{"id":1091,"date":"2023-02-22T14:02:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T13:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2023-02-22T14:38:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T13:38:51","slug":"creativity-is-threatened-when-we-work-remotely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/2023\/02\/creativity-is-threatened-when-we-work-remotely\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity is threatened when we work remotely"},"content":{"rendered":"

In English further down<\/p>\n

Kreativiteten hotas n\u00e4r vi distansarbetar<\/h2>\n

Efter den senaste veckans \u00e5tskilliga promenader p\u00e5 isiga v\u00e4gar mellan institutionen f\u00f6r Maskinkonstruktion och Sing-Sing kan jag konstatera att vintern inte riktigt kan best\u00e4mma sig f\u00f6r om den ska h\u00e4nga kvar eller \u00f6verg\u00e5 till v\u00e5r. En annan k\u00e4nsla som dyker upp n\u00e4r jag befinner mig p\u00e5 olika delar av campus \u00e4r att det fortfarande gapar relativt tomt p\u00e5 m\u00e5nga kontor, n\u00e4stan ett \u00e5r efter att den svenska regeringen formellt slog fast att covid-19 inte l\u00e4ngre \u00e4r en samh\u00e4llsfarlig sjukdom och pandemin f\u00e5r anses vara \u00f6ver.<\/p>\n

Jag uppskattar sj\u00e4lv att vi idag sannolikt \u00e4r betydligt b\u00e4ttre p\u00e5 att m\u00f6tas digitalt \u00e4n f\u00f6re pandemin, vilket lett till en viss minskning av antalet timmar jag befinner mig i icke-produktiv rusningstrafik och dessutom gjort vardagens livspussel lite enklare. Samtidigt kan jag inte undg\u00e5 att reflektera \u00f6ver att v\u00e5rt nya s\u00e4tt att arbeta sannolikt b\u00e4r med sig en hel del risker f\u00f6r v\u00e5r l\u00e5ngsiktiga kreativitet och produktivitet. Efter att under snart 20 \u00e5r ha forskat p\u00e5 hur personliga n\u00e4tverk p\u00e5verkar kreativitet och innovativitet \u00e4r det v\u00e4ldigt enkelt att se att distansarbete har p\u00e5tagliga negativa effekter.<\/p>\n

N\u00e4r vi tillbringar mindre tid p\u00e5 v\u00e5r gemensamma arbetsplats minskar den spontana kommunikation med kollegorna som ofta \u00e4r startskottet f\u00f6r nya id\u00e9er och insikter. Att det blivit v\u00e4ldigt enkelt att boka in m\u00f6ten leder sannolikt ocks\u00e5 till att v\u00e5ra kalendrar till \u00e4nnu h\u00f6gre grad fylls upp med olika m\u00f6ten som kanske inte alltid \u00e4r fullt n\u00f6dv\u00e4ndiga och dessutom riskerar tr\u00e4nga ut andra aktiviteter av mer l\u00e5ngsiktig natur (till exempel forskning), samt att mejlboxen fylls allt mer n\u00e4r vi inte l\u00e4ngre kan l\u00f6sa vissa problem genom att snabbt st\u00e4mma av med en kollega i korridoren eller vid kaffemaskinen. Till detta ska l\u00e4ggas att m\u00e5nga av oss nog uppfattar att det ibland inte \u00e4r lika stimulerande att arbeta p\u00e5 distans och motivation har ju sedan l\u00e4nge slagits fast som en grundl\u00e4ggande f\u00f6ruts\u00e4ttning f\u00f6r s\u00e5v\u00e4l kreativitet som effektivitet.<\/p>\n

Som ansvarig f\u00f6r forskarutbildningen p\u00e5 skolan misst\u00e4nker jag att distansarbetet riskerar p\u00e5verka v\u00e5ra doktorander mer \u00e4n andra. De om n\u00e5gra har ett stort behov av att l\u00f6pande tr\u00e4ffa handledare och andra kollegor f\u00f6r att kunna diskutera sin forskning och n\u00e5gra av dem har dessutom inte samma sociala n\u00e4tverk utanf\u00f6r arbetet som mer seniora kollegor. Att s\u00e5 m\u00e5nga arbetsplatser gapar tomma riskerar s\u00e5ledes p\u00e5verka b\u00e5de den professionella kunskapsutvecklingen och k\u00e4nslan av tillh\u00f6righet p\u00e5 ett negativt s\u00e4tt.<\/p>\n

