8 steps for an effective hybrid planning meeting

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  in this video, I'm going to share with you how

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  to run a hugely effective hybrid planning session.

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  My name is Dave McEwen and these are my findings

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  from the Outfield.

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  Yeah, Okay, right.

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  Yeah, yeah.

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  Hey everybody Dave mccune here with another episode of findings

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  from the Outfield, powered by Prezi and today I'm going

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  to talk about how to build a really compelling hybrid

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  planning process.

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  Look, they say that the great return to the office

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  is coming or maybe it's not.

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  Most recent surveys have indicated that if given a choice,

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  employees favor some combination of either a fully remote or

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  a hybrid arrangement for the foreseeable future and that will

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  bring with it a raft of challenges.

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  One of the biggest challenges for leadership teams in this

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  new hybrid setting is on running effective planning sessions and

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  the natural tendency for most groups will be to revert

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  to their in person ways of interacting and then to

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  sort of tack on some remote participants and having run

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  hundreds of planning sessions both in person and virtually I

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  can tell you that this approach will culminate in a

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  clear divide between those people that are physically present and

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  those that have dialed in.

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  You'll get weaker, less creative ideas and you'll have a

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  looser sense of team cohesion an alignment than you'd want

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  if you're looking to build a compelling hybrid planning session

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  here are the eight things to consider as you do

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  it. The first thing is just to acknowledge the reality.

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  When we had to switch to planning in a completely

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  virtual environment, it felt a little clunky and a little

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  strange and a little unusual at first, but we got

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  through it and the same will be with this switch

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  to hybrid meetings.

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  So give yourself and your team permission for things to

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  feel a little strange as you work through those early

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  stages, but also clearly set your intention, which is to

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  build as inclusive a process as possible within the constraints

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  that you have.

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  Second thing is to ensure that you gather all information

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  in one place ahead of time, get a central virtual

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  repository and put all pertinent information in it ahead of

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  the event.

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  This should include your agendas, your pre reads, any decks

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  that are presented and and all tools or documents that

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  are used to capture outputs.

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  Nobody should be providing any brand new information on the

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  day of your session, nor should they be sharing previously

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  unshared files from their machine.

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  Make sure everybody's got access to the same documents at

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  the same time.

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  And that will ensure that everybody has been given the

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  time before the meeting to review it and come up

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  with their own questions rather than eating into valuable discussion

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  time. Whatever you get together, the third thing is to

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  resist the urge to have everybody joined virtually.

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  You know, if you say to somebody, hey come into

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  the office but then sit in your cubicle or your

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  room and dial in and engage with us there.

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  It doesn't exactly motivate people to want to get out

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  of bed and put on some real world clothes and

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  track into the office.

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  So instead set up one central planning room for your

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  in person participants um and make sure that you've given

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  them access in that room to the web conferencing tools

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  that you're going to use, but then also set up

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  some other stations or rooms with a computer and those

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  tools that participants can access throughout the session.

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  That comes particularly important whenever you add this step, which

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  is to mix in person and virtual participants in your

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  breakout sessions break are a great way to reduce group

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  thinking, a planning session and to have some creative ideas

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  come out of smaller group thinking sessions.

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  But our natural tendency will be to bump in all

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  of the people that are in person into groups together

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  and then to have all of the virtual and dialed

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  in folks in another set of groups.

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  But that will just serve to further alienate your virtual

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  participants. So instead of that, use those other breakout rooms

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  from the point above and bring some of your in

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  person folks there and give them the opportunity to interact

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  with at least one other virtual participant during those breakout

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  sessions. The next thing to consider is to use virtual

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  rather than physical collaboration tools.

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  Look nothing beats a good whiteboard or a flip chart

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  for a brainstorming or planning session.

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  I love to use them.

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  But unfortunately if you opt to use the physical ones

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  in the room with you then what will happen is

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  your folks that are dialing in will miss out on

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  the opportunity to add and edit.

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  Edit and iterate and otherwise engaged with those tools.

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  There are a ton of great virtual white boarding tools

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  so set those up on all of the computers that

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  you're using and give all participants an equal chance to

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  use them.

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  Next thing to ensure you that you do is to

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  facilitate the conversation because left to their own devices devices,

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  most hybrid teams will gravitate toward conversations that start in

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  the room, then start to incorporate a bit of feedback

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  from those on the call and then move back to

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  those physically present.

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  For a decision, you should facilitate your hybrid discussions a

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  little more rigidly by specifically alternating the perspectives of people

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  that have dialed in and those that are gathered together.

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  The ultimate thing to think about is to debrief break

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  time has as good as your facilitation skills are in

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  the room, you're in person, participants will almost certainly progress

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  the conversation that you're having in the space between the

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  formal working sessions and rather try to stamp out what

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  can often be meaningful and creative conversations encourage those conversations

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  to happen, but build in an appropriate debrief time after

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  each break to share any outside the rumor has and

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  get everybody else aligned.

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  And then the final thing to do to make sure

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  you've got a really awesome hybrid session is just to

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  check in with your team on what's working regularly.

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  Don't assume you're going to get everything right immediately.

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  Instead building some regular review points to discuss what's working

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  and not wanting, what's not working in the process that

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  you're using and then adjust as you go.

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  So there you have it.

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  It things to consider for your next hybrid planning session.

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  I hope you have fun doing it.

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  Let me know how it goes.

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  Or if you've got any questions and make sure you're

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  subscribed to receive more episodes of findings from the outfield.