With the generalization of teleworking, videoconferencing has become an essential communication tool in companies. But according to American researchers, employees would have more difficulty finding new ideas during these virtual meetings than when they are present in the office.
- In the United States, 75% of employees surveyed said they prefer to work remotely at least one day a week.
- After the end of the pandemic, 20% of working days will take place from home.
- Face-to-face exchanges generated about 15% more ideas than remote interactions, and 13% more creative ideas.
Since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, employees have regularly communicated remotely using videoconferencing platforms, such as Google Meet, Teams or Zoom. But according to the results ofa study published in the journal Nature on April 27, these virtual meetings have a negative impact on the creativity of employees, who find it more difficult to generate new ideas during a remote exchange.
An experiment carried out with more than 2,000 adults
To reach this conclusion, two marketing experts for the American universities of Columbia and Stanford recruited 602 people, including students and university staff, who were divided into groups of two. The pairs had to come up with new ideas during a “brainstorming”. Some volunteers held a face-to-face meeting and others by videoconference. They had five minutes to imagine new uses for everyday objects, such as bubble wrap or a Frisbee, and then choose their most innovative idea to present.
A similar experiment was carried out with 1,490 engineers working in five different countries (in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia) for a telecommunications infrastructure company. The employees were also randomly paired and had to meet either together in the premises or remotely using a videoconference platform. For an hour, employees had to come up with product ideas and select which one they wanted to submit as a new product for the company.
Less creative employees due to visual concentration on the screen
“We show that videoconferencing inhibits the production of creative ideas. In contrast, when it comes to choosing an idea to submit, we find no evidence that people who have had a virtual meeting are less effective than volunteers who have exchanged face-to-face”, can we read in the works. According to the results, these negative effects of remote meetings are due to differences in the nature of videoconferencing and in-person interactions.
The researchers pointed out that virtual meetings hindered the generation of ideas because employees were too focused on the screen. “This visual focus on the screen reduces cognition. In other words, people are more focused when interacting in video, which interferes with the process of generating new ideas,” told the American media CNNMélanie Brucks, professor of marketing at Columbia Business School and co-author of the study.
