174. Here, there and everywhere (Condition #23: blended meetings)

You remember in the before times when people who couldn’t attend board meetings in person would attend by (gag) telephone? It was awful for everyone involved, but especially for the poor souls on the phone. Can’t see anyone. The conference phone audio makes it impossible to hear, well, anything. You sit through any breaks in the action listening to other people socializing. You don’t get to follow the exact flow of the slides or other materials. Worst of all, everyone forgets you exist because you have no presence in the room besides being a ghost on the other end of a phone line. Even when you try to speak, it’s doesn’t come through loud enough to get anyone’s attention. A fate worse than death? Maybe not, but still far from optimal. So yeah, being the one virtual attendee at an in-person meeting is at least a bit better now, what with the advent of Zoom and company. Having your face showing in a square on a screen for everyone to see makes it less likely they’ll forget you. Plus, you can follow along and participate a bit easier. And being able to see a wide angle shot of the boardroom, or maybe even a closeup of everyone in the meeting if your board has gone to those lengths…it makes you feel a bit more like you’re part of the action. But, in my opinion, this is the hardest meeting format for which to be intentional about the conditions because the stuff that works best in-person often doesn’t have the same impact for virtual participants, and vice versa. This might be one of those situations where instead of looking for compromise, you commit to set aside at least a little bit of time focusing specifically on making the virtual participants feel engaged and activated, even if it’s a bit weird for those attending in person.