In so many ways, this book is still being written. Despite the name, the second major meeting disruption is not a sudden event, but rather a journey with a path that resembles switchbacks rather than straight lines.
As of this writing, countless companies have laid out their plans for a return to the office, often with flexible work options baked in, only to have those plans delayed by the COVID‐19 pandemic's fits and starts. Policies and processes have been hammered out, only to be scrapped a short time later. Article upon article of what to try and what to avoid when transitioning to hybrid are populating news feeds on a daily basis – advice that is sometimes even contradictory. All the while, technology continues to evolve to support the future of work in whatever form that may be. Innovation at a somewhat frenzied pace is driving new software, new hardware, and new designs of physical spaces where teams can gather and connect. The perpetual state of change is dizzying for all who have felt like they've been shape‐shifting since March 2020.
If you are looking for some solid ground amid all this uncertainty, we suggest this: focus on your people and tightening up team cohesion. By concentrating on the people in the hybrid meeting equation, you will be able to weather whatever the “next normal” is. The environment surrounding hybrid meetings may always – or at least certainly for years to come as organizations figure out what works and what doesn't – be in a state of flux, but one thing remains the same: teams that feel the most connected do their best work.
Meeting and team science supports this idea through a concept called “entitativity,” which refers to how strongly people feel they are part of a team or group (McBride, Blanchard, and Allen 2020). In the hybrid workplace and in hybrid meetings, the higher the level of entitativity, the more positive outcomes you will find in metrics such as meeting satisfaction, effectiveness, and participation, as well as team cohesion. In fact, you could see each of these increase by about 25% if you were able to make improvements to enhance entitativity. That means that if you focus on your people, take care of them, make sure they feel included, and help them feel like they're part of the team, good things happen.
How do you make them feel like they're part of the team and create those connections that will better prepare and enable them for hybrid meetings? You do this in a hybrid way, of course, through experiences both remote as well as in person.
Remember the company Envato that has been hybrid from its inception? They prioritize in‐person events called “Back to Base” meetings. Each quarter, employees spread all over the world come back to corporate headquarters in Melbourne for a week of team‐building and socializing. Perhaps there is some shoptalk, but mostly it's not about work; instead, it's about fostering relationships in person that may largely have been built virtually.
Jay Hyett remembers those events well: “It was just the simplicity of going to grab a cup of coffee with a colleague you see on the screen all the time, or sharing some food or an experience of some sort. It was always great to see people going off to play mini‐golf, having a laugh, and being human. There's only so many Zoom happy hours that you can go to.”
Prior to our fully virtual world, companies may have hosted these kinds of in‐person events off‐site at a resort or corporate retreat. They were designed to encourage employees to bond through shared experiences and social interactions.
While the purpose of these team‐building retreats may remain the same, their setting in our post‐pandemic world may change. The “Back to Base” version is one that we may see happening more and more often – an off‐site that is actually on‐site, where employees are brought together to soak in the culture from a corporate campus that typically doesn't host everyone at once.
“It may not be the most productive week,” Jay explains. “But at the center of it was human connection – face‐to‐face opportunities to connect and collaborate with people you may see on the screen but not in person on a day‐to‐day basis.”
But these opportunities to tighten team ties don't have to be reserved for quarterly or even yearly in‐person events. When hybrid, focusing on team cohesion can become part of the regular routine of a company where experiences can be shared regardless of teammate location.
At CaptionHub, they have adopted the Swedish tradition of fika, a designated time for employees to stop work and take a collective timeout to drink coffee, snack on sweets, and chat. In Sweden, what is often a mandatory coffee klatch can happen once or even several times a day, and is ingrained into its culture. In fact, a headline from the BBC explaining this practice pondered this question: “Is This the Sweet Secret to Swedish Success?” (Hotson 2016).
It may not be the secret to CaptionHub's success, but CEO Tom Bridges says it's certainly a way for their now‐dispersed team to stay connected and avoid burnout at the same time: “The rule is: you take a break. You have some cake and you talk about anything apart from work. This is designed to replace those casual office interactions that I think all of us have missed to a greater or lesser extent.”
Injecting humanity into the workday helps to combat feelings of isolation that can creep into the experience of those who are remote. The videoconferencing platform provides a portal into the personal lives of our coworkers, a dynamic that continues to shape our professional relationships. Tom Bridges has found that experiences like the biweekly fikas have created a closeness even with members of his team whom he hasn't met in person yet. “I know the names of their children, and what they enjoy doing, because of things like these ad hoc interactions that I think make people feel part of the team. Humans are social creatures, and I think sometimes people forget that.”
Perhaps that is one of the most important lessons learned during our “suddenly virtual” world that should be applied to our “suddenly hybrid” world. No matter how we meet, we as humans need to connect. We need to feel valued. We need to feel seen and heard. Hybrid meetings hold the promise to link the lives of all coworkers without borders. They can accommodate both those employees who love the hum of the office on a daily basis and those who strongly desire the flexibility of working at least partially remote. By keeping people and their well‐being at the center of your hybrid meeting strategy, you are honoring that call, and that's a best practice that will not change.
As for the authors of this book, Joe and Karin hope one thing will change – the experience of actually seeing each other in person rather than through Zoom. That's right. After writing two books together, timing, travel restrictions, and virus variants have still kept these two tight colleagues from actually being in the same physical place at the same time. Just like so many organizations, Joe and Karin are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to incorporate face‐to‐face interactions into what has been a fully virtual relationship fostered over more than two years. But here's the good news – their ability to collaborate has not been hampered by the more than 2,000 miles that separate them. However, they look forward to their version of hybrid work where they can, as Lisette Sutherland would suggest, share a plate of nachos while celebrating their role in helping others find hybrid meeting success.