This year has exposed and exacerbated weaknesses in workplace culture, but it has also highlighted some of the strengths, according to Hannah Ubl, Co-Founder of Good Company Consulting (US).

“What we find is that the workplace cultures that survive times of crisis do so because they put people first,” she said.

Ms. Ubl, who was speaking during a Capsule Keynote yesterday, went on to discuss two specific situations in which culture can start to erode.

Connection and Confetti

“There’s a reason why we grieve when we’re not connecting. It is one of our basic human needs, after food and shelter,” Ms. Ubl said, adding that it’s very common to feel an increased feeling of loneliness when working from home.

While the shift to working from home has many positives, there are definitely some challenges.

Not having to commute, for example, is a positive aspect of the shift, but it is counteracted by the fact that the average workday has been extended by 48.5 minutes, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research (US) study. The study looked at aggregated meeting and email metadata from 3.1 million users, across 16 large metropolitan areas in Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

“When we’re working from home it can be easier to get things done, but we get to a point where those moments of connection with people don’t happen as often. When they do, they tend to be more transactional, where you’re spending less time building relationships in the moments you connect,” said Ms. Ubl.

She added: “We are surviving, building, and maintaining relationships with ‘time confetti’—these slivers of moments, to try to create a deep, meaningful connection. This has serious consequences for workplace culture.”

To transform transactional moments into more relational ones, Ms. Ubl recommended that people invest in positive “micromoves”—small actions or behaviors that seem inconsequential in the moment but significantly affect how we relate to one another.

As part of this, she suggested that leaders give thank-you notes (whether an actual note, an email, or a call).

She relayed that she has spoken with leaders who look at every single team member and think of one specific way that person has helped them. Then they’ll send them a note about it. “It increases the energy, the collaboration, and the connection that they all have because they know they’re in it together,” Ms. Ubl said.

She recommended that people hone their listening skills, noting that communication is difficult even in good times.

“Miscommunication accounts for hundreds of thousands of lost dollars every year for companies,” Ms. Ubl noted. ”In hard times, communication is even more challenging, so we have to step up listening to each other.”