suggests that 90% of organizations will adopt some combination of
remote and on-site work as they emerge from Covid restrictions. This new
model will bring with it a dramatic change in how we meet — a hybrid
mix of in-person attendees and remote meeting participants seems an
inevitable component of our “new normal.”
There’s simply no going back to the world of “squawk boxes” on the
conference room table, with those on the phone straining to hear, being
“talked over” when trying to speak, or guessing what’s on that
PowerPoint slide on a screen only their colleagues in the room can see.
As Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO recently put it, “We want to ensure
those joining remotely are always first-class participants.”
But hybrid meetings are vastly more complex than meeting in-person or
virtually. They are easy to do poorly and hard to do well — remote
participants are only one slip-up away from losing that first-class
status. Just as executives learned how to run great virtual meetings over this past year, they now need to learn how to conduct great hybrid meetings as well.
Drawing from our combined half-century of experience designing and
facilitating meetings for executive teams and boards, we’ve assembled
eight best practices to help make your hybrid meetings more effective:
1. Up your audio game.
While remote participants need to see who is talking and what’s
taking place in the meeting room, great audio is actually more critical.
Yet while a lot of attention is paid to the visual aspects of meetings,
audio is often overlooked until the last minute. Pre-Covid, we often
heard remote participants say, “I’m sorry, can you get a little closer
to the speakerphone and repeat what you just said?” Now, they expect to
hear everything clearly — just as they can on Zoom.
To avoid a last-minute scramble caused by poor audio, make sure the
room is equipped with enough high-quality microphones so remote
participants can hear. If you’re in a hotel or other temporary meeting
space and multiple microphones aren’t a viable option, consider
supplementing your audio input by having in-person attendees pass around
a hand-held microphone before speaking.
2. Explore a technology boost.
The pandemic accelerated the use and evolution of videoconference
technology to enable virtual meetings from PCs, tablets, and phones. As
providers invest heavily to better enable hybrid meetings, new features
are being introduced to improve face-to-face communication among
in-person and remote attendees.
For example, Zoom’s Smart Gallery
(targeted for completion this year) uses artificial intelligence to
detect individual faces in a shared room and pull them into panes on the
screen so remote participants can see them in the now-familiar gallery
view. Microsoft is developing new types of meeting rooms
optimized for the hybrid experience. You should investigate what
technology upgrades might be accessible to help make your team’s
experience more immersive and authentic.
3. Consider video from the remote participant perspective.
As you design the meeting, continually ask yourself: What do remote
participants need to see in order to fully engage? They should be able
to see the faces of in-room attendees, shared presentations, physical
documents handed out, content created during the meeting on whiteboards
or flipcharts, etc.
It is tempting to just ask the in-person attendees to open their
laptops and join a Zoom meeting (on mute), so remote participants can
see everyone’s faces and documents can be easily shared. Clients
frequently suggest this type of “in-room virtual meeting.” However, if
the folks gathering in the room spend the meeting on their computers,
they might as well have stayed in their homes or offices. The people
meeting in person are — at least for the moment — so thrilled to finally
be together again the last thing you want is for them to crouch over
their individual laptops all day for the sake of the remote
participants.
Especially in cases where cutting edge video technology is
unaffordable or unavailable, a little ingenuity can go a long way to
create a high-quality video experience for everyone.
For example, for a two-day offsite at a Florida hotel with 10
in-person attendees and two remote participants (one in Zurich and one
in LA), we attached three webcams to laptops, and used a fourth laptop
to share what was on the main screen (usually a PowerPoint). We mounted
two of the webcams on tripods, which faced the in-room attendees so
remote participants could see who was speaking. We moved the third
camera around to show a close-up view of presenters, flip charts, and
wall charts throughout the session as needed. The four laptops joined
the two used by our two remote executives for a total of six separate
Zoom “participants” in the single Zoom meeting.
