Opportunities for meeting face to face – for people in Europe and North America – are slowly opening up. Although we’ve been forced into more online encounters, it has been an opportunity for many people to discover new possibilities for interacting. Kids popping up and partners strolling across the scene behind us have breathed fresh life in how our clients or work colleagues know us. Hairdos floating weirdly across scenic zoom backgrounds will have our grandkids chuckling in disbelief when they look at the iconic images of today.

Going hybrid

I think this experience will make hybrid events fashionable. Hybrid events are those where some people are in-person and some are participating online. Media companies like Zoom, are scrambling to capture the market with meeting tools adapted for these kinds of events. 

We have been running our BEtreats as hybrid events since 2011. Back then, we saw it as the future. We thought it was crucial to develop the practice of meeting this way. I’ve reflected on what we do and what practices have worked for us in several blogposts – like this one in 2014, this one in 2016, and this one in 2020.

Meaningful connection

I also think that this hybrid trend us going to make people more demanding about the quality of all modes of interacting. If you are going to travel somewhere, it’s going to have to be for a good reason and what happens face-to-face had better take full advantage of physical presence. If you are going to participate online, you’re not going to sit through endless presentations – even those with an “interactive” veneer. The fine art of hybrid events will be to find the sweet spot where online participants are not second-class citizens, but where the tech isn’t too intrusive for in-person participants.

Three principles

Here are some of the strategies we’ve developed and how we hope to put them into practice in our new Social Learning Lab here in Sesimbra, Portugal.

First, we have three overarching design principles that drive our whole approach. That is, design for:

1. Conversations in various configurations between people about things they care about
2. Dancing in the space between knowing and not knowing
3. High value for precious time

Some heuristics

And then there are other heuristics for hybrid meetings that we are incorporating into our social learning lab. They include both physical and tech considerations.

Design elements

Physical

Technology and tech practices

A feeling of space and openness

Large windows, wide horizons, high ceilings, indoor-outdoor movement, big sky

Minimal agenda with lots of white space

In-person seating so that online participants can see different angles of the in-person spaces

Pre-event guidelines for online participants about where and how to sit and move around while participating online

A map and photos of the venue so you have a sense of the geography when in-person participants move around

Small group conversations

A diversity of attractive and comfortable places for conversations in pairs, as well as small, medium, and large groups

Contact information of all participants (face-to-face and online) so it is easy to bring someone in on different devices or applications

Breakout rooms in different formations (online with in-person, online with online)

Multiple devices and apps to bring online participants into the room (e.g., iPad sitting on table for a small group conversation)

Down time for reflection, alone or with someone else

(Quiet) places to sit and work or do nothing

Respect for own time

Frequent short pauses for people to collect their thoughts before starting a conversation

Silent time in agenda for joint written reflections in a google doc shared by both online and face-to-face participants

A shared memory

Visuals, posters, photos, videos

Hospitality

Good food, drinks and snacks

That extra touch

Welcoming, hosting approach

Time and attention to online participants even in in-between moments

Distributed leadership

Designing for initiative

Sharing in leadership tasks

A sense of belonging

Playfulness

Safe to make mistakes or a fool of yourself

Multiple places for having online participants to have their say, e.g., in the chat, on the mural, in a google doc. all of which are woven into the overall conversation,

Buddy system between online and face-to-face participants to make sure online people are fully included and to immediately address something that isn’t working, e.g., someone is blocking the camera

Seeing each other (literally)

Attention to what online participants are seeing, e.g., faces of in-person people

Visual clues for clarity over who is talking

Online presence, with good light and no bright window behind

Lifelike representation in the room, for instance, with a screen at a space at the table

Visual cues for online participants to draw attention

Together through sound

Make people aware of what sounds “in the room” give a poor experience to online folk

Point out the places where sound quality will be better for online participants

Strongly advise good quality sound

Practice mute button

In-person participants take turns in taking notes in real time to help online participants (e.g., on the chat)

Encourage use of multiple devices and to have plan B, C, and D for when things go wrong

Insist on a tech check with online participants prior to event

While these heuristics generally map onto in-person and online participation, we would emphasize that many tech design elements apply even to a totally in-person event and physical design elements apply to totally online events. Both sides can challenge and enrich the other.

