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We’ve been having in-person meetings for a few thousand years.
Then we had a year of full digital meetings.
And now, everyone seems ready to jump into hybrid work.
But being good at hybrid meetings isn’t going to be simple. The typical approach to hybrid meetings leads to alienation, disengagement, and a big step backwards in your digital workplace journey.
However, if you get hybrid meetings right…well that’s something special. You’ll encourage new hires and distributed workers, and you’ll be ready to thrive in the future.
What is a hybrid meeting?
A hybrid meeting has some attendees at the home office, and others in distributed locations. Hybrid digital meetings have been around since the first conference call. Large corporations have had them for decades.
But the pandemic changed things for everyone. For a time, everyone “called in” from home. Meetings weren’t perfect, but there were many advantages to not tying a meeting to a specific location.
As many organizations are preparing to return to the office, they want to offer the best of both worlds — a hybrid digital meeting. You can be in the office, or call in from wherever you are.
The huge problem with most hybrid meetings
Hybrid meetings seem like a great idea. They accommodate those who want to be IRL, and those who can’t, or prefer not to be in the same physical place.
But the problem most digital leaders don’t see is the same problem with most hybrid approaches.
The people in the office have a distinct advantage.
Think about it.
- The meeting starts when the people in the office arrive and are ready.
- Those in the office catch up with each other as they walk into the conference room.
- There’s usually just one camera in the meeting room, and people in the room can hide or be off camera.
- IRL attendees can see everyone who has logged in.
- When someone in the office gets up to draw on a whiteboard, others in the office are able to add to it. Distributed folks are out of luck.
- If the connection at the office cuts out, the meeting is over. If a remote team member’s connection cuts out, the meeting continues.
- People in the office will seem to speak first and feel justified in talking over others.
- IRL attendees can pick up on body language and microexpressions that are not clear to distributed folks.
- When the meeting is over, the people in the room continue to discuss things with each other in small groups.
Having a hybrid meeting seems inclusive. But if there’s a tiered system, distributed workers will feel alienated, ignored, and disengaged.
If you are serious about becoming a high level digital workplace, your goal must be to level the playing field. The experience of those not in the office must not be worse than those in the office.
11 ways to make hybrid meetings fair for everyone
1. Stop saying “call in”. It suggests that the office is where the real meeting is and everyone else is patching into it. Instead, everyone “logs into” the meeting so that it’s clear the technology is the centerpiece.
2. Improve the meeting room. Forcing all in-office participants to log in is like diluting the experience of the meeting for everyone. Instead, you should elevate the experience. Invest in a better meeting room with multiple cameras, interactive whiteboards, and other meeting tools like OWLs. Remote attendees should be able to see and hear the whole room.
3. Improve the audio/visual of distributed attendees. Upgrade the camera, microphone, lighting, and internet speed of any regular attendee. Seeing someone as a grainy, pixelated blob puts them at a quick disadvantage in a hybrid meeting.
4. Start on time. Imagine logging in early for an important hybrid meeting, and then waiting nervously for 5 minutes while people stroll in, laughing with a cup of coffee in hand. Respect everyone’s time.
5. Allow time for pre-meeting chatter. In the office, people are usually chatting together as they walk into a meeting, catching up on life or work. These conversations are crucial to great team dynamics. If distributed workers don’t get this time, they miss out on a lot. Allow people to log in early and chat, or build in 5 minutes at the start of the meeting to level the playing field.
6. Do a check-in question. Check-in questions can fill the role of the pre-meeting chatter. But they also help to give everyone speaking time at the start.
7. Share speaking time. It’s very easy for those in the room to dominate the conversation of a hybrid meeting. Give people outside the room the chance to speak before making decisions or moving ahead.
8. Plan for interruptions. Those milliseconds of latency are huge. When you are IRL, you feel like you can go first because you heard yourself first. Those in the room should let others speak first and not talk over them.
9. Give a digital whiteboard option. You know a meeting is popping when someone jumps up to draw on the whiteboard. It’s even better when someone else adds to it. What happens if you are virtually attending? Don’t use physical whiteboards on digital calls. Use tools like Mural, LucidChart, Miro, Figma, or Bluescape so that everyone can collaborate in the same space.
10. Plan the visual experience. The hybrid meeting host should think about what everyone is looking at during the meeting. Are you going to have a shared Google Doc up? Are there going to be slides? Videos? Can you share those ahead of time in case streaming is an issue?
11. Side conversations. While not in good etiquette, side conversations are a part of meetings. Instead of IRL attendees muting themselves and whispering to each other, pull those side conversations onto a group chat. Inside jokes are a great way to build a sense of belonging, but everyone on the call needs to get them.
Are you ready for hybrid meetings?
Don’t be in the room. If you are the leader, the single best thing you can do is log in from a distributed place. It solves most of the problems you might face:
- It makes it clear that it’s ok that others aren’t there.
- No one gets special access to you by cornering you after the meeting.
- You will learn what it’s like to experience being on the “outside” and make the changes.
Pulling off a great hybrid meeting is a lot harder than most digital leaders realize. It’s not as simple as letting some people call in from home if they feel like it. Like everything in a digital workplace, it takes a little extra work and intentionality.
The basic rules of great digital meetings also apply to hybrid meetings. But, if you can make these small changes, your teams will be more inclusive, your virtual meetings more engaging, and you will be able to continue to scale and build your digital workplace.
