How to Make Hybrid Collaboration Work

When everyone is working from the same location — whether in-office or all remote — everyone attends meetings the same way, communicates the same way, and collaborates with similar techniques and tools. In a hybrid approach, it is critical to figure out what works best for the organization.

A great way to pull everyone together is to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. This helps keep everyone aligned with the same goals, informed on what is going on in the organization and engaged through different facilitation techniques. Below, I share some observations on collaboration, communication and engagement in a hybrid work environment, based on my experiences with agile teams as well as my own team. These tips can help your team or organization collaborate in a way that suits them. As an extra bonus, many of these also apply to in-person and remote teams.

Ask the Team

Before making any decisions about what will work best for your organization or team, ask them! An effective work environment depends on the team doing the work feeling comfortable. Approach this on the team level because, let’s face it — people are different and not everyone works well in the same manner. A team poll, survey or shared board are all good ways to gather initial ideas. By enabling the team to self-manage, it gives them a sense of ownership, confidence and motivation.

Create a Team Working Agreement

Once team members have shared how they want to work and started establishing that new way of work, it’s time to create a team working agreement. This is a great way to involve everyone and bring their ideas together. A team working agreement lays out the guidelines for a Scrum Team or any agile team, making sure everyone knows what they expect of each other as they work together to deliver value. It's a handy tool to help the team move toward self-management.The Scrum Values of Courage, Commitment, Focus, Openness and Respect provide direction for behavior and actions, so any team working agreement should consider them.

If you're a facilitator, you can help guide the process, but you shouldn't decide what goes in — all team members should have a say. Of course, you can add your own input just like anyone else on the team. There are several activities teams can facilitate to help build consensus on a working agreement.

Everyone Be Present When in Meetings

This can be an especially tough one in a hybrid environment. Some people are in-person and very engaged with everyone else in the room, possibly having side conversations. It is easy to lose touch with the team members who are virtual in these cases. This disconnect may cause the remote team members to feel left out or disengage from the meeting. The team working agreement should set ground rules around expected behaviors in meetings, namely everyone must be present and inclusive in meetings. Remote participants should be given the opportunity to speak and be brought into the conversation. This can be difficult. Activities such as silent writing about a topic can help ensure everyone is participating at the same level. Virtual meeting tools can also help, such as a Mural or Miro Board where everyone can contribute to the topic at hand. In many cases, it may even be more inclusive for everyone to work from their desk from a video call as if they were all remote. Mix things up and see what works best!

Create Open Communication Channels

Teams should choose a common communication channel such as Slack or Microsoft Teams to maintain transparency. It is also a good idea to establish some expectations for communications such as which channels are for urgent matters and which ones are for items that can wait for attention.You may even include this in your working agreement. If the team has a global presence or is spread across multiple time zones, it is important to consider some guidelines so that work-life balance is respected.

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Establish Tools and Techniques to Create Transparency

Hybrid teams should use online tools to manage work rather than physical items, like a Scrum board, to ensure everyone can see the work in progress.

Get Creative, Mix Things Up and Avoid Stagnation

Whether it is during Scrum Events or other regular meetings, it is important to make sure everyone stays engaged. Sometimes that means mixing up how the meeting is facilitated. Organizations such as Liberating Structures share some great ideas for virtual activities that can help with team engagement and meeting facilitation. An in-person meeting — even if only once a year — can go a long way towards fostering the human element. Team members get the opportunity to work together, but more importantly, to build on their human connection as a team and get to know each other better. This can help the team/organization build camaraderie and trust.

Bottom line — a hybrid workplace can be very effective, but requires some effort to succeed. You can start small by creating some general guidelines in a team working agreement and then go from there. You will revise and adapt until you find the approach that works best for your team.

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