Systems conveners: essential workers long term

In 2014, we wrote a chapter on what we called “systems conveners,” people who work to increase learning capability across a whole social landscape that includes many practices, institutions, and stakeholders. It’s not just about big acts of leadership or leadership on a large scale. It is also about taking leadership to bring a broader perspective into local efforts to make a difference.

A surprising outcome from that chapter is the number of people who said that it made them cry: finally, they felt, the work they do was being acknowledged.

And that was before COVID-19. The outbreak of the coronavirus – a landscape problem if ever there was one – calls for systems convening. The crisis should be shining a light on the persistence, work, and value of those who work to enable learning partnerships across boundaries. Their leadership (often invisible) is needed more than ever to leverage synergetic, cross-boundary responses to uncertainty in a global crisis.

Systems convening handbook

The timing coincides with our writing of a handbook about systems convening. It was commissioned by a collaborative of foundations concerned with systems change for societal good. We’ll be trying to understand more systematically the essence of systems convening; to articulate and promote the value of this type of leadership; and to encourage proactive and imaginative ways to develop the practice further.

We’ve set up a home page for systems convening on our website here.

Systems convening discussion group

Meantime, we’ve also opened a discussion group on systems convening. There is no systematic moderation there, but we’ll be using the group to test out ideas and get feedback. We have around 80 people already in there, from different parts of the world and who seem to be doing inspirational stuff. 

Systems convening workshop

Finally, we’re running an online workshop on systems convening in September to coincide with finalizing the draft of the handbook. So far we’ve had more people signing up for this workshop than any other. It feels like there’s interest out there.

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The other day we did a BEtreat workshop, originally scheduled to be face-to-face, online and over three days. It was with clients who were preparing to launch an online community of practice.

The workshop generated some of the same feelings of camaraderie and joint enterprise that we get in our face-to-face workshops. The person who organized it had been at a face-to-face BEtreat the previous year, loved it, and was surprised to experience how well they compared.

The overwhelming feeling was how different it felt to a “normal” training or community meeting, where often they felt quite passive. And how bonded participants became and the inspiration and confidence they felt they were taking with them.

The tools we used were Zoom, Mural.co, Google drive, and Google photos. Why do we like these tools and what were the practices that “worked”?

Why we like Zoom

Two things about Zoom that make it the best for us: 

• One is the toggle between Speaker and Gallery view. And that your own picture appears the same size and with the others in Gallery View. 
• The other is the breakout rooms and how easy it is to set up and run with them. It’s also quite wonderful the way you can bring everyone back together at the touch of a button! Zoom sends a 60 second warning (you can adjust this).

Why we like Mural

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Mural has lots of features (so many that it can look a bit daunting when you first use it). But these are the ones we appreciated most in our workshop:

• You can put LOTS on a mural (we put the agenda and activities all up in different areas on one mural). A mural size is possibly infinite and you zoom in and out of the areas you want to work on up close.
• You can divide your mural into areas (and areas within areas). 
• You can link directly to these areas (and if you click on the link, that area of the mural fits your screen). This was useful for lots of reasons. For example, in a breakout room conversation on Zoom, the group can click directly onto a link that would take them to the area where they were going to take notes or work on something together. There is no faffing about “Where do we have to go now?”
• There are two ways to navigate around a mural. One is with a small zoom in the bottom right of your screen where you can easily zoom in and out. The other is by using Outline mode (see right on the image above), which gives you the equivalent of a table of contents taking you to any object on the mural you have added to the Outline  
• You can export the whole mural, or one area of a mural to a PDF (or image file).
• It has hundreds (millions?) of icons
• You can use voting on a mural… just like putting sticky dots onto a flip chart paper.
• Mural works great on an iPad.

