Conducting Effective Meetings With Hybrid Teams

One of the most effective corporate operating models has been that of hybrid teams. The concept works with a small number of people working remotely and the majority in the office. Alternatively, it enables employees to spend some days working from home and others in the office. Hybrid teams present a challenging situation for managers to supervise each member’s productive work, even if it offers a nice environment for workers to function at their best. Since you can quickly and effectively sync and cooperate with teams that you work with from the office, managing them becomes much simpler.

However, it becomes challenging for leaders to supervise the performance of each team member who works from home. When it comes to sharing crucial information with every team member on a hybrid team, things get much more challenging. Because of this, it is important to organize meetings in a way that benefits all team members while taking into account the various time zones that they may be operating in. In light of this, social psychologist Heidi Grant discusses her thoughts on the topic in a video posted on the Harvard Business Review channel on YouTube.

Effective meetings with hybrid teams

Beginning with her piece of advice, she concentrates on the topic of keeping the cameras on during the meeting. She believes that it is critical for both leaders and staff to realize that whether or not to keep their cameras on is one thing, but doing a little bit of both should be avoided at all costs. If some individuals have their videos turned on and others do not, it creates a very challenging situation.

The most efficient technique to deal with this is to specify whether cameras should be turned on or off before the meeting. In her perspective, when dealing with meetings with hybrid teams, it is critical to have cameras on in circumstances where delicate or sensitive information is shared. She proposes this because, according to her, a significant portion of our capacity to comprehend each other is based on our ability to perceive facial expressions.

She also notes that when it comes to celebratory meetings, if some persons can only be present virtually, others must also be virtual so that others do not feel left out. Second, in order to prevent any sort of bias, she proposes that while taking input from meeting participants, the virtual ones be asked first. She proposes this as a method of combating distance bias. Finally, she suggests making adjustments to the amenities that in-office employees have access to but virtual employees do not. This makes a significant impact in building an inclusive atmosphere for all employees.

Working in a hybrid team is difficult, but managing one is even more difficult. As a result, this YouTube video includes some great advice on how to manage hybrid teams and have effective meetings with them.