In addition to the right technology, the right mindset is critical to the success of any business in maximizing productivity in hybrid meetings
One of the key findings of a recent report published by Crestron and Reworked, “Tackling the Modern Workplace by the Numbers,” is that a new status quo has taken hold:
We are seeing workplace stability for the first time in two years. Companies have largely reached a hybrid equilibrium where, on any given day, half the employees are remote, and half are in the office.
It’s a state that’s been referred to as “hybrid permanence.” One of the challenges of this new normal is the adaptation of collaboration for both in-person and remote workers. Simply put, the entire world of business is “rethinking the meeting.”
Karin M. Reed and Joseph R. Allen, Ph.D., have emerged as thought leaders regarding this reset. At the onset of the pandemic, they published their first book as co-authors, “Suddenly Virtual.” (Reed is the CEO of Speaker Dynamics and an Emmy-winning communications expert, and Allen is an organizational psychologist and professor at the University of Utah.) Their second book deals with the current state of workplace collaboration: “Suddenly Hybrid: Managing the Modern Meeting” goes beyond the technological aspects of creating efficient, effective hybrid meetings and digs into the myriad other aspects of this challenge.
From conversations with the authors and Crestron’s own research, we’ve put together nine tips for successful hybrid meetings:
Understand the responsibilities of both leaders and attendees in hybrid meetings
“The success of a meeting is shared by both the meeting leader and meeting attendees,” says Reed. “While the meeting leader can better ensure success by designing the meeting well to accomplish its stated goal, no amount of planning can compensate for a disengaged group of attendees who are not acting within the boundaries of the meeting itself.” Tardiness, multi-tasking, and “hijacking the agenda” — that is, getting hung up on minor or even irrelevant details as the meeting progresses — are all common issues whose negative impacts can be amplified in a hybrid scenario.
Reed notes that prior agreements on how to run the meeting are helpful: “Codifying rules like video use, turn-taking procedures, and sharing out meeting minutes and action items in an accessible way can make everyone accountable.” If every attendee holds up their end of the bargain, the odds that everyone remains engaged throughout a meeting increase dramatically.
Reed has some very specific tips for meeting leaders. “Sometimes, lead a meeting from within the conference room,” she explains. “Sometimes, lead a meeting as a virtual attendee. It sends a strong signal to your team that it doesn’t matter how you join a meeting. Everyone’s contributions are equally valued regardless of their location.”
And leaders should leave last, according to Reed. “Don’t click ‘end meeting’ until everyone has left, especially those in the conference room. When you’re attending a meeting virtually, there is always a fear that you are missing the ‘meeting after the meeting.’ If the meeting link is left open, the virtual attendees can see everyone walk out and know they aren’t being excluded from the conversation after the official meeting adjourns.”
Treat every meeting as a “high-value” meeting
Crestron’s research has led us to understand the following from a Forbes® magazine article bylined by our CEO, Dan Feldstein: “Just because meetings can be taken from everywhere doesn’t mean they should be.” Small spaces such as huddle rooms can now host big presentations that were usually reserved for large conference rooms — that’s the promise (and potential set of pitfalls) of the hybrid workplace. Every space needs to have the proper connectivity and presentation tech for a given situation — and from a behavioral aspect, every meeting must be imbued with the same level of engagement and respect.
There are some fairly simple steps to drive that engagement — and establish a meeting’s value. “First, acknowledge remote attendees,” says Reed. That moment of welcoming virtual collaborators makes the remote participants feel that they really are part of the team. “And then — if it’s fitting for the situation — get people talking.” This responsibility falls to the meeting leader. “Sometimes conversation can be stunted or stilted because it can be difficult to know when it’s your turn to talk,” she says, so there’s a technique to draw out ideas: “cold calling.” “Cold calling with good intentions means you call on people by name to share their thoughts.” There’s a caveat here: Attendees should be given the chance to simply pass on the opportunity to speak up. “Your cold calling is not aimed at putting people on the spot but rather to avoid overlooking anyone’s contributions which might be muzzled unintentionally,” says Reed.
Turn-taking policies, establishing signals such as hand-raising (whether physically or via emoji), or utilizing a platform’s chat function can all be practical tools for driving engagement. “Meeting satisfaction levels are heavily dependent upon how much people are participating, so proactive facilitation is critical,” says Reed. Beyond those strategies, technologies that allow everyone — both those in-person and remote — the ability to clearly perceive nonverbal cues through intelligent video solutions are extraordinarily helpful. (More on that shortly.)
