Dr. Tim Currie, CEO of Nova and author of a “Swift Trust” book on remote work, explains why we need to find a better way to collaborate when it’s just not feasible to require everyone to work in the same office.

Remote work looked easy during the pandemic, but three years later many companies are stuck in a trust and engagement rut. Dr. Tim Currie tells Mike Vizard the problem isn’t bandwidth; it’s belief. Microsoft’s own pandemic survey found 87% of employees felt highly productive at home, while only 12% of managers agreed—a yawning “productivity perception” gap Currie says plays out almost everywhere.

Why the mismatch? When offices closed, the casual “how-was-your-weekend” moments that knit teams together evaporated. Currie’s research shows authentic engagement—small talk, spontaneous help, shared identity—plunged, while purely transactional check-ins soared. Without that fabric, leaders default to keyboard tracking and calendar watching, eroding trust even further.

Fixing the issue isn’t as simple as a mandatory return-to-office, he argues. What’s needed is a new operating system for culture: managers who keep promises, show up in non-work channels, and sometimes board a plane to meet distributed teams face-to-face. Those gestures—posting in the team’s Taylor-Swift chat, funding an off-site, or buying plane tickets for first meetings—signal that people matter as much as tasks.

Currie distinguishes “swift trust,” the provisional deal of remote contracting (I code, you pay), from the deeper loyalty forged by shared experiences. One study participant, starved for real contact after three years of video squares, drove six hours to a co-worker’s wedding just to see someone from the team in person. Moments like that, he says, create the resilience organizations need when markets shift or AI jolts old business models.

His bottom line: remote and hybrid work can thrive, but only if leaders budget for human connection and model it themselves. Skip that step, and no stack of dashboards—or AI note-takers—will bring back the creative spark that once lived around the office water cooler.