WLP330 Creativity and Productivity: The Upside and Downside of Remote Work Trends
This episode covers recent research on three different aspects of new and established ways of working: the effect of asynchronous work on folk music creation, the trends in use of online tools and productivity global productivity in the “work from anywhere” economy. (Oh, and we’ve thrown in some numbers from 2017, for you to compare whether anything has changed…)
1) We were so happy to be directed towards this HBR piece on asynchronous work: Asynchronous work can fuel creativity.
The research was not in the space we’re used to, but looked at how recording asynchronously affected the quality (creativity) of Baul folk musicians. What we thought was specially powerful about this is that music making is something we’d never think could benefit from asynchronicity, so if that can benefit, what else can?
While synchronous work has many benefits (and many people think that synchronous work is always better than asynchronous for collaboration), it sometimes “ignores the variation in people’s social status”. Other studies have found that some social groups find it difficult to take risks in a group environment, as can be the case for some individuals. It’s not always the case that we come up with our best ideas when we’re all together.
Pilar refers to this episode from the Work from Home Forever podcast, where a remote worker shared how asynchronous communication help reduce her anxiety in some work situations.
Quoting from the HBR piece:
“Women’s performances were rated 17% higher when they recorded asynchronously, and that this effect was driven by the degree of creativity in their singing. Men’s performances were not significantly different in the two conditions, and thus asynchronicity seems to help women without hurting men.”
It would be interesting to see more research across different groups, and look at things like career maturity, age, team maturity etc.
13.10mins
A few weeks ago, there was a lot of commentary on the recent Work Trend Index Report by Microsoft
Their article focuses on the potential benefits of using AI but the interest for us was in the data on how people are using their Microsoft environment. We are of the opinion that there are many things that need to be fixed in work before we start fixing them with AI.
These were some of the findings from their users, which included 31,000 people in 31 countries.
Percentage of time in Microsoft 365:
Communication: 57%
15%-email
23%. Teams meeting
19%. Teams chat
Creation 43%
7% OneNote
8% Powerpoint
10%. Word
18%. Excel
We want to ask, how much communication is about collaboration? And much creation involves communication…
Many knowledge workers are still communicating about the work outside the work eg by sending emails with comments about a document rather than commenting in a document itself. There hasn’t been enough time for people to figure out how to best communicate online. (Or, is there a lot of Shadow IT in organisations and some other crucial work and communication is happening outside the MS environment…?)
The report talks a bout “digital debt”: 64% struggle with having time and energy to do their job.
68%. don't have enough uninterrupted focus time
62% spend too much time searching for information
“Documentation” is something that hasn’t been adopted by many companies implementing hybrid or remote; as well as acknolwedging that communication and collaboration needs to be more structure din the online space, and that includes creating content that is easily found and searched in the future. It could also be that everything has become very noisy… (Ok, this is something that AI could definitely help us with…, but it’s also a mindset issue.)
21.00mins
What about this different set of statistics, from a different study?
“We surveyed 182 senior managers in a range of industries. 65% said meetings keep them from completing their own work.” “71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient” “64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.” “62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together.”
This comes from “Stop the Meeting Madness” published in HBR July-Aug 2017.
One other thing we picked up on from the Microsoft study:
Front-line workers have been part of the study, and even though the article suggests the number of meetings, email and chat would be higher if this group hadn’t been included, we believe the opposite, as front line workers are unlikely to be communicating and collaborating in creation-documents.
The obstacles to productivity are also worth looking at:
1. Inefficient meetings
2. Lacking clear goals
3. Too many meetings
4. Feeling uninspired
5. Not finding the information they need
So really, “we need to fix work, not meetings”.
Moving more communication to the asynchronous space, including using the space for connection, could help to address these obstacles, as well as having proper documentation - although we don’t want to add to the digital debt. And all of this could lead to fewer but better meetings.
Of course, we need to remember how the survey was carried out, as it was mostly a multiple-choice survey, but this surprised us: 58% "It's difficult to brainstorm in a virtual meeting". What about the use of online tools for capturing ideas, rather than shouting them out as in traditional meetings, and the incorporation of asynchronous idea-generation too? And this includes online tools we might not think of as traditionally idea-generation devices, like simple Google Docs, or PowerPoint’s to generate content/ideas in parallel groups.
The problem is that there are lots of tools in the Microsoft system, but people haven’t had time to discover them, or learn to use them (or what to use them for), so is it the best time to add incentivise them to learn how to use the new features powered by AI?
One more thing: People's top motivation for meetings: "I will receive information that will help me do my job better." Really? Are people still looking for information in meetings? We think it’s more to do with presenteeism and the need for social contact - and it’s so easy to pop into an online meeting anyway…
Maybe all of this is expected as organisations continue to transition to their new ways of working, whatever that may be…
Of course it’s not just Microsoft that wants to help the world of work through their business. Google Workspace is also evolving their products, and there are new tools around like Clearword Bloom trying to reduce our digital debt.
37.15 mins
We end on a positive note with his article sent to us by our friend Jennifer Riggins.: New Research Reveals We’re on the Precipice of the Next Global Productivity Boom.
This article by Docusign reminds us that organisational structure is also important in how successful remote work is in an organisation. During the pandemic, some organisations became flatter (as referenced to in Redesigning Work by Lynda Gratton)
From the article:
““Leaders also should recognize that the corporation itself is changing and consider that in order to remain competitive, organizational structures that have served them well over past decades likely need to be reinvented. New companies will not use traditional organizational structures. They will embrace flexible work styles and distributed business models from the start, enabling them to operate with greater speed and agility.”
This is a missing conversation at the moment, and of course some industries find it harder to let go of hierarchy than others. But change is possible for all, maybe it needs to be done differently, and in a more “experimental” kind of way - after all, data is faster to generate now and easier to gather. There’s a lot of innovation going on at the team level, but not enough at an organisational level.
This last article also brings back the conversation around socioeconomic change and remote work. It highlights the potential of migration to rural areas, but it also reminds us of the risks:
““There is a risk, however, that the anywhere economy might widen the digital divide as wealthier countries are able to create value at a higher rate, and less developed countries with poorer access to technology fall further behind. Digital technologies create a “multiplier effect” and amplify income inequalities, says Dr. Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Said Business School at Oxford University.”
We end with Maya’s latest trip to Estonia, where she is an e-resident and is her digital home.
You can listen to more of her reflections on this trip in episode 3-13 of The Future is Freelance.
If you have any questions or any recommendations for future topics, do get in touch!
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