Ensure you’ve done the necessary pre-work (and post-work) for each meeting
This might seem intuitive, but what Reed calls “pre-work” is vital to maximizing productivity in hybrid meetings — and it dovetails with the notion of creating high-value meetings every time workers collaborate. “With the number of meetings that most of us have on our calendars, you want to make sure that the time spent in them is as valuable as possible,” she explains. “That’s why we advocate using more pre-work to prepare for the meeting mentally. If attendees take the time to become acquainted with what is being discussed, whether that’s going over a report or simply reviewing the agenda, they will come in with a higher level of understanding of the topic at hand.” Furthermore, there’s no need to take the time to give everyone all the background info that informs their participation.
Post-meeting “post-mortems” can also be helpful. As Reed and Allen outline in their book, a checklist of pertinent questions — nothing terribly time-consuming — can be a great tool for making future meetings more effective. Asking participants questions such as “What went well? What could have gone better?” and so on will yield new insights into what makes for an effective meeting in one’s organization.
Establish a “speak-up” culture based on the concepts of psychological safety
“Psychological safety can exist without a ‘speak-up’ culture, but a speak-up culture cannot exist without psychological safety,” says Joseph Allen. “In a psychologically safe environment, people feel like they can be themselves. In meetings, they can talk about their ideas, they don’t tend to fake their emotions, and they often more fully engage who they are in what they are doing.” It’s a culture that encourages participation and the confidence to weigh in when something feels off. “That won’t happen in a non-psychologically safe environment,” he adds.
Meeting participants can reinforce that culture by adopting certain behaviors, according to Allen. “A meeting attendee can legitimize their co-workers’ ideas and contributions,” he says. “If something is a good idea and you didn’t think of it, it’s okay to praise them for their idea.”
Attendees can further act as allies to other attendees — particularly remote workers. “It’s okay to say, ‘Hey, I think Joe has an idea,’ and let Joe have the floor. This is particularly important when the attendee is in the room, and Joe is not. It breaks down the remote versus in-room barrier.”
Meeting attendees can also be responsible for something Allen calls “procedural communication.” “Procedural communications are simple, kind words that transition the team back to the agenda or the topic at hand,” he explains. “For example, when Joe goes on a rant about his favorite topic, a meeting attendee can politely thank Joe for his thoughts and ask for his input on the topic at hand or even transition to someone else. We often think that’s all on the meeting leader, but it’s not. Attendees share the responsibility to ensure a meeting goes well.”
Use the “five Ws” to establish proper ground rules
Karin Reed’s background in journalism means she’s familiar with the “five Ws” — the words that begin the basic questions used for information gathering: who, what, where, when, and why. The five Ws make for a perfect checklist to ensure that a meeting is efficient — and even necessary.
-
Who: Who absolutely needs to be a part of a meeting? Who may be a mere spectator who might need just a nugget of info that can be covered in a meeting synopsis or recording? Too many participants make a meeting unwieldy.
-
What: Every meeting should be driven by an agenda that’s shared in advance. “Bonus points for asking for feedback on the agenda prior to the session,” says Reed. “Extra bonus points if you take that feedback and revise the agenda as a result.”
-
Where: Reed and Allen discuss the various “modalities” of meetings in “Suddenly Hybrid”: all-in-person, all-virtual, and a combination of the two. “The modality of the meeting is influenced by a variety of factors, including the location of the various attendees, the urgency of the meeting itself, and the topic being discussed,” says Reed. As a rule, Reed says organizers should opt for more in-person collaboration as topics grow more complex. However, she notes, “Face-to-face is the richest environment, but it’s not always feasible if the meeting needs to take place quickly and participants are far-flung.”
-
When: “Meeting technology allows participants to gather at any time from anywhere, but meeting leaders should always consider time zone challenges and make efforts not to make those attending from overseas always stay up late or get up super early,” says Reed.
-
Why: To summarize a central point of “Suddenly Hybrid”: “Not expressly stating a desired outcome for a meeting is like setting off on a trip without a destination in mind,” says Reed. “Your meeting needs an endpoint — and everyone should understand what that endpoint is going into the session.”
Understand (and adhere to) the concept of “meeting equity”
While Crestron’s been developing the technological framework that helps achieve meeting equity with solutions such as the Sightline Experience, understanding the concept — and the behaviors that buttress it — are also important. As we’ve noted on the Crestron blog previously, “Equity involves distributing resources based on the needs of the recipients.”
Among those non-technological resources: attendees’ time and engagement. “So much of what makes a hybrid meeting effective actually makes any meeting more effective,” says Reed. Basics such as starting and ending on time, having an agenda, and keeping poor habits at bay are vital. (“Yes, stop that ‘monologuer’ from dominating the conversation,” says Reed.)
