Recently, my family of five went on a weeklong trip. Partway through the week, my son had to leave to complete an important exam in his course of study. While he was away, I noticed something.
We were still a family. We still talked, laughed, ate together, and enjoyed our time away. Yet we functioned differently as four than we did as five.
When all five of us are together in the same place, different conversations emerge. There is a unique cumulative energy around the table, in the car, or at the beach. Each person contributes something that affects everyone else, and each person elicits something from the rest of us that might not surface otherwise. Sometimes that difference makes things easier. Other times, not so much.
But whether the shift is positive or challenging isn’t really the point. The point is that the shift happens. When one part is absent, the whole is necessarily altered.
The Energy of a Team
As I reflected on this experience with my family, I began thinking about teams.
Many organizations now operate with remote or hybrid working arrangements. Some people work together in the same building, while others collaborate from different cities, states, or even countries. In many cases, teams have learned to accomplish meaningful work without regularly occupying the same physical space.
There’s something magical about a group of people working toward a common goal. Distance does not necessarily diminish that magic. A team can be deeply connected and highly effective even when its members are separated by thousands of miles.
Research supports some of the benefits of that flexibility. A 2024 randomized study involving more than 1,600 employees found that hybrid work (3 days in office, 2 days WFH) improved job satisfaction and reduced employee turnover by one-third without damaging performance. In other words, working remotely some of the time did not make those employees less effective. It helped many of them remain with the organization—and remain a part of the whole.
At the same time, remote work can change the nature of collaboration. A large study of Microsoft employees found that fully remote work made collaboration networks more siloed and reduced communication across different groups. People continued to work together, but their patterns of connection changed.
This is why I don’t believe the conversation should be reduced to whether remote work or in-person work is better.
A better question is:
What kind of work are we trying to do, and what kind of presence will help us do it well?
Tasks that require focus and individual effort may benefit from the quiet and flexibility of working remotely. Other work, such as building relationships, navigating conflict, generating ideas, welcoming a new member, making sense of change, or strengthening a shared culture, may benefit from being together in the same room.
The mode of work should serve the purpose.
Every Person Changes the Whole
My larger point is not that teams should spend more time together in person. It is that each member of a team makes a difference; their presence (or absence) matters.
It may sound cliché to say, “We’re better together.” Yet through hundreds, if not thousands, of coaching conversations and professional experiences with teams, I have found it to be true.
When people are truly present, they do more than complete their assigned tasks. They influence the energy, conversation, and capacity of the entire group. They notice things that others miss. They ask questions no one else would ask. They bring experience, perspective, humor, skepticism, encouragement, or urgency. They also bring things out of the people around them that no one else can.
In-person work models do not guarantee presence. A person literally sitting at the conference table, might act so distracted and disengaged they may as well not be there at all. Another person joining remotely might, conversely, show deep attentiveness and full investment.
So, presence is about more than proximity. Each of us is part of the whole, and the whole is affected by the way each of us participates.
The key is to define what better teamwork looks like.
Do we need greater trust? Faster decisions? More creativity? Honest disagreement? Clearer communication? Stronger relationships? A renewed sense of purpose?
Once we know what better means, we can ask who needs to be together and how they need to be together to make it possible.
Leaders should not gather people merely because the calendar says it is time for another meeting. They should create the conditions for each person’s contribution to strengthen the whole.
Sometimes that can happen remotely. Sometimes it requires sharing the same physical space. But it always requires presence, purpose, and participation.
Your team changes when someone is missing. It also changes when someone is present but does not feel needed, heard, or invited to contribute.
So perhaps the most important question is not simply, “Are we all together?”
It is this:
Are we creating the kind of environment in which every part can contribute to the whole?
If you’re interested in learning more about making yourself and your team more present (whatever that means to you), send me an email at [email protected].
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