Trust is the lifeblood of well-functioning teams, but a lack of trust might be inhibiting teams from truly excelling within hybrid work environments.

Additional layoffs at Facebook parent Meta recently filled the headlines, but in the memo to employees, Mark Zuckerberg revealed new insights on the future of work, the importance of relationships, and how teams need trust to thrive.

Here’s what Mark wrote:

Our early analysis of performance data suggests that engineers who either joined Meta in-person and then transferred to remote or remained in-person performed better on average than people who joined remotely. This analysis also shows that engineers earlier in their career perform better on average when they work in-person with teammates at least three days a week. This requires further study, but our hypothesis is that it is still easier to build trust in person and that those relationships help us work more effectively.

While hybrid work environments might be giving employees the flexibility they want, it might not be delivering the trust teams need. In his seminal research on the neuroscience of trust, Paul Zak shared eight behaviors leaders can follow to stimulate and sustain a culture of trust. Zak’s research stresses the importance of intentionally building social ties at work. These social ties strengthen trust, which in turn improves employees’ self-reported energy levels, satisfaction with their lives, and engagement at work.

What is your organization doing to build trust among team members and coworkers?