The Successful Hybrid Team

Appendix

Leveraging Meetings in Hybrid Work

Figure A.1 Leveraging meetings in hybrid work.

When Vanessa Moss, astronomer at Australia's national science agency, recalls some of the hybrid work meetings she had to join, she talks about some of the challenges she faced. Vanessa recalls having a difficult time following along due to ‘choppy audio feeds or people in the office sitting too far from microphones'.¹ She also remembers that in some hybrid meetings, the remote meeting attendees, including herself, were often forgotten by the in-person attendees, who dominated the conversation. Vanessa (and the other remote meeting attendees) often heard laughter and chatter from the in-person meeting participants, whom she could not see very well either. Like many, she felt isolated and disempowered. ‘Your voice isn't heard so you translate it into your feelings or thoughts don't matter', said Vanessa.

Vanessa Moss is not the only victim of badly run hybrid meetings: the majority of employees who have joined hybrid meetings have experienced similar issues. Collaboration software Asana gathered its executives during the Covid-19 pandemic for a discussion about the office reopening. Half of the meeting participants were at the office in San Francisco, and the other half joined by video conference. The remote attendees, including the CEO, started to lose their patience as people in the ...