6 tips for better hybrid meetings

The pandemic may have been the kickstart to get everyone on board to work from home, but two years later, workers have made it clear that flexible working is no longer optional. according to a Gartner studyA company’s “work-from-anywhere” policy has become a factor in employees’ decisions to take or stay a job, as 39% of US adults would consider quitting a job if remote Work would no longer be allowed, a number that is higher (49%) among Millennials and Gen Z.

In short, flexible working is here to stay, at least if you’re looking to hire and retain employees. So if some of your team is migrating at least partially back to the office, you’ll likely be considering hybrid meetings — where some people gather in a conference room while others call in — for the foreseeable future.

This meeting model differs from video-only or all face-to-face meetings. It poses technical challenges, requires new skills, and requires someone – maybe many people – to develop crazy facilitator skills.

To help with this, I spoke to leaders who have mastered the art. They told me what works, what doesn’t, what you need to buy to make Hybrid seamless, and how to turn meetings into a productive part of your day.

Optimize your technique

“If you’re trying to ensure that engagement is equal between virtual and in-person attendees,” says Ray Kimble, Kuma’s founder and CEO, “it starts with technology.”

In the past, setting up a speakerphone on a conference table and dialing in the remote team was the scope of most companies’ investments in hybrid meeting technology. “Hybrid was prevalent before the pandemic,” says Jim Kalbach, chief evangelist at MURAL. “We just screwed it up.”

Few people who have witnessed these meetings would disagree. The remote team, dialed in via a speakerphone, was often ignored, couldn’t hear or be heard, or was forgotten about altogether. Nobody in the conference room knew who was on the phone. People were persuaded. Some people never had a voice. There was screaming. It was often bad. “The renewed conversation about hybrid isn’t that it’s new; this time we have to do it right,” says Kalbach.

The addition of video — in the form of an in-room video camera as well as wall-mounted video conferencing screens — goes a long way in balancing the engagement of people in the room and callers, which is why many organizations have redesigned conferencing spaces to include these technologies.

“One of the most important elements is making sure you have the right setup and that everyone coordinating the meeting knows who is where,” said Molly Brown, Qumulo’s vice president of engineering.

Like many companies, Qumulo has upgraded its conference rooms to create a better hybrid meeting experience. “We have a few rooms with Zoom Room screens,” Brown says. “These are big touchscreens that Zoom makes. These work well for medium to small rooms and are easy to set up.” Other rooms are equipped with Owl conference cameras or other video systems.

Adding online collaboration tools to your conferencing system can increase engagement even further. These divert the focus of the meeting away from the talking heads and toward the task at hand, which, if you’re hoping for collaboration, is the direction you want to direct the attention.

“We like a tool called Miro,” says Brown. “It’s useful for retrospectives, brainstorming, and brainstorming exercises.” But holding a piece of paper in front of the camera sometimes works for her team, too, she says. “When we talk about core designs, some people like to have a piece of paper and a pen handy so they can draw a design or show everyone a picture.”

Get everyone on screen

A good hybrid meeting also requires people to be good at moderating, facilitating, and attending. For that you need skills, habits and meeting hygiene.

For Mark Schlesinger, senior technology fellow at Broadridge, the video-only calling that became the standard meeting method during the pandemic brought a heightened level of collaboration that his team didn’t want to lose with hybrid meetings.

“Suddenly everyone had a voice,” he says of the Zoom views. “It wasn’t always the conference room that did the talking.” When the company transitioned to a hybrid model, “we needed a solid solution to maintain that collaborative nature.”

Schlesinger discovered the solution — a mix of video calls and face-to-face meetings — when he discussed the issue with his college daughter. She told him the rule for teaching at her school was, “Even if you’re onsite, everyone has to flip up their device and turn on video so everyone can see everyone, including the teacher and remote students, on their screen . ”

This is essentially what they do at Broadridge, although they use the in-room audio of yore for better fidelity. This setup preserves everyone’s voice, gives everyone in the meeting a picture — and a name and title — and “there’s less chance of conference room conversations overshadowing distant participants,” says Schlesinger.

Get help with moderation

A good moderator is essential for a hybrid meeting. And everyone I spoke to agreed that improving your own facilitation skills and developing those skills within your team is critical to the future of a hybrid meeting universe. But sometimes even the best presenter needs help.

“I try to have someone moderate the chat,” Brown says. Because looking at the chat channel while talking to a group requires more sensory input and gray matter than most people have. Assigning another team member to watch this channel allows remote people to ask questions and get answers, so participants in the room aren’t overshadowed.

Dean Guida, founder of Slingshot and CEO and founder of Infragistics, believes in hiring a scribe to take notes at meetings. “The writer captures the essence of the discussion and the plot points,” he explains. “At the end of the meeting, I always allow five minutes to review the action items and make sure everyone understands the who, what, and when, and can note if anything was missed.”

Guida also believes in rotating the job of writer and presenter so the responsibilities don’t always fall to the same person. Because if you are a moderator or a writer, it changes the way you participate in the meeting.

employ people

Many people I’ve spoken to suggest enacting a policy on meeting etiquette so that the expectations around attendance and matters that were once dictated by the workplace, for meetings that sometimes take place in living rooms, basements, and guest rooms take place, be presented.

“You can always set those fulfillment expectations,” says Trish Bishop, an IT project manager-turned-leadership coach. “You can tell I feel like the team isn’t fully engaged in this hybrid environment. Let’s set common expectations.”

She suggests getting the team to develop the rules themselves rather than dictating them from above, as it’s easier to get approval and the expectations tend to reflect the reality of people’s private lives. The rules can cover everything from whether the video camera should be on, what is an acceptable background – at least for outward-facing meetings – or whether a presentable wardrobe is required.

But no policy, however egalitarian, will overcome a poorly planned or poorly managed meeting.

“Keeping people busy is a habit that starts with the agenda,” says Kuma’s Kimble. “If you don’t stick to a set agenda and don’t respect people’s time, they will check out.”

And losing people in meetings is a problem that goes beyond the conference room.

“Nothing kills a culture and destroys motivation like too many meetings or meetings where nothing gets done,” says Guida. “It affects performance and whether people quit or stay.”

Create equality through purpose

According to Kalbach, good hybrid meetings need more than an agenda. “You need a goal and a way to get there,” he says.

Even with an agenda, he says, the usual dynamic unfolds. Dominant voices speak while quieter ones get quieter and maybe – if their camera is switched off – cook pasta or wash clothes. They will look for ways to get everyone’s attention back.

“But if you bring an activity with you, then you say: ‘Let’s do a two-by-two matrix and we’ll decide together by voting’ – that’s how you secure participation,” says Kalbach.

Another trick to staying focused in a meeting, he says, is to create a system for taking turns talking.

“Popcorning is popular, where the last person to speak chooses the next person,” he says.

Not only do these tricks overcome verbal traffic problems, “You can start thinking of meetings as places where you get things done,” he adds.

Once you start looking for a purpose instead of an agenda, you will find it. If someone says, “We need to put this document together” and your meeting needs a purpose, you can bring the document and do the work in the meeting.

“That way, you walk out of the meeting with no action items because you’ve already done the work,” says Kalbach.