According to most respondents, the general flow of information in the teams had not been hurt by the remote setting. Some even felt that the information flow had become better than before the COVID-19 pandemic. One reason for this, is the more organized communication routines, like the daily morning stand-ups. Another reason for the improved information flow is the fact that it is easier to invite more people to a meeting when it is virtual. This way, all team members could listen to various meetings that they otherwise might not have attended, due to the meeting not being specifically necessary for them.
Improved usage of digital tools was also stated as a reason for the improved flow of information. For example, it became common practice to keep all information stored online, so that all team members could access the files. Previously, some files might have been stored locally on one persons’ computer. Figma, one of the new tools, also allowed for several people to work on the same file simultaneously, something that was not possible with the previously used tool Sketch. This made it easier to follow the progress of other team members’ work. Through Teams, team members had also started to collaboratively edit for example Power Point presentations.
“I'm actually super happy that now we use so many collaborative tools, that everything is just kind of shared, that you can follow other people, I think it's super handy. I think
it will stay. Because I remember that before distance working, there were only a few people who were using shared decks or anything like this. “
While the flow of information had not been severely impacted overall, there were still challenges with communication due to the remote setting. One respondent pointed out that when the team is in the same physical location, discussions happening between only a few team members are still usually overheard by the rest of the team. Remotely, however, the information resulting from a discussion between only a few members does not reach the rest of the team until the next common session.
Due to the remote setting, any form of spontaneous communication had become harder.
For example, asking a quick question was much easier when the team members were working in the same physical space. One respondent felt that he had experienced more miscommunication, since it was harder to ask a colleague if he had understood something the right way. Another respondent felt that it was more of a hassle to arrange a meeting or messages on Teams, compared to just talking to a colleague sitting at the same table. A third respondent pointed out that the communication was easier with long-time colleagues, but when interacting with people he had not extensively worked with before, the challenges with remote communication became more evident.
“When you are in this kind of same physical space... it's much easier to communicate this way. Compared to always having to reaching out to someone and basically kind of being a bit in a vacuum. “
The lack of spontaneous interaction also affected other aspects of the teamwork. A few respondents mentioned that spontaneous, ad-hoc interactions with other colleagues helped them get inspiration for their creativity. For example, one might overhear a colleague talking about an interesting topic and continue the train of thought by jumping into the conversation. Additionally, getting information in this ad-hoc way not only serves as a source for creativity, but also works as a way of coordinating actions and facilitating the general information flow in the office. I will use the term spontaneous information exchange for situations where employees acquire information when spontaneously interacting with their colleagues. However, the spontaneous information exchange does not happen in the same way when working remotely as spontaneous interactions, for example at the coffee machine, do not occur naturally.
The lack of spontaneous interaction also affects the creative process in other ways. For example, some respondents mentioned that it is harder to build the same excitement and engagement for the creative discussions, when the communication is done virtually.
Additionally, much of the creativity usually happens spontaneously; the creative moments happen whenever they happen. Working together in the same physical space, this is not an issue, as a team member can suddenly start talking about an interesting idea or perspective. Remotely, however, the creative moments are not allowed to happen spontaneously, but are rather scheduled into specific meetings for brainstorming and ideation.
“When we're working like this, and people are sitting at home and you're scheduling creativity, it's not allowed to happen whenever in sort of happens. There's just more room for flexibility in having a shared space of working rather than having a shared calendar of when to come together and share ideas. “
Some respondents also highlighted the importance of the physical working space for getting inspiration for creativity. The project rooms used to be filled with information about the projects. Some respondents felt that when working remotely it is much harder to get an overview of a project, compared to just quickly looking around at the walls and getting ideas for how to continue forward. One respondent also felt that the digital tools still have more restrains than a simple whiteboard and pen, which in the respondent’s opinion are better for just quickly sketching down an idea for further discussion.
“When you're jammed, you’re stuck, you look around and you might see something that actually opens up that lock. You cannot do that at home. It's not the same thing. If you have slides or files in your computer, you need to go back and forth to sort of seeing everything, compared to when you can just glance over to the wall and you see everything simultaneously. “
Several respondents pointed out, that the creative work they do often require extensive discussions and brainstorming sessions with the team. These types of creative discussions tend to be very reactive; people build upon each other’s ideas, react to each other’s statements, come up with different perspectives and so on. In an online meeting, it is hard for more than one person to speak at the same time and reading peoples facial expressions and body language is also more difficult. Therefore, the respondents felt that the remote setting made it harder to have creative discussions like these, where the team members build upon each other’s ideas.
