Supermanagers TLDR - Hybrid Meetings

Have you considered these requirements for efficiency?

Author

Manuela Barcenas
August 22, 2024

Hybrid work is here to stay. In fact…

  • Approximately 65% of companies worldwide have adopted some form of hybrid work model in 2024, according to the Scoop Flex Index.

  • In the US, the percentage is even higher, with around 69% of businesses offering work location flexibility, including hybrid setups. 

  • The tech industry has been at the forefront of hybrid work policies, with 97% of companies offering work location flexibility for their employees. 

With that in mind, have you considered that hybrid meetings have their own set of challenges and requirements for efficiency? This newsletter will cover just that.

Alexandra Sunderland, who is a Director of Engineering at Fellow and the author of “Remote Engineering Management” documented 10 best practices for Hybrid Meetings. Here are the first 3:

1) Start the meeting on time

It happens: you were walking to the conference room to join a meeting with some teammates, but the group gets sidetracked on the way and you’re all 5 minutes late to the meeting. Those in the office understand why the meeting hasn’t started yet, but those waiting on the video call will be staring at the screen trying to figure out whether you forgot to dial them in and started without them, and deciding how long they should wait before messaging someone about it.

2) Turn the camera on as soon as you enter the room

In hybrid meetings there may be a temptation to only turn on the video call (or enable the camera and microphone) once everyone in the room has settled in and stopped their smalltalk, to avoid disturbing people joining remotely. While intentions are good, this can cause those on the call to feel like outsiders in the group.

3) Don’t hold side conversations while someone is talking

For the sake of clarity on video calls, only one person should be talking at a time in meetings and there should be no side conversations happening in the physical room – no matter how quiet you think you’re being.

For more best practices on hosting accessible hybrid meetings, read Harvard University’s recommendations here.

Supermanagers Podcast – Brian Elliott, SVP at Slack

Brian Elliott is the co-founder of Future Forum, a think tank by Slack that focuses on building more flexible, inclusive, and connected ways of working. He is also the author of “How the Future Works.”

In this episode of Supermanagers, Brian emphasizes the importance of designating a "hybrid meeting moderator" to ensure that remote participants are given equal opportunities to contribute. He also suggests implementing a rule where the person on the screen is prioritized to speak, helping to level the playing field between in-person and remote attendees. 

According to Brian, these tactical adjustments help create a more balanced and productive meeting environment, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard, regardless of location.

To dive deeper into these insights and learn more about Brian's approach to hybrid work and team management, listen to the full episode on the Supermanagers podcast.

Fellow tip of the week 

This week’s tip comes from Alexandra Sunderland, Director of Engineering at Fellow.

For hybrid meetings, I like to ensure that everyone's voice is heard with emoji reactions in Fellow.

By using emojis to vote, everyone gets an equal say—no more being overshadowed by the loudest voice in the room or on a call.

Perfect for hybrid meetings where some are together in a room, and others are remote, emoji reactions create a level playing field for everyone.

Alexandra Sunderland

If you haven’t tried Fellow to manage your meetings, it’s free to get started here.

New AI features are coming on September 10!

Join Aydin Mirzaee, CEO at Fellow, for a live product walkthrough and Q&A about Fellow’s new AI features — built to scale with your Enterprise needs.

  • Create “channels” to organize and easily find meeting recordings

  • Use Ask Fellow Copilot to gather information across ALL your meetings 

  • Save time in tedious meeting preparation with Fellow’s new pre-meeting briefs

  • AI recording and transcription settings for admins and organizational leaders

And that’s it for this new issue of the Supermanagers TLDR Newsletter. We hope that the content we curated inspires you to continue growing as a leader.

If you're interested in connecting with like-minded CEOs, COOs, and Executives, send an email to [email protected] to join our exclusive Supermanagers Slack group.

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Thanks for being part of our community,

Manuela and the Fellow team