Jason Lauritsen - The Human Connection Study (Part 2)

The return-to-office debate loves a simple story: more time in the office equals more connection. Our conversation with Jason Lauritsen continues and flips that assumption with a research-backed curveball from the 2026 Human Connection Study. In their data, non-management employees working fully on site show the highest levels of disconnection, while fully remote employees score as the most connected. That’s not a verdict on where work “should” happen, but it is a loud signal that proximity is not the same thing as belonging, trust, or engagement.

• Click HERE for The 2026 Human Connection Study
• Click HERE for Jason's website
• Click HERE for Jason's episode: Teach From Your Scars...
• Click HERE for Jason's episode: The Check-In Method™

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Transcript

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Welcome Back And Study Setup

John Broer 0:03

Well, welcome back to all of our friends out there in The Bosshole Transformation Nation. This is your host, John Broer, and it's good to have you back for part two of our conversation with Jason Lauritsen. Now, if you didn't listen to part one, which dropped last week, go back and listen to it because Sara and I had a chance to talk to Jason about his role and his work in the 2026 Human Connection Study. You can download a copy of it from the show notes. The results in this research do a few things. They not only confirm things that we have been seeing in the workplace, but they actually reveal some really surprising findings. Things that are critical not only for organizations to know, but especially managers that want to stay out of the voxel zone. So check out part one and let's jump in to part two with Jason Florida. Make sure to check out all the resources in the show notes and be sure to follow us and share your feedback. Enjoy today's episode.

The Remote Work Surprise

Sara Best 1:24

In this study, there's there's a pretty interesting finding that you came across that I think would blow some people's minds. We know that there's been this ongoing debate and frustration around return to work and remote workers versus hybrid workers versus in the office, and these assumptions that we probably all still hold on to, old school like most of our leadership stuff, is that people in the office are going to have more connection. Can you tell us about what you found out there?

Jason Lauritsen 1:52

Yeah, that was certainly the like other than the you know, there being sort of such a distinctive two types of connection, this was the other big surprise for us. And it's proven to be the surprise for a lot of people. What the data revealed is that at least in the way we're measuring connection, the group that that scored as having the highest percentage of disconnected employees were non-management employees working fully on site. So this is your you know, your non-manager, your you know, individual contributors working fully on site were the most disconnected. And then the group that overall scored as most connected were employees in the sample that were working fully remote. And so that's a head scratcher for a lot of people because it doesn't, it doesn't match with our assumptions. Now, I want to be careful about this because this doesn't mean, oh, well, you know, remote work is obviously the better kind of work, or in office is always bad. That's not it, this isn't a com commentary on that.

John Broer 3:00

Right.

Jason Lauritsen 3:01

What it's a commentary on is that at least the way we took it is, and I think that the whole data, like this whole study basically says there's more going on with connection than what meets the eye, right? What the way that we want to sort it is sort of we want it to be very simple or very black and white. If you don't, if you're not in the office around other people, then you're gonna feel lonely and disconnected. Um, I also think that the fact that we have these, the what with this understanding of connection with relational and and resonance connection, and and I mean, I think the underlying thing here that I personally think is what is is going on here on some level is that the two findings fit together because the fact that there is relational connection, which is important, that's and and it's my connection with my peers, my connection with my manager, kind of the two big drivers right there in relational at work. The resonant, the existence of resonance connection, and and the interesting thing about resonance connection is that in our data set, it was the more powerful predictor of the outcomes that we're trying to produce in the organization, the performance outcomes, whether I feel included, whether I feel like my work is meaningful, all of those things, resonance connection actually was more highly predictive of those things. I think what's going on in this, in this finding is that actually remote workers might have an advantage in terms of feeling the resonance connection both with the organization and with their individual work because they have less noise. And there's, I think the signal maybe is a little bit, I think, I think organizations are more clear or more intentional about that kind of stuff with remote employees, making sure you feel and understand you're a part of something and making sure that you're, you know, you get more meaningful. I think check-in sometimes than even people that are on site, because we just assume if you're on site, you're going to feel connected. And I think that's working against us. So so yes, big headline. I don't know, I can't tell you definitively what it means that that warrants more research in terms of why that showed up that way. But I think it has to do with connection isn't just about, you know, if I have a BFF at work. Right.

John Broer 5:18

It's it's I mean, the the study clearly indicates the connection is multifaceted. By the way, I I think we need to talk about managers. I I mean, this is the boss hole chronicles. So our managers and would-be managers that are eagerly trying to figure out what is my impact on connection, like it or not, psychological safety, connection, engagement, performance, managers have a disproportionately higher impact on that. And I think that that is revealed in to a degree in the study. So talk about managers being a critical component here. Tell us a little bit more about how managers can receive and understand the results

Why Managers Drive Connection

John Broer 5:55

here.

