The Power of Virtual Distance, 2nd Edition

9Reimagining Innovation

Innovation can include everything from coming up with great new products to new ways of solving business problems. However, as we define it, innovation is what allows companies to remain vital and to grow. But what are the implications for innovation when it comes to working virtually?

Recall from Chapter 4, among those who scored high on Virtual Distance, only 30% reported high levels of innovative behavior. However among those that scored low on Virtual Distance, 77% reported high levels of innovative behavior. That's a 157% difference!

Since innovation is one of the key outcomes for any organization, we decided to dedicate a chapter to the topic. Here we discuss some of the key issues surrounding innovation and how virtual relationships can be further harnessed not only to keep new ideas flowing, but to translate those ideas into reality and reimagine innovation in the global enterprise.

BRAINWAVES AND ARTISTIC PERFORMANCE

A few years ago, at the Royal College of Music in London, one might have seen young musicians lying restfully listening to headphones. Not so unusual, you might think, except what they were listening to was the sound of their own brains. Our brains are constantly producing electrical signals in the form of wave patterns that can be captured by an electroencephalogram (EEG). The patterns vary as our brains become more or less alert or relaxed. High frequencies occur when we are excited or agitated and low frequencies occur when ...