The Science of Harnessing In-Person Work: A Book Talk with Natalia Emanuel

For the first time in history, millions of people can do their jobs from anywhere. Six years into the biggest social experiment of this generation, nobody agrees on whether that flexibility is a good thing. Employees defend it, while CEOs issue return-to-office mandates, often by gut instinct. Everyone has an opinion, but no one has had the data.

Natalia Emanuel does. A Harvard-trained economist, she and co-author Emma Harrington have spent years tracking millions of hours of work across Fortune 500 companies, startups, call centers, investment banks and technology firms. Their findings, laid out in their new book In Person: How Working Together Fuels Creativity, Productivity, and Growth, are, not surprisingly, complicated. 

Remote work is great for getting through a to-do list, but Drs. Emanuel and Harrington have documented the downsides. Teams brainstorming in person generate 14 percent more ideas; remote workers get 20 percent less feedback on their work; and our brains are 90 percent less in sync on a video call than across a table. Remote work has real costs, but most return-to-office mandates just put bodies back in buildings without getting brains back in sync.

Join us at MATTER on November 3 for a conversation with Dr. Emanuel about what the evidence really shows and what it means for anyone deciding workplace policies. She'll also walk through a practical framework for deciding how much in-person time your team actually needs.

Note: The price of your ticket includes a copy of In Person: How Working Together Fuels Creativity, Productivity, and Growth.

Agenda (all times in Central Time)

2:30pm | Doors open

3:00pm | Fireside Chat

4:00pm | Networking

4:30pm | Event concludes