Does Telecommuting Kill Innovation?
Let us analyze the subject to understand that the real question lies elsewhere.
Before talking about creativity and innovation, let's not hesitate to talk about productivity and efficiency. The question of remote working conditions and their influence on the well-being and efficiency of employees is crucial.
Several studies conducted during the 2020 and 2021 confinements have shown that five factors impact telecommuting productivity:
The presence of children.
Space availability.
Quietness.
Access to company tools (information system, software, etc.).
Choice (are the telecommuting days imposed or freely chosen?).
The comfort and efficiency of teleworking are indeed prerequisites to the question of creativity and innovation.
Do you have to be in the same room to innovate?
What is it that encourages employee creativity and innovation in a company? Is it possible to be as creative and inventive in hybrid mode as in an office team?
Some people think not. Exchanges between colleagues - whether in a meeting room, in a coworking space, or around the coffee machine - are seen as an essential ground for creating the spark of innovation. Human history has shown the role of serendipity: how many inventions and innovations were born from an informal conversation, a chance coincidence, or a drawing on a tablecloth in a restaurant?
This vision is often shared by companies that believe that innovation comes from collaboration, and that collaboration is stronger when there are places where employees can come together to bubble up their ideas. They are even creating ideation spaces with comfortable and more informal furniture than those of a traditional office environment. For these companies, telecommuting would prevent the informal and creative exchanges that one can have when one is in the office. In short, teleworking would stifle innovation.
But isn't there a myth here, and isn't this vision biased by the image of some Silicon Valley startups?
The myth of the coffee machine
Why is the idea that informal face-to-face exchanges are essential to creativity so widely shared? Why is the myth of the coffee machine so deeply rooted? The answer lies in a deeply human and simple aspect: the power of habit. Used to seeing each other in an office environment daily, we were all disoriented when we found ourselves alone in a telecommuting environment.
If we think about it further, we may realize that collaborative environments in companies only work if the company has a culture that actively encourages collaboration, and encourages employees to choose times for it. If the company has such a culture, it doesn't matter if employees have adopted a hybrid work style. They will find a way to collaborate, to create the spark of innovation that solves problems. They will find those moments chosen.
In reality, the lack of creative exchange that some people complain about is a symptom. The real problem lies elsewhere.
What kills innovation is the absence of an innovation culture
The dilemma is how to work in a hybrid way that maintains a collaborative mode that fosters meaningful engagement for employees. This is the question companies need to answer. Moments for creative exchange will come naturally if this question is answered.
Having a culture of innovation cannot be decreed. To innovate is to transgress. How can organizations allow transgression within teams? How can we encourage all innovations, and not just disruptive ones? How can we promote the idea that everyone can innovate at their level? This is a state of mind, and it must be conveyed above all by leaders and managers. It is also about creating the spaces - physical and mental - necessary for innovation. The nature and form of these spaces can be multiple, as long as everyone can make them their own.
The question “Does telework kill innovation?” is therefore the wrong one. The real question is that of the collective intelligence of the company, which will know how to favor and encourage the moments chosen and dedicated to innovation.
Some reading
The Paradox of Elon Musk — The Futurist Entrepreneur Remains Stuck in the Values of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Elon Musk raises real issues about telecommuting, but to serve his interests at Tesla first.
History Often Rhymes — Lessons for the US Dollar From the Collapse of the Roman Denarius. For some, America is in the midst of a modern Diocletian moment.