Culture Without Proximity: Building Human Teams in a Digital Workspace

This morning, I logged into our weekly team check-in. Same link. Same time. Faces from Pretoria to Joburg popped onto the screen one by one, framed by office corners, kitchen nooks, a toddler waving in the background (one of our team members just got a newborn very energetic little-man.

We’ve been working hybrid ever since the lockdowns shifted how the world works, and even now years later it still amazes me how much energy you can feel through a screen. I used to think culture needed a room. That you had to walk the halls, read body language, feel the pulse of a place. Now I know better.

Culture doesn't need walls it needs clarity, it needs intention, and it needs leaders who care enough to create it even if the only “office” we share is a thumbnail on a laptop screen.

Today’s meeting reminded me of that. Not because something went wrong, but because something went right. I saw teammates holding space for one another. Calling each other out in the most respectful, focused way on things that matter. That’s not just communication. That’s culture and it didn’t happen by accident.

It happened because we chose to build it on purpose.

Let’s talk about how.

 The business world has shifted under our feet quietly at first, then suddenly all at once.

One day, you’re hosting weekly check-ins in your boardroom, reading your team’s energy through tone, eye contact, and those spontaneous corridor conversations. The next, you’re squinting at a gallery of Zoom faces, unsure if your people are inspired, disengaged, or just trying to figure out where the mute button is.

This is not temporary. It’s not a phase we’ll “get through.”
This is the reality of modern leadership: culture is no longer shaped by shared space. It’s shaped by shared intention.

If you’re still trying to lead a remote or hybrid team using proximity-based methods hoping your Slack threads and Google Meet links will organically replace in-person dynamics you’re not leading culture.
You’re outsourcing it to chance.

The Myth of “Culture Just Happens”

For years, many companies treated culture as an ambient feature of office life. The thinking was simple: If we hire the right people, get them in the same space, and keep them aligned to the mission, the culture will take care of itself.

That model doesn’t work anymore and truthfully; it never did not reliably.

What’s different now is that distance reveals what leadership failed to design.

Without physical spaces to lean on, teams need a new form of glue. Not coffee machines or dress codes, not Friday drinks something deeper.

Culture in a distributed or hybrid environment has to be engineered intentionally and reinforced systematically. Left unattended, it starts to fray quietly, subtly, and fast.

A 2023 study by Harvard Business Review found that remote employees are 67% more likely to feel socially isolated and 45% more likely to worry about being “left out” of critical decisions. And once those feelings start, performance soon follows.

You don’t lose culture all at once. You lose it in inches through assumptions, disconnection, and leadership absence.

Culture Can’t Survive on Meetings Alone

One of the biggest mistakes I see teams make in a remote model is this:
They treat Zoom meetings as culture.

They think if there’s a weekly team sync, the culture is intact.
If Slack is active, people are engaged.
If nobody complains, all must be fine.

But connection doesn’t live in calendar invites. It lives in clarity. In trust. In informal conversations that create shared context. When everything becomes scheduled, transactional, and digital humanity starts to dissolve.

If you’ve ever ended a virtual meeting and thought, “I have no idea how people are really doing,” you’ve already seen the limits of digital check-ins.

Culture, especially remotely, requires more than alignment on tasks. It requires attention to emotional tone, context, and consistency delivered even when you're not in the same room.

Building Culture When You’re Not in the Same Room

So how do you lead culture in a remote or hybrid team?

Here’s what we’ve learned through my work coaching global teams at Cobus Visser International and from rebuilding culture in our own business environments across continents and time zones:

1. Narrate Context Loudly

In a physical office, people absorb context by osmosis. They overhear conversations, read facial expressions, and pick up cues. In a remote setup, that context is gone.

Leaders need to narrate their thinking out loud more than ever.
Not just what’s happening, but why.

“We’re shifting this strategy because…”
“I want to hear dissent here because…”
“This decision is aligned with our value of…”

When people don’t know what’s driving decisions, they fill the silence with assumptions. That’s the breeding ground of disengagement.

2. Make Culture Visible in Everyday Operations

Instead of quarterly town halls or “values posters,” culture must live inside the daily rhythm.

• Acknowledge behaviours that reflect your team’s values inside Asana or Trello.

• Use check-ins to reinforce not just KPIs, but emotional check-ins.

• Create rituals like end-of-week wins, video off/mental reset days, or value-aligned shoutouts that build consistency.

Digital work is cold without rituals. It’s your job to design warmth into the workflow.

3. Redefine Presence

In a hybrid or remote model, visibility doesn’t equal impact.

One of the fastest ways to kill trust is by micromanaging “online time” or obsessing over green dots. Culture should never hinge on digital presence it should hinge on trust, outcomes, and communication.

Instead of tracking time, track:

• Follow-through

• Communication clarity

• Contribution to collaboration

• Cultural energy (Do they elevate the team?)

The strongest cultures in remote teams are measured by engagement, not availability.

Culture Gaps Aren’t a Remote Problem They’re a Leadership Problem

I’ve seen amazing cultures thrive in fully remote teams.
I’ve seen disconnected cultures fester in office buildings.

The difference? It’s not geography.
It’s leadership intentionality.

If you want to build a thriving remote team, you must lead like this:

• Ask more questions than you answer.

• Say people’s names more than you say numbers.

• Celebrate initiative more than compliance.

• Invite feedback more than updates.

These aren’t soft tactics they’re structural. They reinforce identity, belonging, and trust in a virtual space.

When people feel seen, they show up.
When they feel connected, they commit.
When they feel safe, they stretch.

You Don’t Have to Be in the Same Room to Be on the Same Team

Remote culture isn’t a downgrade. It’s a new discipline.

It asks you to be more intentional.
More structured.
More communicative.
And more human.

If you’re leading a hybrid or distributed team today, don’t wait for in-person meetings to “reset the culture.” That’s reactive leadership.

Lead culture right where you are. In the tools you already use. Through the screens you already face.

Because in this new world of work, the distance between your team members doesn’t matter as much as the connection between their values.