Quality Time: Make Return to Office Meaningful
How you structure and consider the quality of the time your teams spend together is not just an important strategy—it’s the foundational one. Leaders have a small window of opportunity as more companies navigate return-to-office (RTO) dynamics to do it well. If that's you, here’s your new guiding principle: design moments that matter.
Here are four ways to lead with intention and create connection, ensuring that time spent together is impactful, productive, and collectively worthwhile.
1. Intentional Meetings
Meetings should not be time-fillers—they’re opportunities for alignment, clarity, and collaboration. Treat the art of gathering as a craft by making it a role and responsibility:
Set clear expectations in advance.
Create space for presence and focus.
Outline outcomes and next steps.
People crave structure in how they spend their time. Setting intentional parameters for meetings and office hours requires a small investment but delivers a significant return on investment—for your people and productivity.
2. Clarity in Decision-Making
Confusion over decision-making processes is one of the most significant contributors to change fatigue and employee attrition. Teams need to understand the who and why behind decisions:
Define decision-makers and their roles.
Communicate the rationale for key decisions early and often.
Reinforce how these decisions align with broader goals.
Clarity is kindness. It reduces ambiguity, builds trust, and ensures alignment across your organization. It also enables teams working through constant change to remain grounded and resilient.
3. Gathering Feedback
If you’re implementing an RTO policy, now is the perfect time to take your workforce’s temperature. Yes, you’ll hear complaints, but within that feedback lies valuable insights to shape a workplace that teams genuinely want to be part of:
Create channels for honest input.
Ask open-ended questions to uncover opportunities.
Analyze trends and actionable insights.
Own up to mistakes and address conflict directly.
Remember, resilience as a leader means being open to the hard truths. It’s within these conversations that transformative mindsets and ideas take root. It is also how you upskill and build agile teams.
4. Follow Through
Listening is required; action is essential. Feedback without follow-through erodes trust, while meaningful action strengthens it. Commit to:
Implement suggestions that prioritize team experience.
Communicate about changes and progress transparently.
Celebrate wins—big or small—that improve the team’s shared experience.
Trust is the cornerstone of commitment and community. When you follow through, you’re not just checking a box—you’re building a workplace designed for your workforce.
As leaders, our focus must shift from the quantity of time spent in the office to the quality of time spent together. The magic these moments can create is undeniable after 2020, but they must be planned for and nurtured.
Communication, collaboration, and connection take shape through storytelling, shifts in structure, and specific actions. The time is now. Invest in quality time, and your teams will not only show up—they'll shine.
This is the future of work.
