Return-to-Office Mandates Expose a More Uncomfortable Problem

Return-to-Office Mandates Expose a More Uncomfortable Problem

When a professional services firm I work with rolled out its return-to-office mandate last year, the executive team invested significantly in getting the communications right. Town halls, manager talking points, a well-crafted rationale. What they spent almost no time on was a harder question: did their teams have the design and leadership conditions to be effective together in person? Three months after the mandate, attendance was up. Engagement scores were not.

Exploring Team Norms: Why is this ok?

Most leaders think they have a communication problem.

They don’t.

They have a tolerance problem.

I worked with a leadership team where:
11 out of 40 people responded to a survey…

…and that was considered a win.

Why?

Because non-responsiveness had become normal.

Unchallenged norms are what keep teams stuck.

Not lack of skill. Not lack of effort.

If you want to shift performance, don’t start with tactics.

Start with this question:

“Why is this okay for us?”

When the Deadline Lands on Five Different Teams at Once

When the Deadline Lands on Five Different Teams at Once

Here is a question worth asking before the next major initiative hits your organization:

When the deadline arrives, will your organization move faster—or will it meet more often?

Most executives recognize the pattern immediately: a mandate emerges that demands coordination across multiple functions, and while the objective is important, the deadline real and everyone agrees the work must get done, it stalls.

The Team Habits That Make Innovation Stick

Over the years, I have learned that the gap between a good idea and real innovation is rarely brilliance. It is support. It is the everyday, unglamorous choices teammates make to help each other think wider, take smaller risks, stay steady when resistance shows up, and tell the story in a way people can hear.

So what does that support actually look like?