We’ve learned there are tangible improvements to the creative process when the team is working remotely. Here are a few we’ve found over the years:
Access to anyone in the world.
The organizer of a job has access to anyone in the world, be they our Ideasicle Experts, their own freelancers, or even employees, to be on the team. Always have the right people.
Eliminate unconscious bias.
There are no human, unconscious biases that get in the way of the team’s creativity—everyone is reduced to a typeface, so it’s all about the ideas and nothing more.
It’s like a parallel universe.
It’s like a parallel universe, where ideas are posted in the in-between times of the day, and wherever the team may be at the time. They just pull out their phone, post the idea, and the rest of the team is pinged and invited to improve.
Online disinhibition works for creativity.
There’s a thing called the “online disinhibition effect,” or the lack of restraint one feels when communicating online. Horrible for the vitriol of social media, but amazing for creativity because the teams are fearless to take chances with their posts.
4 is the magic number.
Through much trial and error we found that four is the ideal number of creative people on a virtual team. Any more than that and they tend to clam up and feel like they’re on stage (fear). Any fewer and we don’t get the exponential numbers of ideas.
Yes, in many ways virtual idea generation is better than in-person brainstorms.
