5 ways remote work can make you more creative

• In the discussion about remote work, most of conversation goes around finding ways to make emote workforce more productive and efficient. Yet while productivity matters, creativity often gets left out of that conversation.
• As remote work will be the new normal for many of us, the discussion cannot be about which is the better place to do creative work. We have to get better at being creative remotely. It’s no longer a nice-to-have.

Remote work allows us go beyond the standard approach to brainstorming by using brainwriting.

• This brainwriting approach prevents the loudest person, first to speak, or most experienced person from dominating the conversation.
• Exchanging written ideas also allows the introvert to shine and it's easier on to team members whose first language may not be English.
• There is less social pressure to follow one person’s idea, so everyone contributes equally.

• Collaborative digital tools give us new abilities and superpowers that we can’t use during an in-person session of exchanging ideas.
• The chat feature of the platforms we use gives us an extra channel to communicate, comment on ideas and build on them, and ask questions in a way that isn’t possible with in-person collaboration.

The more people you collaborate with, the more ideas will result, which are more likely to lead to a few truly genius insights.

With remote work, we can gather a diverse range of collaborators from other parts of our organization or outside the organization. Diverse teams lead to more creativity, so remote work lets us tap into a new pool of expertise and creativity, which we couldn’t access when collaborating in-person.

“If you want to have good ideas, you must have many ideas.”

Remote work allows us to not only access a greater range of talent. It lets us bring in the facilitators who can make or break an ideation session.

Remote facilitation is a different skill set. Your colleague who is an ace in-person facilitator may not be able to pull it off remotely.

You have chances for inspiration when working from home (even when we're surrounded by our pets, kids, or partners):

• Your environment can energize you and inspire you: you are surrounded by the books you love, or your favorite arts, plants, pets, and family members.
• You can easily head out for a walk, and nothing beats a sudden flash of creativity than a walk surrounded by nature.
• Quiet time to recharge is also easier when working from home.