But the hybrid meeting has created the need for some new best practices, according to Reed: “Make a policy of having remote attendees speak first when opening the discussion,” she says. That simple act is a great reminder to the in-person group that remote attendees are in the loop and their input is valuable. “It also gives virtual attendees a chance to weigh in,” she says. Sometimes it can be tougher for remote attendees to have their voices heard if efforts aren’t made to bring them deliberately into the conversation.”
“The biggest pitfall that can develop in hybrid meetings is establishing a two-tiered system due to proximity bias where those who are in the office have greater access to information and opportunity,” says Reed. “In a hybrid meeting, you want to ensure all of the collaboration tools you use are connected. For example, use a virtual whiteboard rather than a physical whiteboard that can only be written on by those in the conference room.”
Ensure the right technology is available for both in-person and remote workers
Karin Reed outlines a negative experience that many hybrid workers can likely relate to: “I was leading a meeting from within a conference room, but the only technology available was an extra laptop which was situated on the table. There was no monitor to allow the in-room attendees to see the online attendees and vice versa. There was no way for them to interact at all.”
“Everyone needs to be seen and heard in a hybrid meeting by all of their fellow attendees,” she continues. “That means high-quality audio and video for both the in-room and remote attendees. Otherwise, collaboration is not possible.”
Reed then outlines precisely what the Crestron Sightline Experience is built to achieve. “While in-room attendees can usually see their remote counterparts’ faces well, sometimes it’s hard for virtual attendees to see the faces of the in-room attendees, especially if the room is large,” she notes. “Technology that supplements the broad picture of the meeting room with individual shots of those seated around the table allows the remote attendees to better read nonverbals that might be hidden by the simple ‘bowling alley view’ of the conference room.” With intelligent video solutions such as those offered by Crestron, what Reed has described is achieved automatically.
Beyond making the experience more inclusive for remote staff, a suite of products working in concert that includes multiple monitors at the office location can improve the meeting experience for in-person attendees, too. As we noted recently here on the Crestron blog:
Having every participant in every other attendee’s line of sight as various collaborators speak — with no one relegated to anyone else’s peripheral vision — actually makes the hybrid experience better than an all-in-person event.
Create an effective training program for your hybrid staff
The best technological solutions for hybrid collaboration are those that require minimal training. However, according to Joseph Allen, there are other aspects to learn beyond pushing the right buttons when you’re navigating the challenges of hybrid meetings.
“There are entire courses on training that are taught to students studying organizational psychology and management,” he says. “Any good training will likely follow the guidance provided in these courses, and this is true of a good hybrid meeting training protocol.”
Allen breaks down a proper training program into four steps:
-
Step 1: A pre-assessment to find out what people know and don’t know.
-
Step 2: A knowledge transfer training session. (In other words, a class on how to implement the steps we’ve outlined above.)
-
Step 3: A hands-on application session.
-
Step 4: Post-assessment to assess how effective the training has been.
Allen continues, “To do this properly with hybrid meetings, the training must include components of the physical aspects of ensuring a hybrid meeting can happen (hardware), the connection aspects of ensuring people can be seen and heard (software), and the best practices for effective meetings (skillware) to ensure the meeting itself goes well across the meeting continuum — that is, before, during, and after the meeting.”
Use checklists to follow the methodology outlined above
While the aforementioned steps can easily be broken into a variety of checklists, Reed and Allen have created a series of their own that follows the robust advice offered in “Suddenly Hybrid.” The lists are sprinkled throughout the text, but the book also has a companion website, and purchasing the work gives the reader a complementary password to unlock all the lists they’ve created in a single location.
Ultimately, any “master checklist” would cover the absolute fundamentals needed for implementing a truly successful, efficient, and engaging hybrid meeting strategy. “As we say, it takes the right hardware, software, and skillware for a successful hybrid meeting,” says Reed. “The first two are essential for meeting equity. Any effective hybrid meeting allows everyone to be seen and heard, figuratively and literally. When attendees are joining in multiple ways, technology creates the point of entry and the place at the table for everyone involved. Without the right technology in place, those in person can have an unfair advantage because it’s easier for them to have ‘presence’ in the room.”
Allen has some very direct advice for those facing the challenges presented by the modern hybrid workplace. “Establish policies that are remote-first,” he says. “Create a culture where there are in-room allies, people within the conference room who are advocating for the voices of their remote colleagues to be heard.
“It requires a total mindset shift by all involved.”