The Coming Epic Fail of Team Meetings Post-COVID (half in room, half on Zoom)...
April 23, 2021
There's a million things to think about in a Post-Covid world. Here's one you don't think about but you might as well get ahead of, especially if your team is going to exist in some type of hybrid existence:
THE NEW NORMAL WILL FEATURE PEOPLE TRYING TO HOLD TEAM MEETINGS WITH HALF THE TEAM LIVE IN THE OFFICE AND HALF ON ZOOM/TEAMS.
AND IT'S GOING TO SUCK.
Think about it. Before we accepted cameras on as the norm during COVID, you generally didn't try and hold a team meeting with half or more of the people live and half on Zoom.
Why not? Because it's impossible for the people who aren't live to have the same experience and rights as those live in the room. If you're not in the room, you are a second class citizen, and it's the way it has to be. Please listen, and we'll throw it to you for your stage banter when you're ready.
The Zoom/Teams rush during COVID changed those expectations. Since most, if not all were remote, we turned on the cameras and everyone was treated equal.
When we go back to the offices, many of us will try and keep the remote team on video, and it's going to be awful.
When half or more of your team is live and in the office for a meeting, you can't make the Zoom people equal. They can't see the room, read body language and know when they can informally interject and organically participate. But man, will they try. The people who are live can't do the same with the Zoomers,
The answer is simple and the new rules should be clear:
If half or over half of your team is live, you require the remote folks to call in (no video) and run their participation in the live meeting like it's 2019. They'll thank you for it.
If a number of people live is less than half (especially if it approaches only 25-33% live and in the room) you hold the entire meeting on Zoom or Teams. The 3 of 10 people in the office join from their personal office via Teams. You'll have a better meeting.
Some of you will try to do the live/Zoom mix with half or more of the people in the conference room on one camera. It will be an epic failure.
Will you understand how awful it is? That's a whole other question.
(email subscribers click through for Gary V video on this topic below)
How is audio-only superior to video and audio? I don't understand.
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Posted by: directions | May 05, 2021 at 10:24 PM
Thanks for this great post. Virtual team meetings has become integral part of the company now during COVID time.
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Posted by: TM Systems | July 30, 2021 at 03:16 AM
Many of us will attempt to keep the remote team on video when we return to the offices, and it will be terrible.
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