We have a hybrid team where three executives work in our main office and four are fully remote. Should we fly the remote team in for our quarterly sessions, or is it better to have everyone join virtually to maintain a level playing field?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Fly them in. A hybrid format where some people are sitting together in a conference room and others are on a screen is the worst of both worlds. It creates an immediate disconnect in the room, where the in person team dominates the conversation and remote members feel like passive observers.

To get the full value of your quarterly session days, you need absolute alignment and raw, unfiltered debate. If you cannot co locate everyone for every single quarterly, then you must run the session fully remote, with every single team member sitting behind their own camera. This levels the playing field completely.

However, my strongest recommendation is to budget for travel and get everyone into the same physical room. The level of trust, conflict resolution, and strategic speed you achieve during a physically co located session day cannot be matched on a screen. Save the virtual format for your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ sessions and make the quarterly and annual planning days a mandatory, in person commitment. We will use your Circle workspace to prep all documents beforehand, ensuring that every hour of that physical meeting is spent solving issues rather than catching up on status updates.