We’ve been having in-person meetings for a few thousand years.
Then we had a year of full digital meetings.
And now, everyone seems ready to jump into hybrid work.
But being good at hybrid meetings isn’t going to be simple. The typical approach to hybrid meetings leads to alienation, disengagement, and a big step backwards in your digital workplace journey.
However, if you get hybrid meetings right…well that’s something special. You’ll encourage new hires and distributed workers, and you’ll be ready to thrive in the future.
What is a hybrid meeting?
A hybrid meeting has some attendees at the home office, and others in distributed locations. Hybrid digital meetings have been around since the first conference call. Large corporations have had them for decades.
But the pandemic changed things for everyone. For a time, everyone “called in” from home. Meetings weren’t perfect, but there were many advantages to not tying a meeting to a specific location.
As many organizations are preparing to return to the office, they want to offer the best of both worlds — a hybrid digital meeting. You can be in the office, or call in from wherever you are.
The huge problem with most hybrid meetings
Hybrid meetings seem like a great idea. They accommodate those who want to be IRL, and those who can’t, or prefer not to be in the same physical place.
But the problem most digital leaders don’t see is the same problem with most hybrid approaches.
The people in the office have a distinct advantage.
Think about it.
- The meeting starts when the people in the office arrive and are ready.
- Those in the office catch up with each other as they walk into the conference room.
- There’s usually just one camera in the meeting room, and people in the room can hide or be off camera.
- IRL attendees can see everyone who has logged in.
- When someone in the office gets up to draw on a whiteboard, others in the office are able to add to it. Distributed folks are out of luck.
- If the connection at the office cuts out, the meeting is over. If a remote team member’s connection cuts out, the meeting continues.
- People in the office will seem to speak first and feel justified in talking over others.
- IRL attendees can pick up on body language and microexpressions that are not clear to distributed folks.
- When the meeting is over, the people in the room continue to discuss things with each other in small groups.
Having a hybrid meeting seems inclusive. But if there’s a tiered system, distributed workers will feel alienated, ignored, and disengaged.
If you are serious about becoming a high level digital workplace, your goal must be to level the playing field. The experience of those not in the office must not be worse than those in the office.
11 ways to make hybrid meetings fair for everyone
1. Stop saying “call in”. It suggests that the office is where the real meeting is and everyone else is patching into it. Instead, everyone “logs into” the meeting so that it’s clear the technology is the centerpiece.
2. Improve the meeting room. Forcing all in-office participants to log in is like diluting the experience of the meeting for everyone. Instead, you should elevate the experience. Invest in a better meeting room with multiple cameras, interactive whiteboards, and other meeting tools like OWLs. Remote attendees should be able to see and hear the whole room.
3. Improve the audio/visual of distributed attendees. Upgrade the camera, microphone, lighting, and internet speed of any regular attendee. Seeing someone as a grainy, pixelated blob puts them at a quick disadvantage in a hybrid meeting.
4. Start on time. Imagine logging in early for an important hybrid meeting, and then waiting nervously for 5 minutes while people stroll in, laughing with a cup of coffee in hand. Respect everyone’s time.
5. Allow time for pre-meeting chatter. In the office, people are usually chatting together as they walk into a meeting, catching up on life or work. These conversations are crucial to great team dynamics. If distributed workers don’t get this time, they miss out on a lot. Allow people to log in early and chat, or build in 5 minutes at the start of the meeting to level the playing field.
6. Do a check-in question. Check-in questions can fill the role of the pre-meeting chatter. But they also help to give everyone speaking time at the start.
7. Share speaking time. It’s very easy for those in the room to dominate the conversation of a hybrid meeting. Give people outside the room the chance to speak before making decisions or moving ahead.
8. Plan for interruptions. Those milliseconds of latency are huge. When you are IRL, you feel like you can go first because you heard yourself first. Those in the room should let others speak first and not talk over them.
9. Give a digital whiteboard option. You know a meeting is popping when someone jumps up to draw on the whiteboard. It’s even better when someone else adds to it. What happens if you are virtually attending? Don’t use physical whiteboards on digital calls. Use tools like Mural, LucidChart, Miro, Figma, or Bluescape so that everyone can collaborate in the same space.
10. Plan the visual experience. The hybrid meeting host should think about what everyone is looking at during the meeting. Are you going to have a shared Google Doc up? Are there going to be slides? Videos? Can you share those ahead of time in case streaming is an issue?
11. Side conversations. While not in good etiquette, side conversations are a part of meetings. Instead of IRL attendees muting themselves and whispering to each other, pull those side conversations onto a group chat. Inside jokes are a great way to build a sense of belonging, but everyone on the call needs to get them.
Are you ready for hybrid meetings?
Don’t be in the room. If you are the leader, the single best thing you can do is log in from a distributed place. It solves most of the problems you might face:
- It makes it clear that it’s ok that others aren’t there.
- No one gets special access to you by cornering you after the meeting.
- You will learn what it’s like to experience being on the “outside” and make the changes.
Pulling off a great hybrid meeting is a lot harder than most digital leaders realize. It’s not as simple as letting some people call in from home if they feel like it. Like everything in a digital workplace, it takes a little extra work and intentionality.
The basic rules of great digital meetings also apply to hybrid meetings. But, if you can make these small changes, your teams will be more inclusive, your virtual meetings more engaging, and you will be able to continue to scale and build your digital workplace.
