Virtual Facilitation

24Hybrid Meetings

We were in a meeting room with four colleagues, hooked up on Teams, with three more participants distributed around the country. Our focus was on growing our shared sales activities during a 1.5-hour session. In the room we were facing the screen and the host of the session, who was in the meeting room with us. In actual fact, we were facing the back of the host because he was talking to the camera. The host was asking for comments in the chat from the people participating online, which those of us sitting in the room couldn't read or post in because we didn't have our own devices. Also the participants online had trouble hearing what was said from the physical room as the microphone did not catch all our voices. This meeting was not high quality – nor was it very effective.

This is just a brief illustration of how frustrating it can be when you're in a hybrid meeting. We have heard many stories similar to this one and noted how people feel frustrated and/or left out, either because of poor quality sound from the physical room, feeling alone because they are not physically part of ‘the group’, or due to a lack of connection with the facilitator.

Yet hybrid meetings are the future! There are two reasons for this: first, there are many organisations with a main office, and satellite locations scattered nationally or internationally; second, there are more people working from home to save on the cost of commuting and to give greater flexibility around their working ...