Is Innovation And Disruption "Actually" Improved By Being In-Person?

The battle for Remote-Work continues as Businesses continually Fail to actually enact Return-To-Office "Mandates" (months later).

New research has been coming out on the subject.

However, what does the research show?

You need to realize something IMPORTANT before I dive into the subject.

The Quality of the Research will depend on how well thought out the research is.

Sadly, there is a LOT of terrible Research that exists.

Many Research papers are not well thought out, creating data that doesn't "prove" anything, yet make claims that aren't truly backed up.

Other times, research is designed in a way to skew Data purposefully to get specific Results (usually paid for by a third party that "needs" a certain outcome).

So, before you take a Research Paper's Abstract Section as "gospel truth", look at the Data to see what they actually are testing.

Case in point, there's been some "Research" regarding Remote Work that has said that Teams are "supposedly" less Innovative or Disruptive than In-Person Teams.

However, there is something that seems to be COMPLETELY missing from their Research.

Wanna take a guess what that is?

The Improvements around Technology and the Costs of Technology.

However, not ALL Research is missing that VITAL component.

For instance, this research from Frey and Presidente that looked at over 11 Million Teams between the years 1961 to 2020.

What makes this Research PARTICULARLY interesting is that they took into account MANY different factors.

They wanted to make sure to look at different scientific fields of study - 11 to be precise.

They also looked at different types of Teams, such as Colocated (In-Person) vs Spatially Distributed Teams (Remote).

Plus, they actually created measures for TRUE Disruption as opposed to "Incremental" Research!

Now, what does the Research show?

Well, if you were to take just an "overall" number, then you would find that In-Person work between 1961 and 2020 had "more" Disruption.

BUT!

How good was Remote Technology from the 60's to even the early 2000's?

Awful!

If you are old enough to remember how SLOW Dial-Up was, and how COMPLETELY unreliable it was, it's not surprising!

But Technology has DRAMATICALLY changed since the '60s!

Zoom wasn't even founded until 2011!

Even then, it wasn't popularized until after 2015!

Zoom was still less utilized than WebEx (which I remember how much of a pain THAT was to use AND COSTLY) until 2018!

So, if you're looking at Widespread Adoption of a Technology that the vast majority could use easily, you're only looking at about 2 years of data!

Compared to 58 years of Technology which was mostly inaccessible and a pain to utilize well.

Seems like an unfair comparison when you put it like that, right?

Well, most "Research" seems to ignore this obvious fact!

However, not true of Frey and Presidente!

They broke out the data by different time periods.

When they did this, something Surprising was Revealed!

The supposed "gap" between In-Person and Remote-Work Disruption and Innovation has been decreasing since the '80s!

As Technology has improved, and the costs have made it more accessible, the Gap has completely disappeared!

IN FACT, looking at this Research, the period from 2015 to 2020 (you know, BEFORE the craziness happened in the world) Remote-Work had MORE Disruption and Innovation than In-Person Work!

Pause to Gasp!

Are you saying that even BEFORE we were ALL forced to do Remote-Work, Technology had enabled Remote-Workers to be MORE Disruptive and Innovative than In-Person Teams?

Indeed, that is EXACTLY what the Research is showing!

When you think about it, this really shouldn't be surprising.

It "should" be common sense.

As Technology Improves, our ability to connect the Best and Brightest minds around the WORLD becomes easier.

Your sample size of "Bright Minds" dramatically jumps from at MOST less than 40 Million People (Tokyo, Japan) to the BEST of 8 Billion (World)!

Why limit yourself to less than 1/2 of a Percent of the Talent Pool?

Technology makes it so you don't have to limit it!

The more of these people that you can get to Work together, the FASTER Disruption and Innovation SHOULD become!

If they can connect with each other more easily, more reliably, and trade information more quickly (all accomplished through better Technology), then of COURSE they are going to Disrupt and Innovate faster!

Now, let's also expand this to my LEAST favorite buzzword as of late "Serendipity".

This has been the (bad) argument that "Serendipity" has been lost and "that" has been the reason for the "supposed" losses in Innovation and Disruption.

I've gone over in other articles that this Idea will backfire in today's work environment due to the levels of Dis-Stress and Burnout.

However, let's examine it more closely in light of this Research.

The first thing that the Research shows when you read it is that the authors DO agree that there is less "Serendipity" with Remote-Work.

Now, don't get too excited because this is a Half-Truth without a full dive into Reality.

Let's think about why "Serendipity" COULD be beneficial in a Work Environment.

It comes down to 1 word - Silos.

When your Organization has Silos, the Cross-Department Information does not exist (or at least it is greatly hindered).

How do you break Silos?

"Serendipity", or another way to say Cross-Departmental-Pollonation.

The more Departments Interact with each other, the better Ideas become because ALL parties are involved in the Idea.

But guess what?

Better Technology has also reduced the Impact of Silos as Information flows between Departments much more easily!

As these Silos are broken, "Serendipity" has less and less Impact!

Then, combine this fact with the fact from the Research that Remote-Work Innovation and Disruption seem to be OUTPACING In-Person Work DESPITE there being less "Serendipity".

THEN, combine these facts with the fact that Productivity has INCREASED with Remote-Work.

THEN, combine these facts with the fact that from a Psychophysiological Perspective, forcing people who are already in Burnout together into the same office will only make Productivity, Silos, Innovation, and Disruption WORSE.

All of these things combine to explain why the "Mandates" continuously Fail.

It is why no one is listening to these Leaders, and why the Businesses who are enacting these "Mandates" are NOT gaining any new Success or Momentum.

Where people work has never been the Issue.

The Issue of the past was that Technology was not ready.

The Issue of today is Burnout.

The Technology problem has been fixed.

The Burnout Issue is the PRIMARY reason Businesses are Struggling right now.

The longer a Business Focuses on "Mandates" that make no sense given the Data, the longer they will Struggle.