quite good at organizing remote work. But organizing work and creating the conditions for people to connect aren't quite the same thing.
Making room for spontaneous conversations
This challenge was one of the reasons we created BeZoned.
Having worked with colleagues across different locations for many years, I knew how much I missed the informal side of working together when everything happened through scheduled meetings.
We wanted to make those everyday interactions easier, regardless of where people were working.
BeZoned is an online office app inside Microsoft Teams that helps distributed colleagues see who's around and available and makes spontaneous conversations easier throughout the working day.
Our idea was straightforward. Give remote and hybrid teams more opportunities for the ordinary interactions that help relationships develop.
Today, we use BeZoned every day in our own fully remote company. And what I appreciate most is how naturally we interact. We ask each other questions, help solve problems, share experiences, and sometimes joke about things that have absolutely nothing to do with work.
These aren't activities we organize to build trust. They're simply part of working together. And from my experience, that's exactly how relationships develop.
Before asking for ideas, create the conditions for sharing them
I don’t question the value of innovation programs, brainstorming sessions, and structured processes. But I don't believe they can replace the ideas and innovations that emerge out of spontaneous and casual conversations between colleagues.
These conversations require trust and relationships that make people comfortable enough to speak openly. That's what I keep coming back to when I think about innovation in remote and hybrid organizations.
Are we spending enough time helping colleagues get to know each other? Or are we so focused on organizing tasks, meetings, and processes that we overlook the everyday interactions that bring people together?
I believe we should spend less time trying to make people innovative and a little more time helping them connect. Because innovation doesn't start with ideas. It starts with people who trust each other.
Author: Peter Soerensen
#FutureOfWork #Innovation #EmployeeEngagement #FutureOfLeadership #OnlineOffice #RemoteWork #HybridWork #DigitalWorkspace
Research references
Breuer, Hüffmeier, and Hertel (2016), Journal of Applied Psychology
Edmondson (1999), Administrative Science Quarterly
Hao and colleagues (2022), Frontiers in Psychology