Half of our leadership team sits in our main boardroom while two remote executives join on a conference room screen, creating an uneven dynamic where the remote leaders are ignored. How do we fix a hybrid Level 10 Meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Hybrid meetings are the hardest meeting format to execute. The people sitting in the room naturally dominate the conversation because they can read micro-expressions, interrupt without audio clipping, and feed off room energy. The leaders on the screen inevitably become second-class citizens, reduced to spectators who only speak when directly asked.

To fix this dynamic, you have two viable options:

The first and best solution is the one-in, all-in rule. If even one leadership team member is remote, every single person in the building brings their laptop to their own office and logs into the video meeting individually. This instantly levels the playing field. Everyone occupies the same visual real estate, audio levels are identical, and no side conversations can occur.

If your in-person team insists on sitting in the boardroom together, you must radically alter how the Integrator facilitates:

- Place the screen at eye level opposite the facilitator, not up high on a wall. The remote members must feel like they are seated at the table.
- Remote leaders speak first. During the segue, Scorecard reporting, and especially during the identify phase of IDS®, call on the remote participants before opening the floor to the room.
- Ban in-room side chatter. Any quiet side comment or paper shuffling in the room destroys audio quality for the remote participants and signals that the real meeting is happening in the physical space.

Do not tolerate a setup where two of your most expensive leaders sit disconnected for 90 minutes every week. Either level the technology or run the room with deliberate bias toward the screen.