We Lost the Minutes Between the Meetings.

You have a full calendar. Every meeting has an agenda, a link, and a start time.

The minutes around those meetings belong to no one. They used to be where culture got built.

I notice it in my own week. I work from home more than I did seven or eight years ago, and I am more effective when I get out and spend time with people. The hallway conversation. The read of a room. The question about someone’s kid. None of it is on a calendar. All of it used to happen anyway.

Today: what that cost us, and where to start rebuilding it.

Five or six years of remote and hybrid work quietly eroded something that does not show up in an engagement survey.

We lost the minutes between the meetings.

The intern who learned to lead by watching how a senior leader handled a difficult moment. Not in a training. In the room.

Those micro-moments of human connection are not soft. They are the connective tissue of culture. And they compound. When they disappear, what fills the gap is assumption. Leaders assuming their teams are aligned. Teams assuming they know what leadership expects. And everyone finding out in Q4 that assumption is not the same as alignment.

Most organizations have not named this clearly yet. Not because they do not feel it. Because naming it requires acknowledging that the flexibility that served everyone during a crisis also came at a cost that is still being paid.

What It Looks Like in Practice

We are working with an organization right now navigating exactly this dynamic.

Their leaders are pushing for more direct feedback from coaches and facilitators. Their instinct is that softer delivery is less effective. What we are observing is something different. Within their culture, feedback tends to land personally. Leaders hear “I think” and “I feel” rather than “we observed” or “we had agreed.”

The request for harsher delivery is actually a request for more clarity. And clarity does not come from volume or sharpness. It comes from shared language, psychological safety, and leaders who are practiced at both giving and receiving honest input.

That is not a remote work problem in isolation. It is what happens when the minutes between the meetings disappear and the muscle of real-time human connection weakens quietly over years.

Read the Full Argument

This month’s blog goes deeper on what the year has already been measuring, what AI is doing to organizational EQ, and the one question worth asking before every Q4 planning session ends.

Read: Before the Planning Session Ends

The Human Side of AI: Leading Through Constant Change

Constant change is now the working condition. The leaders who thrive in it are not the fastest adopters. They are the ones whose teams stay energized, engaged, and ready to embrace what AI makes possible.

Join our next virtual Senior HR Salon on Tuesday, December 8, from 12 to 1pm ET. We will explore a growing leadership challenge: how do we champion and encourage our people to keep pace with accelerating change while staying energized and engaged?

Josh Saterman will explore how emotional intelligence and a growth mindset strengthen a leader’s ability to build adaptable teams.

As always, expect a candid, peer-driven conversation where senior HR leaders exchange perspectives, share what is working, and learn from one another.

Reserve your seat

One Week Away: Coaching + Connection in the AI Era

On November 18, iCoach Global and Saterman Connect are bringing together coaches, HR leaders, and senior executives for a hands-on morning exploring how AI is changing work and which human skills matter more because of it.

November 18 | 8:30 to 11:30am | New York City

Register here

One Thing Worth Knowing This Week

The organizations that rebuild connective tissue do it deliberately. Not through a culture initiative. Through the rhythm of how leaders show up, communicate, and make time for the moments that used to happen by accident.

That conversation is worth having before the year ends. Schedule time with Michael.

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