Did remote and hybrid working really break your culture, or did they simply expose what was already fragile?

In this episode, Andy Goram sits down with Ellie Holbert, founder of Impact Advisory Services, to challenge one of the most common narratives in modern leadership. When teams went remote or hybrid and performance dipped, trust wobbled and misunderstandings grew, many leaders blamed distance. But Ellie argues something far more uncomfortable: remote didn’t create dysfunction, it revealed it .

Together they explore the neuroscience of ambiguity, why unclear systems trigger threat responses in the brain, and how leaders often misinterpret perfectly human reactions as performance problems. You’ll hear why a lack of clarity around roles and “definition of done” drives behaviours that frustrate leaders and what to do instead .

Most powerfully, Ellie shares a case study where addressing simple team fundamentals transformed performance from a 2.4 to a 4.8 team health score in eight weeks, delivering zero regrettable turnover, a critical project six months early, and a 45x return on investment.

This isn’t an episode about remote versus office. It’s about clarity versus assumption. Systems versus personalities.
And leadership that unlocks value already sitting inside your team.

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Key Takeaways

Remote and hybrid exposed fragile systems. Distance removed the informal cues that were masking ambiguity.
Ambiguity triggers threat, not laziness. Feedback-seeking behaviour is often a signal the system lacks clarity.
Clarity reduces friction and unlocks performance. Shared roles and a defined “definition of done” dramatically improve team effectiveness.
Fixing fundamentals delivers serious ROI. From 2.4 to 4.8 in eight weeks. $4.5 million of added value and a 45x return.

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Key Moments

The key moments in this episode are:

0:01:11 – Did Remote and Hybrid Break Culture?
0:06:04 – Remote Revealed Gaps That Were Already There
0:07:26 – Culture Is “How We Get Work Done Around Here”
0:08:06 – Why Hybrid and Remote Reduce Communication Signals
0:10:23 – The Neuroscience of Ambiguity and Threat
0:23:14 – When Ambiguity Drives Feedback-Seeking Behaviour
0:23:38 – The Power of a Shared Definition of Done
0:30:14 – A Team in Crisis: Starting at 2.4 Out of 5
0:32:15 – From 2.4 to 4.8: Unlocking Hybrid and Remote Team Performance
0:33:53 – The 45x Return on Clarity and Leadership
0:42:30 – Three Fundamentals for Stronger Hybrid Leadership

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Get the full transcript of the episode here