In every article I see about mandates to work from the office, the rationale is always the ephemeral ideas of innovation, serendipity, spark, creativity, or connection. The goal seems to be to achieve some interpersonal benefits by simply having individuals occupying the same space. If simply forcing people together inspired magical productivity enhancements, the subway of New York would be the most innovative place in the world (I jest, but only slightly).
Mandates do not open people up to a creative mindset. Starting from a place of requirement causes individuals to arrive in a state of malicious compliance. You can tell when you have compliance without engagement by looking to see who is working from the office with earbuds in or sitting as far from others as possible. You have achieved compliance without moving that individual toward your real goals. In fact, you have pushed them further away from what you are trying to achieve. They are less likely to collaborate with someone else because their energy went toward their commute and compliant mental state rather than planning to make the time useful in non-traditional ways. Listen at the water cooler and you will hear jokes about the futility of mandates, not the banter of creatively focused colleagues.
Most businesses strive to hire and promote smart people. Then, ironically, they proceed to hand them mandates that imply they cannot be trusted to do what is right for the business without being dictated to. The logic of this is not compelling. The worst part about it is how we all know that different times of the year have different business needs. Yet the average mandate treats every week as equal. It is similar to how casual Fridays slowly introduced more casual dress into the office. If Fridays can be casual, what is so different about Mondays? Or Thursdays? We have all seen that we can be productive from home, what makes this week or next week so special that I absolutely MUST be in?
The one-size-fits-everyone nature of mandates flies against every learning of business culture and productivity from the past 20 years. Laptops led to casual work-from-home days and more personal freedom. The internet allowed people in non-nearby cities to work together more frequently eroding the office as the center of the work universe. Smartphones and video calls made it increasingly possible for people to connect in strong ways without the need for being in the same room. At-home technology has mostly eclipsed what is available at the office, making it possible to do anything at home you would do from the office (outside of being face-to-face with others).
The only area of the last 20 years that has not been a shift away from the office is being face-to-face with others. But somehow the lesson from COVID is not to stress the importance of those other lessons but to focus on one and only one aspect of the office, to the detriment of everything else, and do so as if it must be done every single week without fail. Most weeks, mandates are nothing but punishments to employees that simply want to do the right things but are not being allowed to.
The counter to all of this (that I hear and read weekly) is that networks and connections are degrading and it will eventually cost the business (if it is not already). My reply is always the same. Let us take that as a true statement. What is special about this week that everyone must be in? What is special about next week? The answer is the same. But we do not know when or where the magic will strike. So if you know you cannot force the magic, why are you trying to force the magic anyway?
Trust.
That should always be the answer. Build cultures around trust. Verify that the things that need to happen are happening, but start with trust. If you cannot trust, then you have the wrong approach and you have to do what you have to do. But I hate to be the one that tells you this, if you cannot trust your employees, you cannot trust your managers either. And if you trust people to do the right things, empower them to make the right decisions, give them the tools to be effective, and actively engage in the process with them, magic will happen.
It is not easy, but the best things in life never are. Mandates are easy, which is a big part of why they do not work.