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Hybrid working: digital communication and collaboration
Hybrid working: digital communication and collaboration

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8.1 How to have good hybrid meetings

In the following sections we explore how to improve meetings and team collaboration in a hybrid workplace.

In the video below, How to have a hybrid meeting that works for everyone (Harvard Business Review, 2021), social psychologist Heidi Grant shares best practices for hybrid meetings.

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Transcript: You are viewing this video in Youtube: The Open University is not responsible for external site content

HEIDI GRANT:
As we enter this new post-COVID world of hybrid work between virtual and in-person, a lot of our old habits are really not going to keep working. We have a lot of stuff that we need to figure out. How to have meetings? How to show up cameras on cameras off? There's a lot we know about the science of human behavior of perception that we can apply to figure out what the new normal should look like.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So you'll see these articles that say, well, it's important to have cameras on. Then you see these other set of articles. They talk about Zoom fatigue, let people keep their cameras off. That's what you should be doing. So which is it?
The important thing to realize is that you have to do one or the other and not a bit of both. A bit of both is terrible. When some people are on and some people are off, that's going to create a very, very uncomfortable dynamic.
The people whose cameras are on feel more vulnerable. "You can see me, you can see how I'm reacting, but I don't know how anybody else is reacting because their cameras are off." The people whose cameras are off are also less likely to be the focus of conversation. They have to fight to get in. What you have to do is really decide when will we decide cameras will be on and when will we decide cameras will be off.
Anything delicate, we have to talk about something that's a little sensitive should be a cameras on meeting. When you are giving feedback, particularly constructive feedback, or you have to share some bad news, that is a time to put cameras on. A remarkable amount of our ability to understand each other comes through our ability to interpret facial cues, particularly around emotions.
It's actually why emojis exist. They are filling the gap in communication that doesn't have faces in it. But faces are the best thing.
Celebratory meetings, that's one of the hardest ones if the purpose of the meeting is to celebrate something and everyone's going to be laughing and talking and clapping and that thing. If some people have to be virtual, then everyone has to be virtual, meaning if you're in the office, go to your desk and participate in that meeting actually from your computer because those are the worst meetings for virtual participants. You can't hear anything.
People are making jokes. They're all talking at the same time. It's impossible to break into that conversation, and it's better to have everyone be virtual in a celebration if you can't have everyone be in person.
It's about, OK, when do we need to have it on? We want this to be a bonding experience. The purpose of this meeting is to strengthen team connection? Cameras on.
Everything else, like this is just a check in, this is just logistics, this is just we have to share some information back and forth, cameras off. Give people a break. It's important to also let people know what the thing is going to be so. If this is going to be a cameras on meeting, you tell people in the invite, this is a camera's on meeting. So everyone's on that level playing field.
Let's face it, what we're doing now really isn't working. When we kind of play it by ear, we let people make these decisions for themselves. The temptation to be cameras off is enormous. It's that same temptation to not put on actual pants, to just stay in your pajama pants. The reality is it isn't necessarily what's best for you. Your self image is actually starting to shift a bit and not in a good direction. There's actually a lot of research that shows that bothering to get dressed, bothering to groom yourself, that has an enormous impact on how we see ourselves, because at some point during the day you are going to look in the mirror.
If you just go in the bathroom to wash your hands or brush your teeth, you're going to see what you look like. It impacts us in ways that we often don't realize that are often implicit. Making yourself like how you look in the mirror is something that is actually self esteem boosting and is actually good for your well being.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
There's a real danger in that I think as we go back to an in-person world that we are just going to pick up our in-person world habits not thinking about how that's going to impact our virtual colleagues inadvertently creating a tier status where the people who are there in person are like the first tier and everybody else is the second tier. So one very simple practice, whenever it's time for people to comment, to ask questions to provide input, you make it a practice of going to the virtual people first. It's one bias will counteract another.
So the bias you have with virtual participants is called distance bias. We tend to value things more that are closer to us. So already they're kind of at a disadvantage.
But what you then give them is primacy effects. They get to speak first. So they're the first thing that is heard. They set the direction the conversation goes in. So in a way you compensate for one bias that you can't do anything about, which is that distance bias, by introducing a bias in their favor. So simple things like thinking about what is visible to the virtual people in the room. I've sat in meetings where there's a camera in the room that's capturing the conference, the people who are at the table and people will have their back to the camera, because they're just used to focusing on each other. So training ourselves to think of that camera as another person, that you would never turn your back on.
We basically can't use whiteboards anymore. Not physical ones. Lot of conferencing technology now has virtual whiteboards which are great. Even simple things like working lunches, if the company is paying for everybody who's in office to have a working lunch, you have to make accommodations for the virtual participants. You actually have to make sure they can order something too. You really have to get into that mindset of if this is something that cannot work for everyone on this call, then we can't have it.
It's like your grandmother used to say, if you don't have enough gum for everyone, then you can't have it. Thanks so much for watching. And if you have more questions about how you and your colleagues can adjust a little more effectively to this new normal, please leave them in the comments and I'll try to address them in future videos.
End transcript: You are viewing this video in Youtube: The Open University is not responsible for external site content
You are viewing this video in Youtube: The Open University is not responsible for external site content
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Good hybrid meetings require a clear purpose and technology that works.

Technology

Your organisation will have preferred technology in terms of hardware and software. The most popular video conference platforms (VCPs) are Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Webex by Cisco and Adobe Connect. It is also useful to consider mobile apps such as WhatsApp and Facetime: I use these informal tools when I am away from my normal location and need a ‘quick call’ or if I’m working with people whose mobile technology is more stable than online tools.

Onsite meeting areas

Even before the pandemic, how we managed hybrid meetings was evolving; they often didn’t take place in formal meeting rooms. Participants who had virtual conferencing platforms on their laptops or mobile app technology were often having hybrid meetings wherever was convenient.

For example, I used to travel to India, where my previous team was based. If our connecting flight was delayed, my colleague and I used to sit in airport lounges, with a laptop, and meet online with the team based in the office so we could rearrange schedules.

As organisations redesign how buildings are used and the technology they either already have or plan to invest in, they are thinking differently about what a meeting space needs to be.

In the Hybrid working: organisational development [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] course, you can explore how The Open University has created show homes. These are areas within the campus that have been repurposed and designed to provide workspaces and meeting rooms,and access to technology to allow for onsite, hybrid and remote meetings.

Described image
Figure 24 Workspaces with technology to support hybrid meetings
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Images show ‘show home’ offices with people in them

Figure 24 Workspaces with technology to support hybrid meetings

Formal meeting rooms

Most organisations are likely now to be investing in and designing meeting spaces for the future, but the reality is not all will be able to implement purpose-built meetings rooms, such as those designed by Microsoft, who have done extensive research and have design teams exploring ‘Designing the new hybrid meeting experience—for everyone’ (Microsoft, n.d.).

How you use formal meeting room spaces will depend on the technology available and design of the room. While you may have technical equipment provided, many people now will also expect to be able to use their own laptop or tablet, and it can often be easier to have everyone join the meeting through their devices, as well as using the main shared screen, especially if you are using a ‘single’ external camera device.

If you are the meeting organiser, ensure that you understand how the room was designed to be used and how to use the technology within it. If you require training, arrange this in advance to avoid things going wrong during your meeting, which can happen.

Positioning of cameras is really important. Where possible, you should aim for all attendees’ cameras to be at eyeline, as this helps support non-verbal communication and ‘cues’.

While investing time to prepare will help your meetings run efficiently, if you frequently attend hybrid meetings, you and those who attend will eventually find that you will naturally adapt to the spaces and technology, and so time needed for preparation will gradually reduce.