Why we like Google docs (or Google drive)

We mostly like the combination of google docs and the other tools. 

• We put the agenda in google docs with links to specific parts of the mural (or other places) we are going to work on. The agenda is like “home base”.
• We love (and I mean love) the way that everyone can reflect into the same google doc and see what others are writing at the same time. 
• The google folder with all the documents in it becomes a shared memory of the event created in real time.

Some practices that worked great

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• We had a sketch to show what tools we were using and for what purpose. The sketch linked the tools with a physical map that already existed in people’s imagination.
• We took mini-breaks every hour or so to stretch or look out the window.
• We had a shared photo album (google photos) where each day people shared and talked about pics they had put up. We did this in Zoom during the half hour or so before the official start time. 
• We paused at regular intervals to invite people to put their reflections, insights, and ongoing questions into a shared google document. One person’s reflection can trigger another person’s aha. And what people write becomes part of a shared narrative about their learning.

Some final thoughts

Most surprising to us was how fast three hours went by. It occurred to us that a full day online might be less tiring than a full day face-to-face (when everyone is online). Three days seemed about the right length of time.

We also reflected that we should only do online workshops for people who are going to be working with online communities. It is completely different to “do” community online than to talk about how to do it while you are in a face-to-face setting (duh!) It was immensely satisfying to see how people could really feel the difference between developing a social learning space online and some of the more transmission mode activities that had become accustomed to doing in an online community meeting. 

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It’s easy to think of participation in virtual meetings or events as second cousins.

And often it is. Sound quality is poor and made worse by people not muting their mics. There are no informal spaces for serendipitous conversations. And worst of all – people transport poor meeting or event practices into an online space where they are amplified by unfamiliarity with the technology.

I would like to share when I like online participation.

Note that online participation can be synchronous (all in same time e.g. conference call) or asychronous (at different times e.g. a discussion group). For the most part, it is a mix of both.

Feeling connected with people I might otherwise not meet

• This happens in meetings where there are small group conversations – for example in breakout rooms, discussion forums, on Twitter…
• It takes place at events where there are spaces to find out more about other people beyond their work personna and discovering I have something in common with them e.g. online café, informal introductions e.g. in a google doc
• It’s more likely to happen with an agenda/program where a small group of us are solving a problem or preparing for an initiative together
• I feel it most when there is a place where there is cheeky banter and we can be playful

Learning from reflection and feedback

• I learn so much when there are regular moments and spaces for everyone to take notes in a shared document (e.g. google docs). There is time in the agenda to write down our key insights and ongoing questions from the previous session/conversation and read and comment on what others have said.
• I love asynchronous conversation more generally. I’m more of a ponderous person who finds quick quips and clever replies only after everyone has generally gone home (!) so having time to interact someone’s words in my own time helps me express myself better
• It’s easy to take the temperature in or at the end of an online meeting, through a chat channel, a tool (e.g. mentimeter). That’s great for making iterative adjustments to group dynamics, agenda design, and for future events.

A shared memory on the go

• It’s great having a record of the meeting/event: a recording of the whole thing or parts of it; the conversations, reflections, questions, and insights; analytics data of who was there, their device, and other info that helps you plan for the next meeting.

Distributed leadership

• There is a lot to do in an online event and it’s an opportunity to share out the leadership – taking care of the tech, looking out for people wanding into the wrong space, gathering the different issues and ideas into one shared space, reaching out to people who can’t get in. It’s really an opportunity to reach out and build a sense of community.

Am I the only one who enjoys these things? What else do people like, appreciate or even love about virtual meetings and events?

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Mixed in-person and remote participation

Covid-19 has got organizations reaching for online meeting solutions or blended meetings with some people face-to-face and others online.

