Remote, Not Distant

Picture this: Apple CEO Tim Cook announces a new hybrid work policy requiring employees to be in the office three days a week, expecting enthusiasm for reconnecting in person. Instead, he faces a revolt. Eighty employees pen a letter reminding him they've delivered the same quality products and services while working remotely, feeling unheard and forced to choose between their families, well-being, and being part of Apple. This wasn't just an Apple problem. Companies worldwide discovered that forcing people back to old ways of working ignored everything the pandemic taught us about flexibility, productivity, and what really matters to employees.

The workplace transformation isn't temporary—it's permanent. While some leaders cling to the illusion that culture only happens when people share physical space, forward-thinking organizations are discovering something remarkable: you don't need an office to build culture. You can work remotely and still be deeply connected. The most successful teams are those designing intentional cultures that bring people together regardless of distance, creating environments where everyone can do their best work from anywhere, anytime.

Culture by chance creates chaos, but culture by design creates connection. The fundamental shift from office-centric to hybrid work requires letting go of the assumption that great cultures happen naturally when people occupy the same space. Instead, thriving hybrid teams obsess over intentional culture design, treating it with the same rigor they'd apply to developing a new product.

Consider the transformation at GoTo, the company behind tools like GoToMeeting and LastPass. When CEO Mike Kohlsdorf declared "We are becoming a remote-first company" in October 2020, it wasn't a retreat—it was a conscious reset. Using a house metaphor for culture, the leadership team chose to "move to a new house" rather than simply painting over old problems or returning to what wasn't working. This intentional redesign led to GoTo experiencing its strongest culture and business growth precisely because of their hybrid approach.

The reset begins with five crucial mindset shifts. Move from culture by chance to culture by design, becoming obsessive about documentation and clarity. Shift from rewarding input to celebrating impact, focusing on results rather than hours logged or meetings attended. Embrace work-life integration instead of fighting the blurred boundaries between personal and professional life. Default to asynchronous collaboration, giving people the gift of time to think before responding. Finally, abandon one-size-fits-all approaches for flexible solutions that honor individual needs while serving collective goals.

Your reset isn't about discarding everything from the past—it's about consciously choosing what serves your team's future. The culture that got you here won't get you there, but the intentional culture you design together will carry you forward with purpose and connection.

Purpose isn't a feel-good poster on the wall—it's your team's North Star, especially when members are scattered across different locations and time zones. When people share a compelling reason for working together, physical distance becomes irrelevant because emotional connection transcends space. The most resilient hybrid teams aren't held together by proximity but by a shared future they're building together.

When Mars Wrigley's global packaging team started working together during the pandemic, they were delivering results but something felt disconnected. Through facilitated conversations about their team purpose, what initially seemed like simple alignment work transformed into something deeper. Team members discovered they had different ideas about who they really served—some thought it was regional managers, others the innovation team, still others the CEO. The breakthrough came when they realized their work made the biggest impact on consumers, leading them to focus on "making the product experience more meaningful." Director William Singleton reflected: "It was a great experience articulating our team purpose and spending time to map our objectives to the purpose. In a distributed team, it's crucial to pause and reflect on why we are doing what we are doing."

Creating your shared purpose begins with three fundamental questions: What do we do as a team? Who do we work for? What impact do we want to create in their lives? But purpose without behavior is just inspiration without action. Your culture is ultimately defined not by your words but by what you reward and punish. When US Bank fired Emily James for giving $20 of her own money to help a stranded customer on Christmas Eve, they revealed their true values—despite claiming to empower employees to "do the right thing." Conversely, when CVS stopped selling tobacco products worth $2 billion annually to stay true to their purpose of "helping people on their path to better health," they demonstrated authentic commitment.

Your purpose becomes real when it guides difficult decisions and shows up in daily behaviors. Document not just what you stand for, but specifically which behaviors you celebrate and which ones you won't tolerate, even when they come from high performers.