“Every now and then in virtual meetings, you can sort of see from the video that someone is trying to say something, they're itching to talk but you can't really speak at the same time, because you can't have sort of multiple small discussions at the same time as the big discussion. So, then you need to raise your hand and then the moment might already have passed. “
Some respondents also commented on the role of digital tools during the creative sessions. Instead of using post-it notes like they would in a physical space, the team
members used Mural, a tool that for example provides digital post-it notes. The benefit of this was that after the sessions, all information was already documented online.
However, the respondents felt that Mural did not really support the creative discussions, like helping the team members to build upon each other’s ideas during the sessions.
Instead, Mural functioned more as a documenting tool for ideas that were already good enough.
“It’s more of a documenting tool than sort of an aid in actually being creative, getting ideas from different people out there and into the open and critiquing and building on top of them. It feels like it's more about documenting ready, or good enough ideas, and not really building on them. “
The client workshops are one of the best examples of how the creative work had changed.
All respondents except for one felt that the workshops had become more challenging due to the remote setting. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the client workshops used to last for a whole day or two, where the goal for example could be to brainstorm, gather insights, ideate, or create concepts. Previously, a big part of the workshops was to create a good atmosphere, where the participants got to know each other and felt comfortable ideating and building upon each other’s ideas. Remotely, however, the workshops had become much more focused on the agenda, and rarely lasted more than a few hours.
“I'm pretty sure we're missing a lot of insights just because we cannot build this atmosphere online. So, to sum up, workshops became much shorter, more focused, but I'm not quite sure it benefits the end-result of those workshops. “
Several respondents mentioned challenges with engagement during the virtual workshops. Compared to the physical workshops, the participants were speaking and contributing a lot less. Some respondents highlighted the importance of keeping the cameras on, as that made it harder for the participants to be inactive. One participant felt that organizing the workshops remotely also made it harder to make the client enthusiastic about the work being done. According to another respondent, the physical activities of writing and putting post-it notes on the wall is already something that fosters engagement, and not doing that during the remote workshops may be one of the reasons for the lower engagement amongst the participants. For the facilitator of the workshop, it also became harder to see the engagement of the participants, as they sometimes worked in several breakout rooms. In an offline setting, it would have been easier to get an overview of the participants, as the several small group discussions still would have happened in the same physical space.
Some respondents felt that the biggest challenge with the remote workshops, was to not be able to build the same atmosphere for sharing and discussing insights. One respondent described the aim of workshops as facilitating a conversation between the participants, in order to get insights and develop ideas. The deeper and livelier the conversation, the better the insights and the end-result. Remotely, however, the respondent felt that the workshops had become more about documenting already existing ideas, rather than having a fruitful discussion for understanding different perspectives. One benefit with the virtual workshops, however, was that all the outcomes of it were already documented in the digital tool that had been used.
“Usually, clients are not even talking to the other people, it’s just like putting their idea on the post-it, and then you do clustering. But there is no meaningful conversation between all the members. When you have the physical workshop, it's really about conversation. And the challenge we have is to document the conversation. In the virtual workshop environment, you have all the documentation, but it's not a conversation. “ There had also been technical issues with the workshops. Sometimes it was hard for the clients to join the sessions, due to authentication issues. Some clients also had challenges with using the tools for the workshops. To counter this, one respondent stated that his team had sent out “homework” to the participants, so that they would become used to the tools before the workshop started. The lack of technical skills among the clients, lead to that the persons facilitating the workshops sometimes also had to act as assistants, helping those who were not able to use the tools properly.
Overall, the respondents stated that it had become harder to build upon each other’s ideas and engage in this type of creative discussions. However, this does not mean that all type of creative work had become more challenging. A few respondents stated that the creative work they do is mostly individual work, meaning that the remote setting had little effect on it. Therefore, it seems that while creative teamwork is negatively affected by remote working, creative work done individually is less affected by a remote setting.
While most respondents felt that the overall information flow in the teams had not been hurt, and according to some even improved, most respondents still felt that it was more challenging to communicate virtually. For example, it is hard for several people to speak at once in a virtual meeting and reading the body language and facial expressions is also more challenging than during a physical discussion. For this reason, I would have guessed that there would be more conflicts in the teams, due to misunderstandings and frustration among the team members. However, none of the respondents stated that this was the case, even when asked specifically about it.
“I guess you might think it's easier for people to be maybe more aggressive over remote connection that they would in person, but I haven't observed that. As long as the meeting has at least audio on then it's easier to interpret how things are said, compared to when it's sent over email. “