Dreading Hybrid Meetings? You CAN Make Them Better
How can you make hybrid meetings work for your team?
Read on for advice from Nonprofit.ist expert Meredith Emmett from Third Space Studio
Office doors are slowly opening back up. Consequently, the structure of meetings is shifting again, with many organizations opting in with a hybrid meeting format, fusing elements of virtual and in-person meetings to accommodate teams now made up of both remote and in-person staff. However, with hybrid meetings, there's a risk of assuming it's essentially an in-person meeting with a few folks calling or Zooming in. Not so! We want to challenge that mentality.
The Third Space Studio team has spent over 20 years designing and facilitating better meetings. If designed with intention and care, we know hybrid meetings can provide teams the space for growth, learning, and collaborative decision-making. And, we know that a hybrid meeting takes as much planning and preparation as a stand-alone virtual or in-person meeting.
So how can leaders and teams make sure remote staff feel their voices are heard and included?
Create Deliberate Ways of Connecting People
Be sure to build time in the agenda for socializing and mingling with all participants involved. It might be tempting to quickly shift back to the familiar pre-COVID in-person meeting socializing activities (e.g., team meals, happy hours, and those classic pre-meeting side conversations). However, creating deliberate opportunities for both in-person and virtual participants to gather and connect is critical to the success of your collective work. That's not to say "avoid team meals"; it's a gentle nudge to get creative in connecting those that join virtually. Maybe that means blocking out time on the agenda for participants (in-person and online) to share a photo that means something to them or keeping some of those virtual happy hours in place. Whatever it is, make sure you create space for all to build connections.
Intentionally & Consistently Check In with Virtual Participants
That might sound like, "Does anyone at home have something they'd like to share?" or, "I want to hear from our Zoom participants first" at the beginning of a group share out. But, without intentionally and consciously engaging virtual folks, it could be easy to forget they are there. You might ask a team member to step in as a co-facilitator whose sole responsibility is to keep track of who has shared and who hasn't.
Use the Best of Your Virtual Tools
You've just spent a little over a year skilling up in the virtual world. As we move into the hybrid space, we encourage you to bring forward the online tools and collaboration software you've found the most helpful. For us, that's Google Docs and Mural. We've discovered in-person participants and virtual participants can easily collaborate and engage together meaningfully with both. We've got a list of recommended virtual tools for you to consider if you aren't sure where to start on our website.
Experiment & Get Feedback
Remember when you first pulled your groups together online and had to learn a new way of holding gatherings? Allow yourself and your team the same grace period to figure out what works best for your group. Build-in feedback opportunities so you can make adjustments as you go. It can be as simple as asking your group, "what went well?" and "what would we adjust next time?" at the end of your hybrid gatherings. As you gather feedback, adjust your meeting design accordingly. Small group activities may require extra setup time - add that time to your meeting agenda. Consider your location. Do you need to upgrade any of your technology, such as speakers? Do you have enough space to send small groups into separate areas where multiple conversations won't impact the audio for virtual participants?
When designed well, hybrid meetings can support inclusivity and engagement from all.
Now that you're thinking about hybrid meetings, you can move on to finding the perfect person to design and facilitate your next meeting. Search trusted experts who can help.