Jason Lauritsen 5:55

Yeah. In the in the least surprising finding in the survey, managers matter. Managers are a big deal in this. Um so there's a couple of a couple of things going on. I I think very directly, we measured manager connection because, you know, not surprising, unsurprisingly, I should say that one of the places when we ask people to talk about connection at work, where either connection is very clear and strong or the absence of it is very disruptive, is with their direct manager. Their direct manager is the face of work to the employee, right? They're the they are the face of the work relationship. And so what we found was that manager connection, and the way that we're measuring manager connection, because this is kind of the way that people talked about it in phase one of the research, is do I feel like my manager genuinely listens to me? Number one. And can I be honest with my manager without fear? Like those are the two markers of manager connection, strength of manager connection that we were measuring based on sort of how that emerged. The finding around manager connection that was sort of mind-blowing, there's two, is that the manager connection predicts 75% of the variance in whether an employee feels supported at work. So it it the degree to which if I feel if my manager is, if I if I have connection, high connection with my manager, I am way, way, way more likely to feel like I'm supported at work. I am also way more likely to feel as though my manager is invested in my development.

John Broer 7:35

Yeah.

Jason Lauritsen 7:35

Both of those things are vitally important to engagement and performance. And so it has the the manager connection itself, the actual relationship they're building, how they're interacting with people, is incredibly important and incredibly powerful in predicting the things that get us what we want with engagement and performance. But the manager also sort of sits at the intersection of all the things. So, like if you think about if if connection is the energy of performance, the manager basically can either plug you into the grid or cut the cord. Like depending on, right? So you can do everything else right as an organization that that creates the opportunity for connection. You can have, you know, kind of clear vision and purpose and strategy and direction that people can connect to. You can have a a culture that you know reinforces our purpose and meaning so that I feel like I'm doing work that matters. I can have peer relationships, all of that, but if, you know, or have the opportunity for that. But if my manager doesn't have the skills or the tools or the permission to really plug me into that, they can they can undercut the whole cycle. And so that's why I say they're a linchpin because manager connection is incredibly important, one-to-one. But manager also sits in the position to facilitate, you know, they're best, they're best situated to facilitate peer connection, to make the space for people to get to know each other and have room to actually build those relationships and connection at work. They are the ones that are best suited to help an employee understand why their work matters or the impact their work has, which is what we call personal resonance. That's a very specific type of connection that's really powerful. They're also the trans chief translator for the employee of the sort of direction and purpose of the organization to the employee, making sure that they're having the opportunity to connect to that. And that, which we call organizational resonance, which is my individual connection to the purpose and direction of the organization, is the most powerful driver of performance outcomes that we have in the survey. It outperformed all the other types of connection. And that is really starts at the leadership team, obviously, they have to do the work to make that clear and make it so that people can connect to it. But the manager is in the seat to undermine all the work if they don't do that work or if they're not equipped. And so again, I think what it shows is managers are incredibly important. Organizationally, your managers are a linchpin. And it also says, again, managers have probably the hardest job in the organization, and they tend to be wildly undersupported, right? So nothing new, nothing new in that. It just sort of raises the stakes yet again on getting this right.

Sara Best 10:33

It seems to me that that certainly is not a new take that that managers have the most difficult job. I sincerely agree. It would make sense that they spend, and this is what we observe often, that managers spend most of their time helping people do the work, which is another finding in your study, and not enough time, not nearly enough time, helping people understand why their work matters. And nowhere, I I mean, I'm thinking throughout my whole career, nowhere anywhere did someone sit down with me and say, Hey, you know, this is where we're headed, and this is why what you're doing today and every day makes so much difference. It and and and I'm sure no one ever told my bosses that either.

Jason Lauritsen 11:14

Yeah.

Sara Best 11:15

So that's a huge takeaway. That's doable.

Jason Lauritsen 11:18

From from the top down, it it is really like we it, but we've been part of things. Most everybody can think of like being part of something that a project or an innovation. That you felt like was going somewhere. You understood what it was about, you understood why it mattered. Maybe it was outside of work and you were part of a cause. Yeah. Right. Or you were part of a community effort that was building a thing or trying to get funding for something. And you're like, you're so motivated. Like that purpose, that sense of direction and purpose pulls you. When you feel connected to it, it pulls you in a way that we've all felt that. And that's available to us at work. We just don't use it. We're just not tapping it and harnessing that power.

