Our Meeting Culture Expert Guest

Covid-19 illuminated how old fashioned meeting culture has been. But Logitech is here to help.

Toby Lewis is Senior Manager of Collaboration Strategy at Logitech. Coming from a consultancy background, Toby specializes in collaboration technology and is now excited to see video collaboration be more widely adopted.

As an industry professional for the last 25 years, Toby Lewis says video has been little more than a science experiment until now. But he says collaboration technology is key to company success, especially when it comes to hybrid work.

Listen to the following clips to understand how meeting culture is changing in the new workplace.

What Does Hybrid Work Really Mean?

“To me hybrid actually doesn’t mean working, because you can work from anywhere. I can work from home, or I can work on the train. That’s not necessarily hybrid for me, that’s flexible. Where the hybrid comes in is when you suddenly have to meet and collaborate with people but you’re not both in the same location.” – Toby Lewis

Toby isn’t a fan of the term ‘hybrid work,’ as there is no established definition. At a recent Logitech event, they polled an audience on what hybrid means. Their first definition was a Toyota. The second one was the coming together of physical and digital spaces. The third: “we have no idea what it means.” 42% chose the third.

Keeping Meetings Productive

When it comes to meetings, keep it simple and active. Toby advises keeping meetings to a maximum of 45 minutes. He points to whiteboards for improving meeting culture. Evidence supports his theory: even the simple act of getting up to engage with a whiteboard increases heart rate and blood flow.

He also has a somewhat unconventional piece of decor advice:

“Give them uncomfortable furniture. If they’ve got uncomfortable furniture they are going to keep moving, and they are going to keep their blood flowing so that collaboration meeting will be much more emotional, much more creative, and much more successful.” – Toby Lewis

Rethinking Office Culture

If Toby Lewis has one wish for the future of office spaces, it is for employees to be proud when walking into the office. Therefore,  a dynamism shift is necessary, as getting them in is half the problem.

As the current data suggests, Toby states that hybrid work is here to stay.

“Even if we see a shift of people going back to the office, you can guarantee at least one person in a six-person meeting won’t be in the same room as you… It would be fabulous if offices became the epicenter of culture. We’re all suffering a bit with this remote work. We’re not immersed enough in the culture of our business.” – Toby Lewis

Importance of a Translator

“I know this sounds simple, but I think that a good project manager in every group is going to become vital. Controlling logistics, mapping outcomes, just keeping a group pulling in the same direction. Having a good translator in the middle of distributed group, of a hybrid group, is what is making our groups more successful.” – Toby Lewis

If merging meeting culture with technology is most important, Toby advises having a translator for all the different types of people, as office spaces often have engineers, architects, and facilities work people trying to communicate with each other and consequently speaking completely different languages.

Conclusion For Changing Meeting Culture

Toby Lewis is excited that companies are catching up with their outdated ideas of office and meeting culture.

“In many ways, we are still in the mindset of the industrial revolution, when you were required to come to the office to use its tools. Now, the tool is the internet.” – Toby Lewis

Which means the tool is everywhere. Yet making that exciting and efficient remains the challenge.

Listen to the full episode and others from The Workplace Leader Podcast here.