Givet dessa reflektioner var det gl\u00e4djande att i veckan f\u00e5 ett tydligt budskap fr\u00e5n min prefekt att vi m\u00e5ste g\u00f6ra en gemensam anstr\u00e4ngning f\u00f6r att i h\u00f6gre utstr\u00e4ckning vara p\u00e5 plats p\u00e5 v\u00e5ra gemensamma arbetsplatser p\u00e5 campus. Det kan m\u00f6jligen k\u00e4nnas som ett steg tillbaka och \u00e4ven g\u00f6ra vardagen n\u00e5got mer komplicerad, men det m\u00e5ste v\u00e4gas mot risken att KTH p\u00e5 sikt blir en mindre kreativ, rolig och stimulerande arbetsplats.<\/p>\n

Jag hoppas inte bara att mina promenader fram och tillbaka p\u00e5 campus ska bli lite soligare och mindre isiga fram\u00f6ver, utan ocks\u00e5 att jag kommer att se f\u00e4rre tomma rum. Detta g\u00e4ller dock inte den kommande veckan d\u00e5 jag hoppas att vi f\u00e5r riktigt ordentligt vinterv\u00e4der s\u00e5 att de som ska ha sportlov f\u00e5r m\u00f6jlighet att njuta av skid\u00e5kning och andra vintersporter fullt ut!<\/p>\n

\/Mats Magnusson, Forskarutbildningsansvarig p\u00e5 ITM-skolan<\/p>\n

Creativity is threatened when we work remotely<\/h1>\n

After the past week’s many walks on icy roads between the Department of Engineering Design and Sing-Sing, I can tell that winter can’t quite decide whether to stick around or turn into spring. Another feeling I get when visiting different parts of campus is that many offices still are relatively empty, almost a year after the Swedish government formally declared that covid-19 is no longer a disease dangerous to society and the pandemic may be considered over.<\/p>\n

We are probably much better at digital meetings today than before the pandemic, leading to fewer hours in non-productive rush-hour traffic and easier solving of the everyday puzzle. At the same time, I cannot help but reflect that our new way of working probably carries risks for our long-term creativity and productivity. After almost 20 years of researching how personal networks affect creativity and innovativeness, it is very easy to see that remote work has tangible negative effects.<\/p>\n

When we spend less time at our shared workplace, the spontaneous communication with colleagues, which is often the starting point for new ideas and insights, decreases. It is very easy to schedule meetings, so our calendars fill up even more with meetings that may not be necessary. All these meetings may crowd out other activities of a more long-term nature (for example, research), and the email box constantly fills up when we don’t solve certain problems by quickly checking with a colleague in the corridor or at the coffee machine. To this must be added the fact that many of us probably perceive that working remotely is sometimes not as stimulating. And motivation has long since been established as a basic prerequisite for both creativity and efficiency.<\/p>\n

As responsible for doctoral education at the school, I suspect remote work risks affecting our doctoral students more than others. They, if any, need to regularly meet with supervisors and other colleagues to discuss their research, and some of them also do not have the same social network outside of work as more senior colleagues. The fact that so many workplaces are empty thus risks negatively affecting both professional knowledge development and the feeling of belonging.<\/p>\n

Given these reflections, it was gratifying to receive a clear message from my head of department this week that we must make an effort to be present in our common workplace to a greater extent. It may feel like a step back and make everyday life somewhat more complicated, but it must be weighed against the risk of KTH becoming a less creative, fun and stimulating workplace in the long run.<\/p>\n

Not only am I hoping that my walks back and forth on campus will be a little sunnier and less icy going forward, but also that I’ll see fewer empty rooms. However, this does not apply to the coming week when I hope we get really good winter weather so that those who will be on sports vacation (Sportlov) will have the opportunity to enjoy skiing and other winter sports to the fullest!<\/p>\n

\/Mats Magnusson, Director of Third-Cycle Education at ITM<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In English further down Kreativiteten hotas n\u00e4r vi distansarbetar Efter den senaste veckans \u00e5tskilliga promenader p\u00e5 isiga v\u00e4gar mellan institutionen f\u00f6r Maskinkonstruktion och Sing-Sing kan jag konstatera att vintern inte riktigt kan best\u00e4mma sig f\u00f6r om den ska h\u00e4nga kvar eller \u00f6verg\u00e5 till v\u00e5r. En annan k\u00e4nsla som dyker upp n\u00e4r jag befinner mig p\u00e5 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1298,"featured_media":1095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-director-of-third-cycle-education","category-mats-magnusson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/files\/2023\/02\/IMG_0569.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6P3xp-hB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/1094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}