Our leadership team runs a hybrid Level 10 Meeting where three leaders sit in the conference room and two join remotely on screens, leaving remote leaders feeling sidelined. What are the rules for running an equitable hybrid meeting pulse?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Hybrid meetings fail more often than fully in-person or fully remote meetings. In a hybrid setup, physical proximity creates an unintentional bias. People in the room make eye contact, catch subtle micro-expressions, and jump into sidebar banter. The leaders on the screen become passive observers watching a television show of their peers.

To make a hybrid Level 10 Meeting™ work, you must adopt a simple rule: if one person is virtual, everyone treats the meeting as virtual-first.

Start with physical infrastructure. The conference room must have a dedicated camera positioned at eye level, directional microphones that clearly pick up everyone without echo, and a monitor where remote faces are life-sized and visible to everyone at the table. Do not huddle around a single laptop microphone.

Next, run your shared agenda and Issues List centrally on screen. Every participant, whether in the room or remote, must look at the exact same digital tool. The Integrator must actively manage participation order. When moving through the Scorecard, Rock review, Headlines, and To-Dos, call on remote leaders first or alternate strictly between room and screen.

During IDS®, the Integrator must explicitly check in with remote participants before moving from Discuss to Solve. Ask them directly if they have input before closing debate.

If your hybrid setup continues to produce second-class participation, eliminate it entirely. Have every person sit at their own desk and log into the meeting on their individual webcam. Level the playing field completely. The health of your meeting pulse depends on equal engagement from every seat.