When Creativity Left the Building
Why remote work made us more efficient but less inventive (and how to fix it)
I shut my laptop in my office on March 13, 2020, not knowing when I’d be back.
It ended up being a while. I did come back eventually. A lot of my coworkers didn’t.
That Monday morning, I was at my kitchen table, hunched over a laptop, staring into a Zoom square, tossing ideas around with a colleague. It worked. We got through the to-do list. We kept things moving.
But those a-ha moments? The buzz when something clicks? Much harder to find.
Back then, people warned that creativity and collaboration would take a hit. We cobbled together workarounds. We got by. Now, years later, with remote work no longer an emergency but the default for millions of people (me included), it’s not about whether we can do it. We can.
The question is: what’s the trade-off?
The pandemic effect—by the numbers
Some jobs barely changed. Others went fully remote almost overnight. But the pattern was the same: creativity dipped.
22% of workers said their creativity took a hit (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2021).
26% of managers agreed.
17% said the work itself was less creative.
Even executives weren’t immune. 38% said they were slower to make decisions and 28% struggled to innovate (Microsoft Work Trend Index).
Across the board, one thing stood out: when teams went fully remote, the collaboration networks that fuel creativity became more siloed. Conversations moved from face-to-face to asynchronous. That change in how we talk to each other had a direct impact on innovation.
Why creativity took a hit
Loss of spontaneity
46% had fewer chance encounters or hallway conversations.
44% felt like they were working in a bubble.
40% found it harder to collaborate in meetings or calls.
Tool limitations
22% lost access to whiteboards, sticky notes, or other low-tech, high-value tools.
Individual differences
Some people thrived in the quiet.
Others, especially those who feed off a group’s energy, felt it drain away.
The productivity paradox
Here’s the thing: productivity didn’t collapse.
For some jobs, it actually went up. The Government Accountability Office found that roles with clear, measurable outputs saw double-digit gains once people went remote.
But creativity isn’t the same as productivity.
A decades-long study of patents and research papers found that remote teams were less likely to produce true breakthroughs. The work shifted toward refining and executing, not the messy, generative brainstorming where the big leaps happen.
We’ve figured out how to execute from a distance. We still haven’t cracked how to dream big from one.
The spark that fizzled
I was on a Zoom call with a colleague, lobbing half-baked ideas back and forth. At first, it was just chatter. Then something caught. She tossed out a thought. I built on it. The energy picked up and we were leaning in, talking faster, riffing.
If we’d been in the office, this is when we’d have grabbed a couple more people, found a room, and covered a whiteboard in ideas until the markers died.
Instead, we hit “Leave Meeting.” And that was it. The energy bled out into the digital ether. No whiteboard. No “Hey, what if you tried…” from someone walking past. The idea just drifted away.
What leaders and teams can do
1. Make spontaneity intentional
You’re not going to stumble into a breakthrough on Zoom.
Put 15-minute, no-agenda idea sprints on the calendar.
Pair people up for quick creative check-ins.
Leave the call open after a meeting for those who want to keep going.
If you don’t use it yourself, no one else will.
2. Upgrade your tools
If the whiteboard is gone, get something that works live and together.
Miro or FigJam for mapping.
MURAL for sticky-note sessions.
Shared docs for building ideas during calls, not just taking notes.
Keep them easy to find. If people have to dig for them, they won’t.
3. Mix your mediums
Not everything needs to be a Zoom call or an email.
Walking phone calls.
Short video messages instead of long threads.
Async prep so live time is pure collaboration.
If it’s harder than a phone call, skip it. No one will bother.
4. Protect “no-output” time
Breakthroughs need space.
Block no-meeting afternoons.
Give people time to explore without deliverables attached.
Defend it like a meeting with your most important client.
5. Close the loop
Good ideas die if no one picks them up.
Assign follow-ups.
Keep a shared “idea backlog” and review it regularly.
Call out wins that started as a quick comment in a meeting.
The bottom line
Remote work doesn’t kill creativity. Neglect does.
If you want the kind of unexpected breakthroughs we used to take for granted, you have to make space for them and make sure someone’s ready to catch them when they land.
💬 How are you keeping creativity alive on your remote team?
Share your best (and worst) attempts in the comments—let’s build a playbook together.
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