As companies continue to debate “return-to-office” policies, Professor Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, a member of the Sanger Research Lab, argues that leaders should stop focusing on where people work and start rethinking how they collaborate. In a recent University of Michigan Q&A, Sanchez-Burks explains that nostalgia for a pre-2020 workplace overlooks the reality that more than half of remote-capable jobs are now hybrid, and thriving organizations are those creating immersive, human-centered interactions grounded in trust and psychological safety.
His research shows that when leaders emphasize connection, clarity, and culture over mandates, teams perform better and adapt faster. “The future isn’t about hybrid schedules,” Sanchez-Burks says. “It’s about a fundamentally human transformation of our work life.”