John Broer 11:58

Sarah, I think that you make such a great point. Um, I I can on one or two fingers count managers that I've had in my career that actually facilitated that feeling or or helped to create that. One in particular, she was absolutely amazing, but we had a big team. And but individually, she helped us understand our roles and the importance in terms of the outcome for the organization. But more importantly, she was that, like you said, Jason, that translator, that conduit, that facilitator between that that bridge between corporate and our team, the things that we needed to know. There were things that she could not communicate to us. And then of course she was bridging that gap, but did so in a way that was very clear. And we felt, we felt like our roles were uh ascending to a higher purpose, if you will, to support the organization. But it's but it to me, it's in my career, it's been rare, Sarah. I think that's that's what you've also expressed. I think this is a I call this the bullet train to the bosshole zone. Organizations that promote people into management and supervisory roles and don't realize the critical nature of preparing them, preparing those managers for this very stuff. It's not about being an elevated individual contributor. It is a totally different set of skill sets and business acumen, and you just defined it or codified it, if you will, in the study. I think this is hugely powerful.

Jason Lauritsen 13:29

I

Organizational Resonance As Rocket Fuel

Jason Lauritsen 13:30

think, you know, it's one of the biggest opportunities. I mean, I think clearly there's, you know, if you think takeaways, if I'm, you know, if I'm sitting in the, if I'm on the other side of this thinking organizationally, what would I do with all of this, right? There's there's kind of two pieces, I think, two big opportunities. One is something that we've probably already been scratching at, which is we need to really make sure that our managers have the relational skills to build connection with their people, right? That they really can, they, they know how to to listen, they know how to really see and hear people, they know how to create safe spaces, they know how to make help people feel included. Like those are the core things. That's the work you do, that's a lot of the work that I do. Like we're that's that is important and that continues to be really important. Double down there. The other side of it, though, is I think the biggest missed opportunity in the data played this out is that you know, we talked about organizational resonance being the most powerful driver. It's also the least commonly experienced type of connection. So that's where the gap is. And so that's your opportunity is if you can create a compelling, a clear, compelling story about where the organization is going, why it matters, how we're gonna get there together, and then cascade that down into the culture so that your managers and then equip your managers to tell that story to carry that water so that people can feel it. That is rocket fuel. Like that is that's where your your game-changing kind of uh move is, but it requires some real work. I mean, and it starts at the top of the organization. This is something that if there's not clarity about these things, you can't connect to something that is unclear. Right.

Sara Best 15:20

Yeah.

Jason Lauritsen 15:20

Right.

Sara Best 15:21

I'm just thinking about how, you know, at at its very core and at the highest level of leadership, there has to be a belief in uh the responsibility to cultivate a safe culture. Like, is it okay? Like, do people feel like they can be themselves here? I think that's the first thing. The second thing is I'm hearing here, is are we uh and I I think this is essential, are we as leaders and as a leadership team aligned around what we said is most important and where we're headed? So that alignment at the top becomes critical. Um, next, there's emotional intelligence. As leaders and managers, am I able to understand and adjust? We like to say adjust our dials as needed to meet the moment. So I'm, for example, very highly extroverted. Do I know when to back that down and slow my role a little bit to be more present and less needy from other people? Can I can I be that presence? And for each one of us, it's a different journey. I was thinking earlier about how it doesn't matter what your behavioral profile is, you know, there's um there's different needs. We just need to understand the significance of those needs and find ways to meet them in the moment. That's emotional intelligence from a manager leadership perspective. And I think the last thing is and and this is what you just talked about, help employees understand why what they're doing matters. So let me just give you this little quick summary. Identity lets me belong from your research. Relationship lets me connect, resonance gives me a reason to care, which equals high performance. Would that be safe to say?

Jason Lauritsen 17:01

Yeah, that's a great summary. I think I I'll reflect on that more. But on the surface, that sounds like a really good, a really good summary of kind of what this surface is.

Sara Best 17:10

Well, and even if leaders took a look at those three items, you know, what's the belonging? What's the sense of safety here in our organization? What's the sense of trust and psychological safety? What are the quality of the relationships that we have? Are we measuring that? Are we talking with people about uh their feelings seen and and having connection with people? And I want to interchange relationship and connection. And the last one is hey, have we even settled on where we're going and what our priorities are? And have we found a way to cascade those and share those and repeatedly share those and and beat the drum in a way that motivates people so they get clarity. Brene Brown says, clear is kind. Nothing is more kind than making that well known.

Jason Lauritsen 17:54

Yeah.

Sara Best 17:54

This is such important work, Jason.

