Meetings are now your culture carriers
The future of work is creating psychological togetherness
I recently found myself in a modern conundrum. I’d been invited to speak to 75 leaders and managers at a real estate development company that builds places where people feel pulled to gather.
But there was a hitch. This was a national company. Only the Dallas and New York offices were physically in the room. There would also be 400 colleagues all over the country joining us from Zoom. How could we create a gathering where we all felt like we were together despite the miles between us?
As I walked onto the 35th floor of a beautiful glass skyscraper, I could see 75 people in their suits and heels in front of me, sipping from their their Blue Bottle coffee cups and Nalgene water bottles. But I had to imagine the 400 people on the Zoom. And I told this group what I also want to share with you today:
“The art of virtual and hybrid gathering – when we are not all in the same physical space – is the ability to create psychological togetherness.”
Let me share with you what I did in the hope that it moves you to try and figure out this new world of work.
Treat people on Zoom like they’re guests, not spectators.
The first thing I did was to acknowledge the people on Zoom, directly. I didn’t just inform everyone, “This is a hybrid gathering.” I said, “Welcome to the folks on the Zoom! I hear there are 400 of you joining us here today.” And then I paused for a moment. When you greet the Zoom, as simple as it sounds, you begin to host them, too. I recently attended a hybrid board meeting where the chair of the board did this well: before the meeting officially started, she walked up to the laptop, bent over, and waved into the camera lens at her 10 colleagues on Zoom. “Hey Steve! Hey Sanjay! Hey Manoush! We’re so happy you’re here!” It was so simple. And you could see their faces light up. “Oh, we are together.” And it’s not just a nicety; it makes virtual guests more likely to speak up over the digital barrier during the rest of the meeting.
Ask "magical questions" to create shared context.
When you’re in person, I explained to them, the physical experience of the room creates shared context. "You’ve all taken an elevator to the 35th floor. You share the same view. You’ve decided which coworker you want to sit next to on a couch. You’ve made different (often invisible) micro-choices to arrive and take your literal and proverbial seat amongst others.
When you’re on Zoom, on the other hand, guests don’t get any of that shared context. You have to create it. And one of the simplest ways to create shared context in a remote gathering is the chat box.”
So we asked a “magical question”: “What was the first concert you ever went to, and who took you?” And we had the folks on Zoom put it in the chat, and the folks in the room share their answer with the person next to them.
Build feedback loops between the two gatherings.
As soon as people in the room started sharing, you could feel the energy of the in-person group build. Then suddenly, the two people looking at the Zoom chat on their laptops burst out laughing. I stood and said to the room, “Pause. What are you seeing?” They started shouting out what was coming in through the chat. “Billy Joel! Tina Turner! Neil Diamond!” People in the room started laughing. “New Kids on the Block!” And then people in the room started to react: “Oh my god, that was my first concert, too!” “Janet Jackson! The Backstreet Boys!” You could hear the laughter and recognition spread across the room.
When you host a hybrid gathering, you’re actually hosting three gatherings: a virtual gathering, an in-person gathering, and the choice to connect the two. By reading the answers from the Zoom, we had just activated that connection.
Use tech to form invisible stitches.
To emphasize this point and stoke people’s imaginations, I shared one of my favorite recent hybrid experiments. Matt, a manager at a tech company, had noticed his team had begun to lose their informal sense of each other since going hybrid.
He realized that during the first 15 minutes of their day after they’d arrive at the office, a lot of informal stitching used to happen. They’d banter as they hung up their coats, made cups of coffee, and set up their desks. So he started an experiment: each morning everyone who comes into the office and everyone who works virtually Zooms in from their phones for a 15-minute “Coat Hanging Time.” Sometimes they chat about their commute or a podcast they just listened to. One morning after a long week of financial audits, they just sat in silence. The only rule is that there are no rules or structures. It’s their transition into the day together.
***
It’s easy to get frustrated with hybrid meetings. And they’re increasingly important. When people can work from anywhere, and some are in the office, and many are remote, the primary way we now experience each other is through meetings. It's time to get good at them.
As ever,
Priya
ICYMI
I joined Hello Sunshine’s new daily podcast The Bright Side to talk to their hosts, Danielle and Simone, about how to “open” their first season and create community with their listeners. We go deep on openings, how to launch a product, and how to build the thread and identity of community in the early days. Take a listen.
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