5 ways remote work can make you more creative

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.

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.