I thought this would be a time to share (again) some of our learning about it. While our deep learning comes from running BEtreat workshops in this blended way I think there is a lot to learn more generally. We charge the same for both types of participation, holding ourselves to the discipline of creating a special and productive experience for both.

Saving the tech reflections for another post, here we are with some practices that work for us:

• A buddy system – every face-to-face person needs a buddy in the room. the person in the room is responsible for making sure that their buddy can see, hear and be heard.
• A chat function (or something like WhatsApp) – for back-channel conversations.  It’s a way to keep up the informal conversations, passing comments, observations, quips, jokes, help I’m lost comments….
• Individual reflection – hourly (or two-hourly) pauses where everyone writes their insights and ongoing questions into a shared google doc.  Note that this practice has now spread to the way we do wholly face-to-face meetings too. It’s a great way to get a feedback loop going about what other people are thinking/feeling or what insights are being generated for them.
• Online common room – a space for all online folk to be able to talk/message each other. It gives an identity to online folk and emboldens them to stick up for themselves when it’s not working for them
• Mixed group formations – Lots of time for small group conversations, sometimes mixed face-to-face and online groups, sometimes groups made up of only online participants and only face-to-face
• Guidelines for online participants – about how to make the most of participating online (including things like – call for breaks if you need one, a playful attitude helps)
• Guidelines for face-to-face participants – about making the most of their participation with people participating remotely (including things like – say your name before you speak so online folk know whose voice it is, look into the camera when you speak)

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Reflections from the past

In 2016 I wrote a post “Blending online and face-to-face”. In this post I shared the tech set up we use – our aim being low-tech and affordable to communities with low budget. I also talked about our practices around using the tech and what definitely doesn’t work. I mention that some people prefer participating online and why, and reflect on things we need to get better at.

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In 2014, “I’ll take you with me…” was the title of the post. I described the experience of being online at one of our workshops and summarized some of the lessons learned.

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In 2012 I shared the tech we use. This post serves as a reminder of how quickly tech is changing as we don’t use any of that equipment any more!

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We’re excited (really excited) to share that we have found a new home for our BEtreat workshops for social learning leaders. More pics to come when we’ve finished painting and restoration work. The house was built in the ’60’s by a Mexican architect and the high wooden ceilings and large open rooms make it feel like a welcoming cathedral.

Our dream is to host more events here, whether they are convened, facilitated, or simply hosted by us.

But first off – 2020 BEtreat webpage is now up. Very early bird deadline is January 31. Here is a link to the page… maybe this is the year you can come!

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And of all the privileged insights into different worlds we get to see, this was one of the most inspiring and hopeful ones. The University Innovation Fellows program is about preparing students in Higher Education to be leaders of change.

We got to meet, interview, and write about the program in this book just published and now available on Amazon. It was an honor and a privilege to get to know the organizers and – here’s to the initiative spreading to more universities in more countries.

We used the value-creation framework to structure the narrative, so if you have been following our development of the framework, you will have the added bonus of seeing the framework in action. (Note that it is the older version of the framework…)

Let us know, if you read it and what you think.

It’s embarrassing to be so tardy with blog posts, but here goes…

Our workshops for social learning leaders in Setúbal, Portugal were a great success – at least that was the feedback and most people signed up to come again!

We worked together round the table in the mornings, had exquisite lunches in town (at Ostradomos), and worked in castles and outside locations in the afternoons.

People are finding the value-creation framework very helpful for framing, reflecting on, articulating the value of, and evaluating their projects. We’re excited to be working like this – both with the content and the format. We came away feeling hopeful and very inspired.

Meantime the two workshops planned for May and June are full, so we will run another one during September 17 – 20, 2019.  Early bird deadlines on this page.

And click below to be updated about changes or reminder to early deadlines.

Or sign up for one, if you are ready!

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Keep in touch

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I’m coming!

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