Jason Lauritsen 17:56

Yeah. And it's, I mean, like you said, it it I think that the remote work finding is surprising, but I think we can explain that away, whatever. But the rest of this isn't none of it's new. I think the I think what it does is it helps us it's helped to kind of um illuminate the relationship that these have that these things have to one another. And it helps, you know, sort of helps us understand the importance and significance of it. Because I think the thing for me, like two of the things that I'm really hopeful about with this research as we hopefully get out and you know, share it with more people and more people become aware of it and can use it in their work, is that connection has like you're you're gonna be hard pressed to find someone who will say

Inclusion And Identity Power Performance

Jason Lauritsen 18:45

connection doesn't matter, right? I mean, even you go walk around an organization, everybody's like, well, yeah, we want, you know, feeling being connected. Connection's a good thing, but it gets talked about as a byproduct, right? If we create a great culture, then people will feel connected. And that's a good thing because maybe that helps us somehow. You know what I mean? Like it's been it's been a byproduct, whereas now we know it produces something that makes performance far more likely, right? It elevates performance. It elevates not only how motivated I am, but how much of myself I feel like I can put into my work or will voluntarily put into my work, which very directly contributes to engagement and performance and the rest. And then I think the other thing that it does is if that's true, then the positioning of identity congruence upstream of that sort of finally helps us understand why all of this inclusion work is so important. You know, in this, in the in the greater sort of conversation and debate over all of this stuff, we've sort of lost the thread. And the thread should have always been listen, this isn't about, this isn't nice to have, this isn't culture war, this isn't anything. This is about results. And if you care about having a high performance organization that's going to, you know, continue to grow, that's going to continue to scale, and it's going to do it in a way that sort of builds momentum on itself, right? Sort of that's like a flywheel. The only way that works is if the people that you hire and are investing in can come to work and bring and be who they are so that they can then let that loose, right? They can turn all of that loose in the organization. This data finally sort of, I think, at least starts showing us a picture of how this actually is way upstream. If you don't have an inclusive, an inclusive workplace, if you don't have managers that can create that kind of safety for people or people that will do it for each other, the amount of performance that you're leaving on the table, the amount of outcomes, the amount of ingenuity and commitment and all of the things you're leaving on the table is astronomical. And so we're just, this is the beginning, I think. Hopefully, we'll continue to be able to sort of dive deeper around this research over time to really prove it out. But I think this sends a really strong signal that you better have your eye on this ball if you really want to maximize what your organization is capable of.

Sara Best 21:11

Especially now, especially in this transformative, crazy time. Oh man, good stuff, Jason.

Taking The Research On The Road

Sara Best 21:18

Are you taking this show on the road? I know you do a lot of keynote speaking and you do a lot of, you're on some bit pretty hefty stages. You taking this out there?

Jason Lauritsen 21:27

Yeah. My, I mean, my um, we debuted this actually um this spring. I I um shared this, uh, did a sort of a new keynote called Connection is the strategy, where I kind of talk about, you know, sort of revealed this. I did that at uh at an event in April, and then again at at Work Human Live this year. And nice. I I my goal is to get this and I mean, we did this because I believe so deeply in this work and it, you know, and it and it validates the work that you do, validates the work we do. This is what we help organizations do. Because we help them sort of build the conditions so that connection can thrive, so that then you get all the things you want, right? You get the growth and the performance and the outcomes that you want, but it starts by really understanding this. And so I'm trying to get out and tell this story everywhere I can, whether that's you know, taking it, you know, we're we've got things coming up going inside of organizations, helping them think about that with their teams. Um, I will go talk about this pretty much anywhere they'll have me because I think it's so important.

Sara Best 22:32

And so it's a roadmap.

Download The Study And Next Steps

John Broer 22:35

Yeah. And we've well, we've recommended, Jason, we've recommended you to clients of ours for keynotes and conferences and things like that. So to our listeners, go into the show notes. You will be able to download a copy of the 2026 Human Connection Study. Jason's contact information will be there. Jason's previous appearances on the Boss Hole Chronicles will be in there. You would serve your organization well by really digging into this. And Jason, we can't thank you enough for sharing it with the Boss Hole Transformation Nation.

Jason Lauritsen 23:06

It's been my pleasure. Thanks for the platform.

Sara Best 23:09

All right, friends. Thanks for being with us. We'll see you next time on the Boss Hole Chronicles.

Share Your Bosshole Story

John Broer 23:16

Thanks very much for checking out this episode of The Boss hole Chronicles. It was so good to have you here. And if you have your own bosshole story that you want to share with The Bosshole Transformation Nation, just reach out. You can email us at my story at the Bossholechronicles.com. Again, my story at the Bosshole Chronicles.com. We'll see you next time.