The disruptions of the pandemic have left a lasting mark on corporate culture around the world, particularly in terms of where work occurs. A recent report from Accenture PLC found that 83 percent of workers viewed a hybrid work model to be optimal, and companies, from Microsoft to Ford Motor Company, have indicated they plan to accommodate this preference moving forward.
With this shift, the way workers collaborate will also need to change. According to a survey conducted by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), three out of five corporate meeting organizers responded that they expect to hold at least one hybrid meeting in 2021. The survey also showed that, while 71 percent of respondents said meetings with a combination of remote and in-person attendees were not part of their previous programming, 65 percent are now interested in holding hybrid meetings.
As this new form of collaboration gains traction, it is in our best interest to establish norms around hybrid meetings and find ways to elevate the experience. To guarantee that hybrid meetings are efficient and effective, it is important to keep three things in mind: inclusion, facilitation, and follow-up.
Inclusion is key
By definition, a meeting brings people together to achieve a shared objective. For that to be accomplished, each participant, regardless of physical location, must be able to participate and engage with other attendees. The most consequential effort organizers can take in planning a hybrid meeting is to focus on inclusivity. The goal is to have every participant feel engaged and productive, no matter their location.
To involve all, it is critical that participants can hear what’s being said. After a year of engaging entirely over videoconference, attendees will have a baseline expectation of high-quality audio. No remote participant should ever need to ask for a comment to be repeated. A conference room outfitted with a quality audio system is an ideal location for this sort of meeting. However, the same effect can be accomplished using strategically placed microphones or by passing a microphone among participants.
It is also important to ensure that all participants have equal visibility. While it may seem like a simple solution to have each participant, those physically in the room and those joining virtually, log into a video conference platform with their own laptop, that defeats the purpose of meeting in person. The goal is to give every attendee a clear view of the faces of the other participants, regardless of location.
A simple but effective way to accomplish this is to connect several laptops equipped with webcams to a conferencing platform. One laptop can be set on each side of the meeting table with the camera capturing the attendees on the opposite side. The remaining laptops can be arranged to share the meeting visuals, such as presentation slides or a wall of post-it notes, with off-site participants. Such a set-up gives each visual component of the meeting space its own position on the remote participants’ screens. Similarly, to keep remote participants top of mind, it may be helpful to display individual remote attendees on monitors positioned prominently in the room.
Providing virtual participants an accurate and complete view of the meeting space also translates into comprehensive meeting recordings which, a recent study by Panopto and Wainhouse Research found, 86% of daily video conferencing users value.
Videoconferencing technology is rapidly evolving to bridge the distance between remote and in-person meeting attendees. Providers like Microsoft and Zoom have announced that they are leveraging innovations like facial detection and optimized gallery views to better simulate a meeting room.
Intentional facilitation
The next step is to bring all these pieces together into a cohesive, collaborative experience. This is where facilitation comes in, and care should be taken to test the technology and rehearse the flow of the meeting. By involving participants in this step, meeting organizers can let attendees know what to expect and give them time to prepare.
It is also useful to assign an onsite meeting facilitator to ensure that remote participants are not forgotten and that subtleties present in the room are translated to those not co-located. The facilitator should draw the remote participants into the conversation and make sure their voices are heard. One creative way, suggested in this Harvard Business Review article, is to connect each person joining remotely with an in-person attendee or “avatar.” These participants are linked by a direct line of communication so that the remote attendee can get assistance without the discomfort of interrupting the group. This could be anything from clearing a blocked camera angle, or discretely asking a quiet participant to speak more clearly, to placing a post-it note in a brainstorming exercise.
Thoughtful feedback
As with any new initiative, feedback is a crucial step to ensuring that hybrid meetings are productive moving forward. By soliciting feedback in a thoughtfully designed survey, organizers can fine tune their process and improve the experience of remote and in-person participants in the future.
At its core, making the most of hybrid meetings requires creativity from organizers and participants. It’s clear that this new form of collaboration is here to stay, and we can ensure effective hybrid interaction by creating an environment where every participant, regardless of location, is on equal footing.