Have you struggled with generating fresh ideas via apps like Zoom, Slack, Google Meet or Miro? You’re not alone—and there’s some science to back that up.
A new detailed study has concluded that the video meeting form at limits creativity relative to the number of ideas people come up with when they’re collaborating face-to-face. In fact, there is a 20% reduction in ideas generated, which means we’re missing out not only on the overall quantity of ideas but also on the novelty of potential solutions uncovered when brainstorming by video.
Now, I want to be clear, The Garden is a proponent of the hybrid work environment and work-from-home
generally. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve always prioritized employee flexibility here with a work-from-anywhere policy and no mandated in-office days. However, we do know that certain types of ideation sessions, team-building workshops, and social gatherings (our holiday party is just around the corner!), are just better in person.
It's also the reason we’ve created a new professional development course called ThinkShop that’s exclusively meant to be an immersive in-person experience in a space as creative and inspiring as the program itself. It’s no surprise that the education and training market was upended by the pandemic, so we thought a lot about how we can most effectively train a group of people on a process and toolkit for creative problem-solving. Ultimately, with the onset of universal “Zoom fatigue”, we knew that in-person would be our strongest option. While virtual 1:1s are fantastic, many of us feel drained imagining a purely virtual workshop with a mix of off-camera multitasking, frozen screens,
and choppy video playback.
If you feel the same way, and you’re looking to host an impactful, high-quality in-person offsite with your team, message our team on our creativity training course website.
Where do you stand on the virtual, hybrid and face-to-face team sessions? We’d love to hear your POV!