"Remote work forced leaders to engineer interactions that previously happened organically, said Geoff Parker, a Dartmouth professor and MIT Sloan visiting scholar," reports MIT Sloan School of Management. "Intentionality matters, Parker noted: When meetings are stacked back-to-back, serendipitous moments evaporate. To counter that phenomenon, managers should leave room for chatter. 'Did you enable or create space for random small-group interactions?' he asked.

"And, thinking more broadly, 'how do you intentionally have the check-in points and monitor the well-being of remote people?' Parker said. 'More frequent interactions build and maintain better relationships. In a remote environment, that's critical.'"