EP15: The Meeting Doctor is In - Hybrid Meeting Help

With vacation season in full swing, the likelihood of hybrid meetings increases. This week, Dr. Joe Allen, co-author of “Suddenly Virtual” and “Suddenly Hybrid,” joins Karin Reed to share expert advice to help you make these hybrid meetings successful and productive.

 

Dr. Allen introduces his latest research on meeting participation, identifying five types: full participation, non-participation, pretending to participate, token legitimacy, and on-off participation. This typology helps understand the varied ways individuals engage in meetings, especially in hybrid settings. His findings reveal that hybrid meetings can be as satisfying, if not more so, than other formats, thanks to the consistent application of best practices.

 

Key pre-meeting considerations include ensuring strong connectivity and high-quality audio and video for all participants. Karin highlights the importance of meeting equity, ensuring all participants, whether in-room or remote, can be seen and heard clearly. Dr. Allen recommends using advanced tools like the Owl camera to enhance visibility and interaction.

 

During meetings, it’s crucial to avoid neglecting remote participants. Dr. Allen suggests assigning in-room allies to include virtual attendees in the conversation. Post-meeting, clear communication of decisions and assignments is essential, along with gathering feedback to improve future meetings. He underscores the significant cost of ineffective meetings, both in direct expenses and opportunity costs.

 

This episode of Speaker Dynamics offers a key takeaway: don’t fear hybrid meetings. By following best practices and leveraging available resources, hybrid meetings can be highly effective.

 

Quotes

• “When we’re in a meeting, participation isn’t necessarily an either-or or an on-off situation, but it could be. That’s when some colleagues and I started looking into different types of participation. We created a typology of meeting participation: the five different types of participating.” (03:02 | Dr. Joe Allen) 
• “Hybrid meetings were going to be a more complicated communication environment because you have people that are face-to-face, people that are virtual, and audio and visual dynamics that can be complicated. We didn’t find that they were bad. In fact, we found that they were just as good, if not, a little bit better than face-to-face and virtual meetings.” (08:31 | Dr. Joe Allen)
• “The things you have to think about are the dynamics of the people and how they’re connecting. You need to make sure that your team members have the ability to connect to the meeting and that their connection is strong, with good audio and video quality. You have to make sure the tools and equipment are all there because the two most important factors for the success of a hybrid meeting are being seen and heard.” (12:06 | Dr. Joe Allen) 
• “One thing I think people forget to calculate is the sum cost of having people in the room rather than doing their other things – what’s the opportunity cost.” (16:49 | Dr. Joe Allen)

Links

Connect with Dr. Joe Allen:

Website: https://www.joeallen.org/

 

Connect with Karin Reed:

Website: www.speakerdynamics.com

Speaker Dynamics University: https://university.speakerdynamics.com/

Speaker Dynamics on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakerdynamics/

Karin Reed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-reed/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm