With a wealth of collaboration tools like Slack, Asana, and Upclick flooding the market right now, remote work and collaborating should go hand-in-hand now, right? Well, apparently not.

Physically separating people from one another and working at asynchronous times means that people no longer are being quite as creative as they once were according to this research paper by Yang, L., Holtz, D., Jaffe, S. 

Focusing on Microsoft's remote experiment, the research shows that remote team members struggle creatively, meaning that even a work-from-home team that puts in more hours may be less productive than traditional or hybrid cultures. Does this mean that the digital revolution is doomed to fail?

The Big Problem When Working Remotely

Despite the major benefits that remote work brings, research shows that we struggle to effectively communicate creatively in the same way that we do in an office workplace.

Faceless Communication

Team collaboration takes a distinct hit when the team cannot communicate in a face-to-face environment. That means that new technologies like Slack are not enough on their own - asynchronous communication doesn't allow for high-quality collaboration.

We are less likely to have eureka moments because remote work cuts down on the amount of real-time conversations we have throughout the day. These chats are full of inspiration and boost morale, so employees that are working from home need to be supported in both a professional and an emotional sense.

Static Work Groups

Log in to work, see the same people, hear the same stories, get the same ideas. Static workgroups can be a killer for novel ideas. This is especially true when you're placed in a group of fellow experts.

Although fellow experts should be the best people to get new ideas from, they actually tend to give us redundant ideas - stuff we already know. We develop tunnel vision in our pipelines and lose a bit of spark when it comes to innovating our workplace.

Companies that do not encourage intermingling between departments or entire regional offices could be setting up stable ego networks - no one ever leaves their comfort zone because they're never challenged by outsiders. In the long term, this leads to complacency.

Chit-chat Denormalized

Sadly, one of the greatest problems that come with working from home is that idle chit-chat has stopped. The big knock-on effect of this shift is that we're simply not as engaged as we were in the office. Seems unintuitive, right?

Water cooler talk is thought to be a valuable source of spontaneous inspiration. Even though there might be a drop in productivity, the overall quality of the work is better thanks to internal accidental collaborations within an organization.

Establishing Ties In Remote Teams

Remote work with team collaboration is still very much in its infancy - a definitive best practices list for remote teams is difficult. We have all used video conferencing tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams to keep in touch over the course of the COVID 19 pandemic, but is the solution just that simple?

Hybrid Workplaces

Now that we have work from home, we don't want to give it up. But hybrid solutions are worth considering - working remotely some (or even most!) of the time and then going to a centralized meeting place when needed. You get the best of both worlds - the freedom of a remote worker's life with the collaborative power of face-to-face meetings.

But not everyone is employed locally (or even in the same country!). For the far-flung freelancers and remote workers of the world, the following tips are your source of creativity while you're working remotely.

Video Calls

It's too easy to say "teleconferencing is the answer", but it does seem that live conversation between team members is the best way to encourage creative discussion.

There's spontaneity in live conversations that don't happen in message board-style collaboration tools. For employees that work hours apart (something that is becoming especially common thanks to distributed workplaces and the growth in freelancing), staying in the loop is tough.

That's why daily or weekly meetings over a virtual call can answer so many problems. Sharing an example or setting clear company goals becomes easier with a person making the big issues clear. No more frustrating email chains!

Rotating Collaboration Groups

Although strong ties (co-workers in the top 50% of an employee's monthly interactions) help us feel welcome, trusted, and a part of the team, weak ties (the bottom 50%) are just as important.

As found in Granovetter's paper on the strength of weak ties, these relationships are easier to create and full of fresh ideas. Outsider opinions give us new perspectives and non-redundant ideas. In essence, we get a little shakeup when someone knew asks us about our work.

In an office, workers regularly bump into colleagues who aren't working on the same project. Impromptu meetings set off sparks of creativity that are difficult to recreate in the virtual world -  spontaneous knowledge transfers between departments. Meeting new people and their new perspectives livens up our work!

Optimizing Communication Methods

Slack is not a silver bullet and email is not useless for remote working employees. Instead, every group must figure out the most effective methods of communication - that includes at a company level, a team level, and even an employee-to-employee level.

Email is great for summarizing information or sending large amounts of information at once. But real-time tools like dynamic IM platforms, phone calls, and video calls are necessary to draw meaning out from asynchronous communication methods. Find the balance!

What Upstack Does To Tie A Remote Team Together

Upstack uses Slack to bring remote workers together and help them work better. We want to support our freelancers and our client companies from start to finish in the best way possible.

Let's get something out of the way - adapting to remote work isn't always easy. There's a culture change for both sides of the agreement. But to ensure our developers have the right support to make the most of their time working with you.

That's why the Upstack approach works. At every step of the way, our in-house team supports developers to find the right job for their skills and to be creative. It's a difficult balance, but our experienced team of success managers and developer network knows just how to make a placement work.

What Can We Learn From Microsoft's Errors?

Remote work is looking like the future, no matter how much some big organizations want people to return to the traditional workplace. But to make the work from home movement a success, we need to gain a new perspective on how we collaborate throughout our work hours.

Just like Microsoft, we are still learning how to drive innovation when "bouncing ideas" isn't easy. The key to driving creative thought during a remote collaboration is utilizing videoconferencing, healthy social interaction with a variety of workplaces, and a truly distributed office culture.

Leading companies trust Upstack to hire the tech experts they need, exactly when they need them! What are you waiting for? Get in touch today!