Collaboration amidst the new normal

Creativity needs collaboration.

But Covid-19 has created a massive challenge in this aspect.

Let’s think of the good part.

• You no longer need to waste your time and energy to travel to office or long-distance meeting locations.
• You have flexibility in time.
• You get better sleep (Most find it difficult to wake up early after all)
• You spend more time with your near and dear ones.

But amidst all this what’s missed is the sheer camaraderie.

Gone are the days when people used to think that your best friends by default always used to be from school or college days. As the last couple of decades has shown us that best of friends can come from amongst your colleagues too.

• I met my wife at work.
• I met my business partner at work.

But is that camaraderie possible in the remote work environment?

Absolutely not.

Whatever one-to-one you have with your colleagues or have tea-break sessions over Google Meet – it can never replace physical interactions. Relationships grow when you have unabridged discussions over a beer or a cup of coffee.

When relationships evolve, your meetings get more interesting. You get more transparent feedback. You improve the trust factor.

This is distinctly not possible in a remote environment. And this leads to a scenario where collaboration reduces and it takes a toll on your creative output.

What we are increasingly seeing today is that people are spending way too much time on video meetings but the output is lackluster because there’s a fatigue that’s setting in with too many video calls. Not everyone is comfortable talking endlessly or listening endlessly. People lose focus and when you lose focus your creativity reduces. Mistakes creep in and another set of video calls follow. This is a vicious circle.

So what to do?

First and foremost we need to realise that the old normal won’t be back in a jiffy. What the latest strain of Covid-19 shows is that we have to learn to live with the virus forever. You can’t control it. You just try to be safe as much as possible but accept this fact. Denial won’t help you – you can’t just force the old normal back. People want to stay at home and work from home. The biggest problem is travel especially in India where there are endless traffic jams and crowded trains and busses. People want to avoid that and you won’t be able to change this scenario for the foreseeable future.

What we need to do is that the team sizes need to be reduced. Previously every 9-10 members used to have one manager or reporting head. This needs to change to 4-5 member teams. Lesser number of team members would mean lesser video calls and the chance of friendships to grow amongst a very small group of people. The chances of friendship will increase when there is a very small team. Companies need to think about it because till you get genuine friendship happening, your work quality will suffer. Having a small team will help in this aspect.

This will of course mean, the need for better middle managers. India over the last decade has faltered in this aspect. India struggled to develop genuine leaders in the corporate sector. Leaders need to create more leaders and it’s high time companies look into this aspect and develop a good leadership pipeline. Give opportunities to people who have a flair towards leadership – people who have empathy and people who care.

Having offsites once in a quarter is a must-have right now. You need to get your team members out of their homes – go to a different place for a couple of days and allow your team members to mingle and allow them to come up with ideas to help the organisation grow. Your team members will love you for this opportunity. Try it and see the transformation happening.

What do you think about how companies can overcome this creative bottleneck challenge?

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