The old model of collaboration—everyone in the same room at the same time—isn't just outdated, it's often counterproductive. Research shows individuals generate more original ideas when they don't interact with others, yet we've been programmed to believe all meaningful work happens synchronously. The future belongs to teams who master the art of async-first collaboration, giving people the freedom to contribute their best thinking on their own time.

Serial entrepreneurs Torben Friehe and Yann Leretaille learned this lesson dramatically. When they founded 1aim in 2012, they were adamant: "We are never going to go remote." Their Berlin-based engineering company required everyone to work the same schedule in the same office, with no exceptions for remote work. They believed great technology and culture could only happen under one roof. Fast forward to 2021, when they sold 1aim and launched their new company Wingback as fully remote from day one. What changed? They realized that hiring qualified talent globally and providing the flexibility people now expect required a completely different approach. Their first hire was a fractional head of remote, recognizing that distributed collaboration needed intentional design.

The transformation requires understanding six distinct work modes and choosing the right one for each situation. Focus work demands deep, uninterrupted concentration for tasks like strategizing and content creation. Deep collaboration brings teams together for intensive, distraction-free sessions like design sprints. Regular collaboration handles ongoing teamwork and coordination. Learning encompasses skill development and knowledge transfer. Casual collaboration builds relationships through informal interactions. Unplugged time allows for rest and recharging. The key is matching your communication method to your work mode and defaulting to asynchronous whenever possible.

Start by establishing clear protocols for response times across different communication channels, protecting blocks of time for deep work, and creating structured ways for people to contribute asynchronously. Document everything in a single source of truth so people can find answers without interrupting others. Remember: async doesn't mean slower—it means more thoughtful, inclusive, and sustainable.

Autonomy isn't just the new engagement—it's the foundation of exceptional work in a hybrid world. When German publishing company Gruner + Jahr wanted to validate their flexible work approach, data scientist Jonas Wolter found no correlation between office presence and job satisfaction. The teams working fully remotely reported the highest satisfaction scores, while those primarily in-office also showed positive results. The determining factor wasn't location—it was choice. People perform best when they have agency over their work environment and schedule.

Netflix discovered this principle when they replaced their detailed travel policy with a simple directive: "Act in Netflix's best interest." Instead of dictating airline classes and hotel types, they trusted employees to make context-appropriate decisions. The result? Lower travel costs and higher employee satisfaction. This reflects a fundamental truth: when you treat people like adults, they behave like adults. When you give them freedom, they become more accountable, not less. The assumptions leaders hold about people—whether they're inherently motivated or need constant oversight—become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Building this trust-based culture requires eliminating rules that limit rather than enable great work. Review your current policies through the lens of these questions: Do they focus on negative behaviors instead of promoting positive ones? Do they punish the majority for the actions of a few offenders? Do they slow down decision-making or treat people like children rather than professionals? Replace constraining rules with clear criteria that guide good judgment while preserving flexibility.

The final piece is distributing decision-making authority so teams can move quickly without waiting for permission. Distinguish between reversible daily decisions that individuals can make and irreversible strategic decisions that require more consultation. Authorize people closest to the work to make the calls, establish clear decision-making methods for different situations, and document decisions so others can learn from the reasoning. Speed becomes a competitive advantage when people have both the authority and the framework to act decisively.

The future of work isn't about choosing between remote and office—it's about designing intentional cultures that bring out the best in people regardless of where they work. As this transformation unfolds, remember that "culture is what we do repeatedly," and the habits you build today will determine whether your hybrid team merely survives or truly thrives. The organizations succeeding in this new reality share a common thread: they've stopped trying to recreate the office online and started leveraging what distributed work makes possible.

The path forward requires courage to reset your assumptions, clarity about your shared purpose, commitment to belonging for every team member, mastery of asynchronous collaboration, and the wisdom to release control in favor of trust. Your next step is simple but powerful: gather your team for an honest conversation about what's working, what isn't, and what you want to build together. The culture that will get you there starts with that first intentional choice to design it together.