I was talking to a CEO recently who’s been wrestling with getting his team back into the office, at least part-time. He knows that being together would strengthen relationships, spark better collaboration, and build the kind of trust you can’t always get through a screen.
But here’s his problem. His team works in tech and they’ve been remote for years now. Many of them have built their entire lives around that flexibility. And they’re not exactly lining up to give it up.
My first piece of advice to him was this: if you want people to come back, even part-time, they need to be part of that decision. When people have a say in something that directly affects their daily lives, they’re far more willing to lean into it. Not because they were told to, but because they helped shape it. They own it. That’s organizational change management 101.
But that’s not even the biggest thing leaders miss.
Here’s what happens when leaders push for hybrid or full return-to-office: they treat it like it’s the answer. Like getting people into the building a few days a week will somehow fix collaboration, improve teamwork, and reignite innovation.
Hybrid isn’t the answer. It’s just a method – yet, many organizations are still grappling with how to get their employees back into the office.
The real question is: what do you actually think having people together will accomplish? That’s what you need to get clear on first. What’s the outcome you’re after? Better problem solving? Stronger relationships? More creative thinking? A team that actually works like a team? What conditions will make those things happen?
Name it. Get specific. Because if you skip that step, you’re solving for the wrong thing.
Now you have other problems to deal with. You have staff who are resentful at having to return to the office and who now have to contend with the dysfunctional team or less than ideal working situations that they were able to ignore more easily working from home.
And here’s what nobody wants to talk about. If your workplace is toxic, no amount of hybrid scheduling or mandatory office days will fix this. You could have everyone in the building five days a week and still have a team that doesn’t trust each other, doesn’t communicate, and doesn’t want to be there. The location was never the problem.
Now, let me touch on the other thing I hear from leaders all the time. “I’m worried people are slacking off when I can’t see them.”
I’ll be direct. That’s not a hybrid problem. That’s a leadership problem. And it’s rooted in an old way of thinking about work.
When you measure people on outcomes, on what they actually deliver, it matters a whole lot less whether they’re doing it from 9 to 5 at a desk or from their kitchen table at midnight. A lot of the large tech companies get this and have started incorporating bonuses on the impact of your work.
When you give people the freedom to figure out how they’ll get to the goal, something shifts. Engagement goes up. Ownership goes up. People stop watching the clock and start caring about the work.
And in a world where AI is changing everything about how we work, this matters more than ever. People want to create. We are wired for it. We are born to solve problems and make things and contribute something that feels meaningful. The leaders who figure out how to tap into that will build teams that outperform anything a return-to-office mandate could ever produce. So with that in mind, here’s what I’d suggest.
First, get honest about the outcome you’re really after. What do you believe a hybrid setup will accomplish? Write it down. Say it out loud. Make sure it’s actually about the team and the work, and not just about a feeling of control.
Second, stop making the how the priority. Hybrid, remote, in-office – those are logistics. They are not strategies.
Third, go to your team. Ask them how they think you can reach those outcomes together. Give them a real seat at the table. Let them surprise you.
It goes without saying that you need to be open-minded. Let yourself actually be surprised. I’ve watched teams come up with solutions that go way beyond what any leader imagined when they stopped trying to dictate the how and started focusing on the what.
We know from decades of research on organizational change management that when you force something on people, you get compliance at best. And you almost always get a spike in disengagement right alongside it. Let me repeat it again – people want to be part of the solution to things that affect them directly.
The question isn’t “how do I get my team back to the office?”. The question is “what would make them want to come back?”
Those are two very different conversations, and only one of them will get you where you want to go.
Needless to say, this is a complex topic, one that no one article can tackle. But the place to start is always the same. With a conversation.