Hybrid meetings are becoming increasingly common. In this video, Nureva CEO Nancy Knowlton shares her thoughts on how to achieve meeting equity for everyone – no matter whether they’re in the room or joining remotely. It’s all about staying focused on collaboration, productivity and shared goals.
We’ve all come to accept that things are different because of the pandemic.
Once many of us believed that face-to-face interactions delivered superior results, in every instance. Now we know that working from home – indeed working from anywhere – can be effective for many roles.
Before the pandemic, we didn’t always give due consideration to the remote experience – perhaps finding it mildly amusing when there were repeated requests to repeat something. Now, we’ve all been that remote person, and we understand too well what happens when you can’t hear the full conversation in the room. As a result, the concept of equity has taken a front-row seat in discussions about hybrid work.
Talk about meeting equity can turn emotional. Those working from the office may be unsympathetic to the concerns of those who skipped the daily commute and stayed at home. Those not in the office may feel left behind.
I understand why different groups may feel like their perspectives haven’t been heard. But on a practical level, there’s no need to take sides. After all, we’re on the same team, driving to the same objective, working with the same motivation. If connecting into a virtual meeting is a soul-sucking experience, it has consequences for everyone.
That’s why I prefer to think about meeting equity in terms of collaboration and productivity. When meetings can be described as “easy,” “enjoyable” and “useful,” it’s more likely that a team can do better and work faster with greater quality and enjoyment. And isn’t that what we want at the end of the day – something that works for everyone?
One of the key roles of management is to enable people to do their best work. Looking out for the needs of remote participants must be someone’s job, someone’s priority. It helps to find tools that make hybrid meetings easier, not harder. By using the latest innovations in conferencing – such as Barco ClickShare and our Nureva® audio – both the remote and in-person experience feels much more natural.
Having all been remote during the pandemic, we can empathize with remote colleagues and collaborators. And we can understand that it’s in our collective best interest to meet their needs for a quality experience.
Call this equity or enlightened self-interest – whatever it is, it’s good for business.