The in-between. We didn't lose the office. We lost each other.

....ON CONNECTION, CREATIVITY & WHAT WE LOST IN THE SPACES BETWEEN

I've been having the same conversation lately. In cafes, on calls, with founders and creatives who all say some version of the same thing: something shifted, and we never really dealt with it.

"Remote work promised us freedom. What it quietly took was something harder to name and even harder to get back."

We adapted to the pandemic. We got good at Zoom. We optimised our home offices, bought better lighting, learned to mute ourselves. And somewhere in all that optimising, we stopped asking whether any of it was actually working.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: it isn't.

18% of employees feel genuinely engaged and like they belong at work (Source: Gallup)

1 in 5 adults now feel socially isolated with feelings of loneliness (Source WHO)

The flexibility we gained came at a cost we're only now beginning to feel. For creatives and founders especially, this hits differently. Creativity doesn't come from isolation, it comes from collision. From the random conversation. The throwaway remark. The idea that emerges from the space between two unrelated thoughts.

We lost all of that. And we replaced it with back-to-back video calls, fragmented attention, and the hollow ritual of the 15-minute Zoom "catch up."

So here's my provocation: bring back the business lunch.

Not the stuffy corporate affair. Just one real conversation, over food, with no agenda, no slides, no screen between you. Research shows people generate 23% more creative solutions after sharing a meal with a colleague. The oxytocin released when we eat together literally enhances cognitive flexibility and based on neuroscience.

We don't need companies to mandate a return to office to fix this. We can start rebuilding connection one lunch at a time.