Creativity is what will see organisations blossom as we (hopefully) near the end of this pandemic.
In an office situation, creativity is aided by people bouncing ideas off their co-workers, They can do this by simply walking down the corridor. When everyone is working from home, you have to find different ways of achieving this. One way is to schedule ‘bounce sessions’ where people with an idea get to present it to a colleague (preferably) or superior. These should be short, crisp sessions (15 minutes should be enough) via telephone or video conference designed to elicit the core of the idea, not details. This could be a regular occurrence, perhaps with colleagues paired up as ‘idea buddies’. As ever with remote communications, it helps if the buddies have established a working relationship on a face-to-face basis before ‘home isolation’ started.
We are not looking for detailed review or evaluation of ideas – simply confirmation that an idea is worth pursuing. It helps the idea generator keep on track and means they receive positive feedback. This helps them focus and move forward to develop the ideas with confidence.