Improving group dynamics and involvement in hybrid meetings

Abstract

In 2020 our lives have been turned upside down by the outbreak of COVID-19. Working from home became the new standard, forcing the whole world into the biggest remote working experiment ever. The already existing remote working trend caught wind and changed the future of work to hybrid working in an office ecosystem. With a large number of companies and employees being inexperienced with hybrid working, new challenges and unfulfilled needs came to light. Literature research and more than 50 interviews with people from 31 companies were done to identify these challenges and develop a deep understanding of them. The three problem categories are asymmetrical communication, disconnected office ecosystem and unprepared companies. The decision was made to focus on asymmetrical communication in hybrid meetings. Hybrid meetings are meetings with both online and in-office participants. These types of meetings make the online participants feel invaluable. This is caused by them not feeling involved and struggling to give input. In the long term this can lead to a decrease in employee satisfaction. Communication science helps explain why hybrid communication is hard, especially for the remote attendees. We humans collect countless information points from each other, which we unconsciously process and use for smooth and natural conversation. With video communication crucial information is filtered out, with eye contact and (selective) gaze, body language and life-sized scale being the most impactful ones. The goal of the project is to develop a product that enriches hybrid communication by supporting previously lost information. The technology developed in the design phase is coined artificial eye contact, which is based on the science of eye contact and selective gaze. Through validation experiments artificial eye contact was found to be successful in establishing similar effects. These effects are involvement, group dynamics, trust and convincement for eye contact, and more attention towards online participants, better group dynamics and a higher turn taking frequency for selective gaze. The retail price is 300 euros, but an additional data driven dashboard with a subscription model will still be validated. The product will form the foundation for a Startup, called Be There, with the mission of enabling natural and equal communication between meeting participants from different locations in the office ecosystem. Raising capital and patenting the technology are the next steps in the company planning. To conclude the project, validate the problem solution fit and partially validate the product market fit a pilot was done with Delta Capita, a technology consultancy from Amsterdam. The Be There One proved its value and collected the first Letter of Intent.