We have a hybrid leadership team where three of us sit in the office together and three are fully remote during our weekly Level 10 Meeting™. This setup makes the remote team members feel like second-class citizens who cannot easily interject during IDS®. How do we level the playing field?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Hybrid meetings are notoriously difficult because the physical room naturally dominates the conversation. Remote participants cannot read the subtle body language cues that signal when someone is about to speak, leading to them being left out of fast-paced IDS® debates. To build traction, you must actively design a level playing field.

First, implement a digital-first rule for everyone. Even the team members sitting in the physical office must join the video conference on their individual laptops with their cameras on. This ensures everyone occupies the same size box on the screen and has equal visual presence. It also forces the in-person team to look at the screen rather than just at each other.

Second, shift the facilitation bias to the remote team. The facilitator should always ask remote participants for their input first during the Scorecard review, headlines, and IDS® discussions. This prevents the office-based team from building momentum and leaving remote members behind.

Third, use a single digital workspace for your issues list and Scorecard. No physical whiteboards should be used. Everything must be tracked on a shared screen that everyone can interact with simultaneously. By treating the virtual room as the primary meeting space, you eliminate the second-class status of remote leaders and keep the team unified.