Post-meeting feedback confirmed that this setup allowed the remote
participants to feel like they were an integral part of the meeting
rather than distant observers.
4. Make remote participants full sized.
Another way to give remote participants equal stature is to give them
greater presence in the room. In addition to the main screen in the
center, set up two additional large monitors — one on each side of the
room — showing “life-size” panes of the remote participants for the
duration of the meeting.
We find these large images help in-person attendees accept remote
colleagues as full participants and provide a constant reminder to
include them in the conversation. Similarly, if possible the voices of
remote participants should emanate from the same monitors as their faces
— ceiling speakers tend to reinforce the artificiality of the
situation.
5. Test the technology in advance.
Nothing kills a meeting’s momentum like waiting to fix a glitch in
the audio or video. Prior to an important meeting, test the audio-visual
set up — both in-room and for the remote attendees. Schedule a 10-15
minute one-on-one dry run to get remote participants comfortable with
what they will see and hear during the meeting, as well as to review any
software features they’ll likely be asked to use. It’s well worth the
brief time required.
6. Design meetings for all attendees.
Review each activity or exercise focusing specifically on how remote
participants will engage. Consider what tools and techniques, digital or
otherwise, can be used to maximize their interaction with the in-room
attendees.
For example, if you need to poll the group, use a phone-based survey tool like Poll Everywhere
to collect everyone’s input in real time. This puts remote participants
on an equal footing, versus a show-of-hands or relying on verbal
feedback. To capture meeting notes, use an online whiteboard (or focus a
remote camera on a flip chart) so everyone can see what’s being written
as it happens.
Similarly, if the meeting design calls for in-room attendees to put
dots or post-its on a wall chart, use a webcam to allow remote
participants to read their peers’ responses before placing their own,
just as they could if they were physically present.
If the meeting design calls for putting people into breakout groups,
the easiest solution is to include all the remote participants in a
single group. While simpler, this sends them the wrong message by
reinforcing their physical absence. It’s likely worth the extra
logistical and technical effort to integrate remote participants across
several breakout groups to accentuate their equal status.
7. Provide strong facilitation.
Managing a hybrid meeting is harder than when the whole group is in
person or on Zoom together. One person — a staff member, an outsider or a
meeting participant — should be assigned to guide the conversation and
keep it on track.
Despite the effort you may put into meeting design and logistics, it
remains far too easy for in-person attendees to dominate the discussion.
A facilitator should draw the remote participants in, keep them engaged
and ensure their voices are heard, not interrupted or talked over. At
times, the facilitator may need to call on in-room or remote
participants to ensure that all voices are heard.
8. Give each remote participant an in-room “avatar.”
There may be times when remote participants need a physical presence
in the room. It could be as simple as a camera view being blocked. Maybe
a microphone isn’t working, or an attendee needs to be reminded to
speak up. A post-it may need placement on a wall chart, or a poker chip
placed on a table as part of a resource allocation exercise.
For these situations, each remote participant should have what we
call an “in-room avatar” — a staff person (or fellow participant) who
can be their physical presence in the meeting room as required. Whether
via text, chat, or phone, they have a private line of communication
constantly available throughout the meeting. Remote participants tell us
that having confidential access to a single point-of-contact goes a
long way to removing a sense of isolation or distance from those in the
room itself. How embarrassing is having a remote participant asking
“Fred, can you please speak up. I can’t hear you” every time Fred
speaks? How much better to have another person come up to Fred during a
break and discretely remind him “Fred. Please speak louder. It’s really
hard for Natasha to hear you from Zurich.”
As the pandemic eases and we resume gathering in person, hybrid
meetings will become a permanent part of how organizations function.
These meetings bring added complexity at the same time that our
collective Covid-driven year of meeting virtually raised expectations
for remote participation. Fortunately, by leveraging technology and
tools, being thoughtful in meeting design, and providing strong
facilitation we can create hybrid meetings where all participants —
whether in the room or an ocean away — feel engaged, valued, and equal.