There’s an old saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” In a hybrid world, we need to communicate effectively across digital and physical channels to facilitate interaction with everyone. It isn’t an individual task. It requires everyone to put in some effort. We know it can be hard to adapt to new tools and mentalities, so we came up with some actionable tips on overcoming communication challenges in a hybrid world.

Common communication challenges of a hybrid world

First off, let’s start addressing the most common communication challenges of a hybrid world:

  • Not everyone uses the appointed tools, some people in your team might limit themselves to using the work chat, and forget about all other tools that foster interaction.
  • You have different processes and standards for collaborating on various projects or departments. For instance, one department may use Slack while another sticks with email and phone calls because they’re comfortable with their existing systems and processes.
  • Lack of visual cues: When we talk on the phone or video chat, we easily miss out on all the little visual cues that help us understand what the other person is saying. For example, we might not realize that a colleague is having a hard time, which can take us by surprise during a brainstorming session, and might even affect the team’s performance.
  • Different stakeholders are used to communicating in different ways; some like short bursts of information, while others prefer detailed updates on progress over time.
  • Difficulty understanding the context of the conversation: We may also miss important information when talking over text messages because there is no context provided by gestures, facial expressions, and body language. This can make understanding what someone means rather tricky at times!

More often than not, when these challenges aren’t addressed, team collaboration is affected. Hence, it’s crucial to address your specific communication challenges first to know how to overcome them.

5 ways to avoid communication challenges in a hybrid setting

When working in a hybrid world, it’s essential to understand the steps you need to take to communicate effectively. This section will cover how to use the right tools and context to avoid communication problems.

1. Embrace digital communication

Meetings, events, and workshops are going digital. Still, some participants might be more comfortable meeting face-to-face with other peers to work. With the right tools in place, you can adopt a hybrid approach that helps you deliver more effective meetings while making sure they’re still enjoyable for everyone involved.

The easiest way to plan a hybrid meeting, event, or workshop is to focus on a physical setting first, then add the right digital tools.

  • The benefits of using digital tools for meetings, events, and workshops include:
  • Increased productivity and efficiency through more effective time management.
  • Improved collaboration across teams who might be based in different locations.
  • Enhanced accessibility for remote attendees.

With minimal effort, you’ll turn a physical event into a hybrid one, creating a safer and more inclusive experience for everyone involved.

2. Get everyone on the same page

Face-to-face collaboration was the norm until a couple of years ago. Many people now understand the importance of hybrid communication, but not everyone might be on board.

It’s imperative that all team members, including managers, are on the same page about communicating online and in person to avoid misunderstandings. From the beginning of the meeting or workshop, explain that both online and offline participants will be treated equally and that you expect everyone to interact with each other equally.

3. Use the right tools

There are many digital tools to encourage hybrid communication out there — but not all of them are created equal. Here are some of the best options; choose what works best:

  • Use a virtual whiteboard if your team is remote or spread out geographically
  • Use a virtual meeting room if your team needs audio/video capabilities.
  • Use a social wall to bridge the gap between offline and online communication at events.
  • Use effective chat software.
  • Use any event engagement tools that guarantee interaction between participants.

You’d be surprised how the right tool can make your life easier.

4. Bridge both digital and in-person settings

Whether you’re organizing a BarCamp, a conference, or an internal company event, a social media wall can bridge both online and in-person worlds while adding a sense of community to your event. It’s a way for people to connect with you and each other.

Add depth to the event experience with a social wall that encourages online and offline audience participation. Collect social media posts from attendees and prominently display them on a social wall at your venue or website. Make the same social media stream part of your live streaming experience, so you can engage and connect with everyone during your hybrid event.

Miller Lite Hot Country Nights give spectators a voice by listing their Tweets, Facebook mentions, and Direct Posts on a social wall display that’s part of the stage.

5. Prepare plenty of visual cues

As mentioned above, lack of visual cues can be a considerable factor causing hybrid communication challenges. Visual cues highlight or point out important information. They can come in the form of videos, slides, or anything else that you ‘see’ rather than hear or read.

Some people find it hard to pay attention or process information orally or by reading only — instead, they learn best through seeing. Hence, it’s imperative that you prepare enough visual material to bring hybrid communication to another level.

Advantages of hybrid communication

Hybrid communication combines elements of virtual and physical contact to suit the needs of everyone. Running a hybrid setup for events like trade shows, lectures, and business meetings is an effective solution to please everyone.

