As a leader of a hybrid team your ability to run effective hybrid meetings where some of your participants are physically co-located whilst others are remote will be paramount to employee engagement and team performance.

Effective hybrid meetings

Pre-pandemic, meetings that had remote participants often involved at best, a conference room equipped with a voice station where remote participants struggled to hear the conversation taking place and had no idea what was being shared or shown.

They were far from efficient or effective. The onset of the pandemic drove most of us to work remotely and utilise the communication and collaboration platforms of the likes of Zoom and MS Teams. Whilst these still had limitations, they were far better than what we had experienced before and as long as our internet bandwidth sufficed, and we had good enough audio and video, we were able to connect. Whilst we often had to remind someone speaking that they were ‘on mute’ most of us quickly adapted to the new way of meeting.

However, truly effective hybrid meetings are not just the result of running a meeting where participants are distributed across many locations in the same way you did when everyone was physically present in the same room.

There is added complexity. When all the participants are in-person, or all of the participants are virtual, there is a level playing field. When there is a mix of both, the remote participants quickly become the second-class citizen unless the meeting facilitator knows how to run an effective hybrid meeting,

The added complexity of hybrid meetings means they are easy to do badly and hard to do well.

Do we need it?

One of the results of the rapid move to remote working was the replacement of every scheduled interaction in the office with a virtual meeting on Zoom or Teams. Interactions that may have taken place face-to-face on a one-to-one or one-to-few bases, or conducted over the telephone, or involved a stand-up with a few key people, have all resulted in meetings. Many of these meetings have far more people in attendance than actually needed as there is a fear that someone might be excluded so best invite everyone and their dog to be on the safe side!

Rather than replace every interaction with a meeting there are a series of questions that should be asked before the meeting is scheduled.

·       Is this meeting necessary?

·       If not, how do I accomplish what I need to achieve?

·       If it is, who needs to be there?

·       Who can provide input to the meeting without needing to be there?

·       Who needs to know the outcomes of the meeting but does not need to be there?

·       How am I going to make this meeting as effective and efficient as possible and make the best use of everyone’s time?

·       Can I circulate the agenda before the meeting and ensure everyone knows what will be expected of them in the meeting?

·       Can I distribute pre-reading material?

·       Can I ensure everyone knows the intended purpose of meeting and the desired outcomes?

Asking these questions avoids meeting that are not necessary and the fatigue that so many remote workers have suffered due to the overburden of meetings.

Leaders should think asynchronously first. Can these interactions be conducted via a shared document repository, collaboration platform or a workflow management tool? This consideration gets rid of the unnecessary meetings or reduces the time needed for an actual meeting because so much pre-work has been done.

Plan it

You should always have been clear about the reason for calling a meeting but if you weren’t, an employee could walk over to your desk and ask you about it. Your remote employees cannot do that now. They could call you, but you can avoid the barrage of phone calls by planning and providing clarity.

The following planning must take place.

·       Outline the purpose of the meeting

·       Define the outcomes to be achieved

·       Provide a clear and detailed agenda (prior to the meeting)

·       Consider allocating a time duration to each agenda item to keep the meeting on track

·       Provide pre-reading material or pre-work that you expect participants to do

·       Provide material that participants may need access to during the meeting

·       Ensure the meeting invitation is clear about how the meeting will be conducted and provide dial-in or video-conference information

Facilitate it

I am a stickler for managing meeting time include start and end times. Everyone’s time is precious and should be considered in that way.

It is also one thing to be sitting in a conference room aware that the meeting is waiting on one or two key participants before it can start. It is a whole other experience to be sitting in your home office staring back at yourself with a message on the screen that the host will let you into the meeting when it starts, or you are in a waiting room waiting to be admitted. You have no idea of what is happening.

For this reason, it is important that meetings times are managed. If there is a genuine reason the meeting cannot start on time, do not leave participants in the waiting room. Bring them into the meeting and explain the reason for the delay of the start time. This could be a good opportunity to check-in on how people are feeling whilst you are all waiting.

Meetings can be tiring but even more so for those attending via video. Plan the meetings to be as short as possible and do not allow them to overrun. If you as the facilitator cannot do this, allocate a timekeeper to keep you on track and the meeting moving along. Do not be afraid to take certain discussions off-line if they are going to derail the meeting.

Do not allow people to be talked over especially those joining remotely. You must ensure that everyone gets to participate. Go around all the participants, in-person and virtual, and invite their contribution.

Digitise it

Technology is your friend – not your enemy.

Embrace tools such as virtual whiteboards, and Kanban boards for collaboration, and shared documentation platforms for meeting notes. Record sessions so they can be accessed after the meeting.

Stay ahead of the technology curve so you are always aware of the latest technology that can enhance the effectives of meetings. Check out the latest developments from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. 

Enable it

You must ensure that every employee has the right tools and technology to join the hybrid meeting and have the optimum experience. This includes their video and audio capabilities. Everyone needs access to the same tools, platforms, and systems.

Enjoy it

Remember this is a journey for everyone – you and your employees. Your hybrid meetings will not be perfect. There will be disruptions when a remote participant has their kids run into the room; people forget to turn off mute; connectivity is lost; or access is lost to a platform.

Embrace these hiccups as a learning experience for everyone and enjoy the flexibility that hybrid working has brought to everyone

Summary

The hybrid meeting will bring with it added complexities and challenges, but the bottom line is hybrid is here to stay and we will not be going back to the way it was pre-pandemic. Employees want the continued flexibility and therefore hybrid meetings will be a necessary part of the mix.

Don't see hybrid meetings as a burden but a welcome change to the way we work together today.