Making the Most of In-Person Work with Natalia Emanuel & Emma Harrington

How can you make work work for your team? Kevin sits down with Natalia Emanuel and Emma Harrington to discuss what research reveals about in-person, remote, and hybrid work and why the best answer is rarely one-size-fits-all. They talk about the "proximity effect" and how face-to-face interaction can strengthen creativity, collaboration, and well-being, while also acknowledging the flexibility and accessibility benefits of remote work. Natalia and Emma explain why simply requiring people to come into an office isn't enough; leaders need to coordinate when teams are together and intentionally use that time for brainstorming, mentorship, and other activities that benefit from human connection. They also share practical ways to improve virtual collaboration, including creating permission to look away from the screen and move

Connect with Natalia Emanuel & Emma Harrington

Website: https://inpersonbook.com/

Book Recommendations In Person: How Working Together Fuels Creativity, Productivity, and Growth by Natalia Emanuel and Emma Harrington  Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster  Nurse and Spy in the Union Army by Sarah Emma Edmonds  Like this? The Forces Reshaping the Workplace with Phil Simon How Work Works Now with Michelle King Creating a Better Model of Working with Steve Cadigan Timestamps

0:00 Where should people work?

1:48 Meet Natalia Emanuel and Emma Harrington

3:41 Why they wrote In Person

5:22 The big idea: digital tools shrink our networks

6:57 The proximity effect

8:36 Where organizations get the remote work debate wrong

11:09 Walking, creativity, and looking away from the screen

15:58 The trouble with hybrid meetings