My morning article read led me to a Forbes piece titled, “Why Social Skills Will Drive Success In The Workplace Of The Future.”
In it the author highlighted that “layoffs are rampant, engagement is at a 10-year low and workplace loneliness is an epidemic.”
The recommendations made to encourage social connection were to, among others,:
- champion your principles
- incentivize collaboration,
- make space for internal connection, and
- celebrate wins
These sound good until you realize they’re just the latest hacks. Temporary fixes for problems that run much deeper.
You can’t train employees to build relationships when the system rewards individual output over teamwork. You can’t design “collaborative spaces” that have impact if leadership decisions still happen behind closed doors. You can’t fight loneliness with coffee gatherings if your culture thrives on competition, not connection.
Without systemic change, these are gimmicks. They treat the symptoms, not the disease.
Real progress comes when you stop managing behaviors and start redesigning systems: flatten hierarchies, prioritize transparency, reward knowledge sharing. Build an environment where collaboration, trust, and connection are inevitable, not incentivized.
Anything less is just like rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship.