Runs on PeopleBlog / Team health · 3 min read
Making hybrid teams feel like one team
When some people are in the room and some are on a screen, two teams form without anyone deciding it. How to keep one team, with habits you can start on Monday.
How it splits
Nobody sets out to build two teams. It happens by default. The people in the office chat at the kettle, settle a question in the corridor and walk out of the meeting with decisions the remote people hear about later. The people at home get the formal version, a day late.
Over time the remote people speak less, get picked for less, and start to feel like contractors. The in-office people feel they carry more. Both are partly right.
The principle
Design for the person who isn't in the room. If it works for them, it works for everyone. If it only works for the people in the office, you've made a two-tier team.
Habits that keep one team
- One person, one screen. If anyone in a meeting is remote, everyone joins from their own laptop, even those in the same room. It levels the field instantly.
- Decisions happen in writing. A corridor chat can start an idea, but it isn't decided until it's in the team channel where everyone can see it and comment.
- Remote first in the round. When you go round the group, start with the people on the call. Otherwise the room fills the silence before they can unmute.
- Rotate who's inconvenienced. If one time zone or one group always takes the early call or the long commute, share it around.
- Meet in person with a purpose. When the whole team is together, use it for things that are hard on a screen: planning, problem-solving, getting to know each other. Not for sitting on separate calls in the same building.
- Make the informal visible. Share the small stuff in the team channel: the win, the photo, the question someone asked at the kettle. It's how remote colleagues stay part of the story.
- Check in on the quiet ones. A regular short one-to-one matters more for people you don't bump into.
Signs it's splitting
| What you notice | What to try |
|---|---|
| Remote people rarely speak in meetings | One person, one screen, and go to them first |
| "We decided in the office" | Write decisions down where everyone can see them |
| Stretch work always goes to people you see | Keep a list of who's had the last three good opportunities |
| Office days feel like separate camps | Plan the shared days around shared work |
What to say
To open a team conversation about it:
"I think we might be working as two teams without meaning to: the people in the office and the people who aren't. I'd like to fix that together. What's one thing that makes you feel left out, or one thing you've noticed others missing?"
In other industries
A practice with staff split across two sites, a firm with partners working from home, a manufacturer with an office team and a shop floor: the same split forms. The fix is the same too. Decide in the open, and design for whoever isn't there.
Try this week
At your next hybrid meeting, ask everyone in the room to join from their own laptop and start the discussion with the people on the call.
Think about it
If you asked your most remote team member what they found out last, and how, what would they say?
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