I wrote about general meeting problems in Recognize the Problems That Prevent Effective Meetings (Collocated, Remote, Hybrid). But “hybrid” teams have much worse meeting problems.
During the pandemic, most of us understood how to create nebula team meetings that worked. (Dispersed teams are nebula teams. See How To Understand Your Team Type: Collocated, Satellite, Cluster, Nebula for more details.)
Back then, everyone had their own camera and microphone. The team agreed on which tools to use and how. And because everyone was home, everyone had a private office, separate from the rest of the team. (How private is always an issue, but people could work in relative privacy and have private conversations.)
So team members had team workspaces, including a backchannel, plus private offices.
But, Satellite and Cluster teams have many more challenges for their effective meetings. That's because the team no longer has one meeting location (on camera, on one channel). Because some people are collocated, and others are not, when the team meets, they do not always use a team backchannel. And most offices do not offer private offices or sufficient rooms for private conversations.
Why am I so insistent that people need all these workspaces? To be effective.
People Need Multiple Workspaces for Effective Work
In Practical Ways to Lead an Innovative Organization, I included a section called “Knowledge Workers Need a Variety of Workspaces.” Here are the workspaces people need:
- A private office for concentration work and to discuss items one-on-one or in small groups of three. (Even with my preference for collaborative work, which leads to reduced cycle time, sometimes, people need to think or work alone. Or to pair. Or to problem-solve as a triad.)
- A place to meet people without needing to make an appointment, such as a coffee area or a cafeteria. (We don't have those in remote work. However, in a nebula team, people can make ad hoc meetings.)
- A team workspace that includes space to post data the team wants to track. (This assumes the team is within the Allen Curve for distance. When some people are remote, all this information also needs to be virtual.)
- A large workspace where teams can create or participate in workshops or communities of practice. How do the remote people participate in a satellite or cluster team? I have not seen this work.
During the pandemic, all of these spaces were virtual. Now, with satellite and cluster teams? That's why we need excellent tools.
Rethink Your Hybrid Meeting Tools
Remember Jim, our colleague from Recognize the Problems That Prevent Effective Meetings (Collocated, Remote, Hybrid)? He's not in charge of his calendar, so other people filled his afternoon with meetings. Let's assume the people who want those meetings have fixed the agenda and minutes problems.
However, the big problem with hybrid meetings is that the team no longer has just one real-time channel. Here's what that looks like for one team.
In Project 1, Jim and three other people are on the same floor of a Boston office building. While they are not within 16 m of each other, they don't mind walking to each other to ask a question. However, the other three people are in different offices in different cities: William in Waltham; Betty and Michael in Burlington; and Sam and Sally in Medford; all in the general Boston area.
Jim and his three colleagues all meet in a specific conference room. That conference room has a large monitor with a camera on top of it. They have a single speaker on the table in front of them. William is in a cube farm. Betty and Michael snagged a conference room. Sam and Sally sit next to each other, so they each individually join the meeting from their cubicles. Even though they are literally next to each other, they join separately, each with a headset and microphone.
Because Jim and his colleagues have a conference room, they turn up the speaker enough so everyone can hear them and they can hear everyone. Betty and Michael can do the same. However, neither of these conference rooms has adequate chat function management, so the team does not have a backchannel.
However, William, because he does not have any privacy, needs to turn mute on and off. And because people wander behind him and wave at the camera, he sometimes turns off his camera. Sam and Sally have the same mute problem, but their location has agreed not to wave to people on camera.
William, Sam, and Sally could use the chat, but they're the only three on the chat.
Jim's meeting room speaker is not able to manage the difference in volume settings across all the locations. And the monitor isn't quite large enough to see the expressions on everyone's faces. The conference room that Betty and Michael use has a too-small monitor to see everyone, but their speaker works well. However, their camera doesn't have an adequate field of view.
Just a few minutes in, the meeting turns disastrous because people cannot hear and see each other in real time. They don't collaborate on the work product.
Hybrid Meeting Analysis
A hybrid team doesn't just meet in one location. This team meets in too many locations without sufficient technology: Jim's conference room, William's cube, Betty's conference room, Sam and Sally's cubicles, for a total of 5 channels. Their video and audio is not sufficient.
Because they meet in many locations without a backchannel, no one can check on what someone said.
The meeting channels are too noisy and insufficient for their needs.
Even if the team had fewer locations, the team needs:
- Large enough monitors for everyone to see everyone else. If the monitor is too far away, we can't see anyone's facial expressions.
- Cameras with sufficient fields of view.
- Access to the backchannel in all locations.
When we meet in person in one physical location, we can use our eyes and ears. That allows us sufficient fields of view and adequate audio. We can use a backchannel if we need it.
Jim's company has better conference room setups in the smaller conference rooms. However, since those rooms are always totally booked, Jim's project needs to use the large room.
However, managers can fix these problems.
Hybrid Meetings Require Different Technology and Space
Effective hybrid meetings require different technology than in-person or dispersed meetings need. In particular, hybrid meetings require:
- Superior video to see everyone on one screen if some people meet in a conference room. That includes field of view and ways to see the chat backchannel.
- Superior audio to reduce background noise in each location and to make everyone's listening a great experience. Also, boost the audio levels for the people in conference rooms.
- Access to the backchannel in all locations.
Managers can solve all of these technology problems with a reasonably small application of money.
But the real question is this: What is the office for?
Most hybrid teams don't have effective workspaces. The people don't have access to private offices, communal space, team space, or large collaboration spaces.
Managers, stop allowing building architects—who do not do product development—dictate your office space. Office space is supposed to serve the people who work there.
If you want effective meetings, and effective product development, fix the meeting technology as a first step. Then, rethink your office space.