How Innovation Slows Remote Work - and how to Solve Remote Innovation
Tags: productivity, startup, programming
Published: 2021-09-13 16:52:01

### Table Of Contents
* [How Remote Work Drains Innovation](#chapter-1)
* [How to Solve Remote Innovation](#chapter-2)
* [Innovation Tools, Platforms, Techstack ](#chapter-3)

## How Remote Work Drains Innovation<a name="chapter-1"></a>
Let's be honest, some of us like working remote. A lot.

Your desk, your coffee, your flexible work hours. Companies and people are waking up to a new dawn; a time where remote work is the default.

![coffee time](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/qpmx6q1h0b2aotwwc2cz.gif)

*But with great remote comes great responsibility.*

It isn't all cherry trees. Companies **worry about their culture** if they are remote or that are going remote. People don't see face to face in the same way. Trust needs to be established in new ways and a common purpose and culture needs to be kept up; while previously it was just, you know, there.

Weekly check-ins. Daily check-ins. Zoom workshops. Team camps. There are a lot of remedies, but one problem remains:

**Silos continue to grow, just without anyone seeing it.** 

The sales team ignores the marketing team, the dev team ignores the sales team and happenstance that previously brought Tim and Gupta together at the watercooler to talk about page load speed issues 

As the world moves to remote work [teams are starting to realize that if nothing is done, teams and companies innovate slower](https://www.zdnet.com/article/remote-work-is-making-productivity-and-innovation-harder-says-microsoft-study/). Less goal-oriented. Ideas are not cross-germinated or shared.

How do you stop the innovation drain train?

![innovation drain train](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/u981n7qrpj4sy4ikm19h.gif)

## How to Solve Remote Innovation <a name="chapter-2"></a>

Unexpectedly, the core to solving remote innovation lies in doubling down on the remote reality. You cannot deny the truth or change the future. Fighting it is futile.

And, yes, while a yearly team camp or a quarterly brainstorming session can hide the pain and spark some innovation - it just does not cut it for co-workers, companies, leaders or the fast paced global competition.

![hide the pain harold innovation meme](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/3t3tsk1m5dym0wwlpb3k.JPG)

When you can't make people's ideas and voices heard every day your innovation will fail; you'll have to find a way.

The answer is continuous innovation. Creating goal-oriented idea collections that can be created in seconds, accessed by anyone and where contributions can be added at any time of night or day. From home, from the plane (if it's a fancy plane) or even during a meeting, so it's not lost after the meeting.

Ideas need a home. A place to grow. A place where everyone in the company knows their ideas will be treated fairly. With a transparent and predictable process that moves ideas in days and weeks, not quarters.

![A place for ideas to grow](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/kihv0bqz6llntepxrnyc.gif)

Give people more ownership in how they work and they will fill it with purpose. Give people more ownership in how they innovate and they will share more willingly.

## Innovation Tools, Platforms, Techstack <a name="chapter-3"></a>

This is dev.to - so a brief mention of some good idea and innovation management solutions for remote work is in order.

Mind you, of course you can re-invent the wheel. But for all I can say, [the innovation-led growth flywheel](https://ideanote.io/innovation-led-growth/flywheel) is already out there, spinning.

If you want to run productive innovation meetings, a real-time whiteboard solution can help you pin down ideas.

From [real-time whiteboards](https://miro.com/) to [goal-oriented idea collections with idea management](https://ideanote.io/). 

It's time for you to create an idea collection that starts and keeps going. 

A place for ideas grow.