We’re just one week from entering Phase Three of our hybrid working roadmap which will see Carnival House open with capacity constraints from 26 July.
This moment signifies the next step of our hybrid working journey and together we must test, fail, Listen and Learn to find what works.
One of the biggest areas of experimentation will be around how we collaborate, making sure we create a way of working that is inclusive whether working remotely or from the office. We want to avoid poor experiences that make us feel like we don’t have a voice at the table. Here’s a few things we can all try to make collaboration in a hybrid world flexible and inclusive:
Challenge your thinking
Working in a hybrid way gives us all the opportunity to think about our existing meeting habits and reset them. Consider the purpose and length of your meeting and who needs to be there. Does a meeting need to be face to face or can it be done remotely? For the majority of meetings, we expect it will be possible to have a mix of remote and office based participants.
Think remote first
If you’re hosting a meeting with a mix of remote and office based participants it’s important you lead by example and think remote first. Try to encourage:
- Those who are working remotely to contribute first – don’t forget they are as much a part of the discussion as those in the room.
- Everyone to speak one at a time so everyone can hear and follow the discussion – avoid side conversations which won’t be picked up by everyone.
- People to Speak Up and share their views openly. At the end of the meeting try going round the room (and/or zoom screen) to make sure everything is said in the meeting (even the hard stuff). We want to avoid corridor conversations that exclude people.
- Good etiquette. If someone is spoken over make sure you go back to them, so they can finish what they were saying and contribute fully.
Make use of our new collaboration tools
We’ve invested in a new collaboration tool, NEAT which provides a virtual meeting experience at Carnival House and helps to create the same Zoom meeting experience you’d get when working from home. The system has been installed in the Boardroom, Quebec and Rotterdam so far, with further rooms to be installed shortly.
Neat links to Zoom and works to pick up all participants in a meeting room setting, displaying each participant within the Zoom window, as we’ve come accustomed to while working from home. The NEAT bar works best with a room of up to eight people and allows all participants to contribute individually, putting remote and office based participants on a level playing field.
Remember you can also utilise our existing tools:
Box is our official file sharing platform approved by Carnival UK and the only one we should be using. (As we roll out Office365, Teams and SharePoint will also become official file sharing platforms.) Box enables you to upload, store and share files with other colleagues, business partners and external suppliers in a secure way. If you don’t yet have access to Box, complete a Service Request and send to your VP for approval. For support, and to find out more, visit The Insider. Please also make sure you read our Box User Acceptance Terms as we all have a responsibility to keep information secure.
We’re all used to using Zoom now, however as we start to return to Carnival House at reduced capacity, be mindful that the natural noise alerts our laptops make will be heightened and can cause distraction to others working in the office. Therefore it’s best practice to turn the volume down so that colleagues aren’t interrupted by our Same time alerts, zoom chats and incoming mails.
Our Zoom top tips:
- Use the whiteboard feature on Zoom to collaborate and brainstorm ideas together. With the whiteboard feature, anyone can draw, add text and share their ideas. You can save each whiteboard as an image so you can come back to it later.
- Suggest that people use the raise hand button for when they want to speak or interject so no one is interrupted.
- Consider using the Mute all button to stop unwanted background noise. You’ll find this in the Participants dialogue box.
- Use breakout rooms when you need to split up a big meeting into smaller discussion.
- Tick the share computer sound box on the screen sharing window when sharing a video. This will allow everyone to hear your sound.
For more detailed information and tips and tricks, read our effective meetings guide. We recommend everyone reads this. You can also find future ways of working support via the Cove pathway.