In May 2022, an academic research paper titled “Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation” was published in Nature (one of the most prestigious scientific publishers). They tested how the transition from in-person to online interaction affected innovation (measured by collective idea generation) and concluded that video calls were bad for brainstorming.

The media derived: “Zoom is a creativity killer.”

But, as (online) facilitators, we have first-hand experience with remote teams’ creativity and effective collaboration. But, we haven’t had hard evidence proving the study wrong.

My guests on today’s bonus episode, Elise Keith (CEO of Lucid Meetings, Author and Meeting Innovator) and Dave Mastronardi (CEO of the Gamestorming Group) have the ambition to test the hypothesis that online work killed creativity through a global mega experiment. As they kick off the project with a Symposium, Elise and Dave joined me to share their vision, drivers and open questions.

Listen to this episode to find out about:

• The definition of creativity and how to measure it
• How the project came to be
• The bigger vision behind the project: How online collaboration can tackle global challenges
• How you can get involved in the experiment

Don't miss the New Rules for Work Experiment and Symposium
Visit the New Rules for Work Website

And, don’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.

Links

Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube.

Read the Article published in ‘Nature’

Read about the study

Watch the Youtube video: Why video calls are bad for brainstorming

Connect to Elise and Dave:

Connect to Elise on LinkedIn

Connect to Dave on LinkedIn

Any thoughts? Share them with us!

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