During the pandemic, hybrid communication became increasingly popular as countries shifted in and out of lockdowns, stopping people from traveling and meeting in person. The pandemic encouraged people to use digital tools to communicate, and now both forms of communication remain. The question is, what are some of the benefits of hybrid communication?

Increased Attendance

Circumstances that prevent people from attending meetings and events, such as sickness, or inability to travel, often arise unexpectedly. However, by conducting your event or meeting both virtually and physically, these circumstances do not prevent attendance, allowing it to be a success.

Reduced Carbon Footprint

If fewer people travel to attend the event physically, the overall carbon footprint reduces as often people will have to drive or fly to attend some in-person events. A smaller physical audience will also require less equipment to hold the event, reducing transportation and labor emissions.

Event Capacity

Most venues have capacity limits for guests, which must be adhered to because of fire safety protocols. If an event is so popular that it reaches the maximum limit for guests, running it as a hybrid event is an excellent solution to welcome more attendees without surpassing the guest limit.

This will also significantly impact the event’s health and safety as physical attendees will be less so it will be easier to manage and maintain a good level of security.

Stronger Content Engagement

Popular events, such as conferences, run several panels simultaneously to suit everyone’s interests and fit an extensive schedule into a short period. As a result, many people will miss some panels they may have wanted to attend, but this isn’t an issue with hybrid events.

All panels are recorded and can be watched or rewatched after the event for maximum content engagement. No one will have to miss out on any aspect of the event if it’s hybrid.

So what’s better, in-person, virtual, or hybrid?

Choosing the type of event to run will depend on dozens of variables specific to your events and meetings. However, hybrid is the true compromise of both physical and virtual events as they give attendees the best of both worlds.

Physical events can be more enjoyable, facilitate more accessible communication, and allow for more event sponsorship, while virtual events suit people who cannot travel and want to reduce their carbon footprint.

Together, hybrid events are the ideal choice for everyone.

Example of hybrid communication: Google

Social media for hybrid events is a popular method to overcome communication challenges. For example, Google has used social walls for some of its large-scale international events. They set up substantial on-site displays, incorporating real-time social streams into their live streams.

Let’s look at the four hybrid events, which happened in considerably quick succession: Firebase Summit, Android Dev Summit, Chrome Dev Summit, and Flutter Live. Google set up one, or multiple social media feeds for each of these events, sharing great insights into the many ways you can use digital signage software for social media at events.

These events used a social wall to bridge the gap between the offline and online worlds. In the Android Dev Summit image, you can see photos of people attending the events from home, while in-person attendees had a chance to see them on the big screens during breaks.

This had the benefit of uniting all attendees, those at home and those who physically attended the conference. It encouraged participation and engagement with content, narrowing the gap between the different groups.

Engagement ideas to overcome hybrid communication challenges

The key to successful hybrid meetings is to focus on engagement. Whether you’re focusing on hybrid event engagement specifically or just thinking about motivating your hybrid team a bit more, the following points will help you get started.

Creating an internal hybrid communication guide

The first step in ensuring that your team is communicating correctly is to set up a basic internal hybrid communication guide. This will help you define the best way to communicate with each other and can be used as a reference when someone is unsure of what to do.

It can be in the form of a digital document in a pocket folder like these, depending on what works best for you. This document should show examples of acceptable and unacceptable ways to communicate, a list of recommended tools, and guidelines for what types of things should be shared internally versus externally.

Organizing regular interaction and check-ups

Now that you’ve set up your internal hybrid communication guide, it’s time to start interacting with your team, participants, or parties involved!

It’s important that you have regular meetings where people can ask questions, voice concerns, or just share an update on their state. This will help keep everyone connected, and it’ll also give you an opportunity to address any communication challenges that may arise before they become a problem for everyone else on your team!

Encourage participation with prizes

If someone reaches out with an idea or comment, why not reward them with something? It could be anything from a small token gift card at the end of each month to a big party celebrating all their hard hybrid work throughout the year (depending on how much time they’ve been part of your team).

You can even offer prizes based on how many times someone has used specific hybrid tools throughout their communication history! Just make sure that whatever you choose fits with your culture so that everyone feels included regardless of the setting they use.

Overcoming communication challenges in hybrid settings

If you want to communicate effectively, find the right tools for your needs. Meetings can be improved by engaging participants with video and interactive activities. Events and workshops can become more effective when they are organized online and in-person simultaneously. You can also use a social media wall as a way to connect with people in real time or even send funny photos when needed. We’re all part of this hybrid world now—so let’s embrace it!