Leaders need to focus on creating the conditions for people to collaborate & innovate during remote working

In a recent speech, Andy Haldane, Bank of England Chief Economist is too pessimistic and in danger of generalising from his own personal work experience.

Working from home damaging Britain’s creative potential

Haldane says the sheer volume of virtual meetings harms our capacity to share information, vital for building trust and new relationships. He misses the chance conversations, listening to different people with different experiences, the exposure to new ideas.

These are real risks but Leaders can role model behaviours to help fill these gaps .

Many organisations I work with are making use of the wide range of tools and techniques to collaborate & innovate remotely. These are not new and have been in use for a while.

Some of my clients encourage people to reach out and have a”virtual coffee” with colleagues they have never met. A CEO has breakfast meetings with staff, invitees selected at random.

Remote working can reduce opportunities for creative expression but only if we allow it. My experience is that many companies are rising to the challenge. The range of tools and resources are widely available.

The real danger is we lack imagination in the way we bring people together and in making use of the tools and resources available to us.