Dr. Tracy Brower is a PhD sociologist studying community, happiness and the future of work and life. She is a Global 50 Thinker and a Top 101 Experience Influencer as well as the award-winning author of three books: Critical Connections, The Secrets to Happiness at Work and Bring Work to Life. She is the vice president of workplace insights with Steelcase and a senior contributor to Forbes and Fast Company. Tracy’s work has been translated into 25 languages and her TEDx talk has been viewed 8.6 million times. You can find her on at tracybrower.com, LinkedIn, or any of the other usual social channels.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CIO Magazine, Tracy shared insights into how community has shifted from a “soft” concept to measurable business infrastructure, revealing that dense workplace networks directly drive retention, performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors like follow-through and commitment. She emphasized that while connection, purpose, and flexibility all top employee surveys, flexibility remains the hardest for leaders to deliver authentically due to role-based equity challenges and the proven benefits of face-to-face work for motivation, learning, and friendship. Looking beyond AI, Tracy placed her biggest bet on the evolving relationship between people and their work — noting that as AI reshapes the nature of value, organizations must rebuild community, integrate satisfaction with engagement and productivity, and design work that is both deeply human and high-performing. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Tracy. You’re a Global 50 Thinker, VP of Workplace Insights, and a sociologist whose TEDx talk on happiness has reached 8.6 million people. When did you first realize that “community” wasn’t a soft concept but a measurable driver of performance and wellbeing?
With my first book, Bring Work to Life, I focused on how work can be (and should be) a fulfilling part of life. That led me to my second book, The Secrets to Happiness at Work in which I shared evidence for what creates joy in our work. Within that effort, connection and community kept emerging as utterly critical, not only for the wellbeing of people emotionally, physically and cognitively, but also for the benefit of business and organizations. This is the insight and inspiration I shared in Critical Connections.
The data is compelling. When people feel a sense of belonging and community, they are more likely to stay with the organization, more likely to perform at their best and less likely to miss work. And when people have dense networks across the organization, they are more likely to demonstrate ‘organizational citizenship’ behavior in which they follow up, deliver on their commitments and do their best for themselves, their teams and the organization as a whole.
Your new book, ‘Critical Connections’ lands in a post-pandemic world rethinking offices, AI, and belonging. What was the moment in your research when the data convinced you that connection is now a business-critical infrastructure, not a perk?
Our realities today drive the need for connection as a critical element of the work experience. Connection is fundamental to our wellness, engagement and motivation.
Having two or three close friends is linked with everything from mental health to cardiovascular health, cancer, dementia and overall longevity. But we aren’t connecting outside of work as we did in the past. We’ve elevated convenience over connection: We don’t talk to the barista, we order on the app. And we don’t talk to the check out person, we get the delivery at our door. In the absence of these small but important points of connection, work becomes a center of gravity. Work creates the context within which we feel seen, known and connected with others. In fact, 69% of people crave connection at work.
The benefits of connection and community for people and for business are irrefutable and they drive a new imperative in terms of how we deliver on connected work experiences.
Connection, purpose, and flexibility keep topping employee surveys. Which of those three will be hardest for leaders to deliver authentically by 2028, and why?
Each of these is indeed a high priority. Leaders often struggle with delivering flexibility the most, because it is different for every job. For some jobs, flexibility is possible because the responsibilities aren’t customer-facing or time-bound in terms of when the work gets done. But for jobs that require client contact or work at key times of the day, flexibility is harder to provide. This introduces limitations for individual employees, but it can also create equity challenges in which people wonder why one person was able to take advantage of the perk while they were not.
And while flexibility and autonomy have measurable positive outcomes, it is also important to recognize that working face to face also has tremendous benefits in raising motivation, engagement, learning and growth, friendship and performance.
You advise on everything from real estate to math programs. Is there an industry or community outside your core work that you’re privately fascinated by right now?
I appreciate the diversity of the programs in which I serve a board advisory role. My involvement in one, helps me expand my perspective and apply new ideas with others.
I’m especially fascinated right now by my work with Gen Zs and Gen Alphas. They are some of the most disconnected groups and they are struggling with mental health and wellbeing. I am interested in working with them as individuals and in groups. But I am also focused on the social dynamics that will need to change so that we are creating both nurturing and challenging opportunities for all generations going forward.
You sit on academic and industry boards. What three skills will be non-negotiable for “workplace leaders” by 2029, whether they’re in HR, IT, or real estate?
Leaders are under a microscope today and leadership is more challenging than it has been in the past, because of the pressure, polarization and rapid rates of change.
Leaders must be empathetic and they must be present and connect with others effectively. Leaders must also be curious and creative. The future won’t belong to the leader with all the best answers, but with better questions. Leaders must also be resilient. As soon they reach a level of stability with their skills or situations, things are sure to change, so adaptability will be another of the most critical skills.
Music, art, and place shape how we feel. Is there a city, building, or space that, for you, embodies “critical connection” in its design?
The Boccia Al Bosco trail in the Verzasca Valley region of Switzerland is a wonderful example. It is a hike that features chutes, pulleys and catapults that run alongside the paths. At the start of the trail, you obtain a wooden boccia ball and then as you’re hiking you can roll the ball down the troughs. You can adjust the ramps to create new pathways for the balls.
What is especially powerful is the interactive nature of the experience because it invites collaboration with other hikers to redesign the runs. It also empowers you to shape your surroundings, creating meaningful experiences. And it cements memories based on the relationships and the fun that arise from the experience.
But built experiences can be like this as well. Places that offer variety and choice as well as personal control empower us to select and affect spaces for our best performance. Those that offer opportunities for time alone as well as time together inspire us to think deeply, but also to collaborate, learn and build with others. And those with sightlines to leaders and teammates remind us of how our work is connected, and how we are part of a community coming together to achieve a shared purpose.
If you had to place one big bet on a shift beyond AI that will redefine the future of work by 2030, what would it be and what signal are you watching today?
AI is obviously the biggest factor because it’s not just changing how we work, it’s changing the nature of work and our relationship to our work. We are accustomed to providing certain value and we feel fulfilled as a result, but as work changes, the nature of the value we offer will also change. This will affect how we feel about our contributions, about the need for our talents and about our identity.
In addition to this, I’m watching signals in the global conversation we’re having about work. Years ago we showed up, we did the things and we didn’t think very hard about what we needed from our work experience. But today, we’re demanding more and we’re figuring out how work experiences must change.
We also have access to terrific evidence that drives solutions. In particular, there is conflation of elements like satisfaction, engagement and productivity in which one each of these drives the others. We’re realizing how integrated work and life are, and the extent to which we can do the right thing for people and in the process, we’re doing the right thing for business. I’m optimistic about where we can go and the outcomes we can drive toward work in which we rebuild relationships, create community and build belonging.