This blog explains the links between Hybrid Meetings and what have been enduring truths which have shaped the way we as Quakers think about what is ethical in the world.

I myself am a Quaker, an active member of Quakers in Business, and I cherish the way that my membership of the wider community of faith calls me into action and requires me to get on and do what I can to make this world more socially just and economically prosperous. For these latest calls to action read here.

I am, like many people (of faith and not of faith), seethingly angry about the intellectual and moral bankruptcy in the way our political leadership seems to be thinking about what makes an economy and a society work well. I wish and pray that it would be otherwise, yet my part to play is the work I do. My hope is that we can all be patterns and examples, that shape the world around us to be practically better.

In this blog i’m going to explain how hybrid meetings are an opportunity to shine and show our Quaker values at work.

Hybrid Meetings are Good Meetings

Hybrid Meeting at Quaker Meeting House in Edinburgh

Hybrid meetings are meetings where about half the people are in a room and half the people are joining via remote communication. They look like this meeting at Quaker Meeting House in the city centre of Edinburgh.

In summer 2022 we filmed in the Quaker Meeting house this film that explains what hybrid meetings are.

Video showing and explaining good hybrid meetings.

Quakers and our track record on Good Meetings.

Quaker meetings are interesting to think about because it is what has held together the social action movement for over 400 years. During that time we have stood up against states, conscientiously objecting with such power and authority that we have helped key turning points in history. Quakers have a reputation of being at the forefront of some significant changes in British history such as the abolition of slavery or in the last decade the marrying of people who are not heterosexual. Many of us are involved in organisations like Extinction Rebellion.

On the inside of Quakerism, like any organisation we have a system of meetings that give us this strength to act with conviction, knowing that we are acting in the Spirit that has been tested and discerned collectively. So we have meetings for business, which are also held in an atmosphere of worship. We also meetings for threshing and meetings for clearness. These can help us resolve disputes and look humbly into the difficult areas of our work and lives. In our book, ‘Quaker Faith and Practice’, which is updated regularly, we write about the systems and the processes that help us do our work in the tradition that we have learned works well.

Our business meeting practices, as peoples of faith, are world class in being really good business decision making.

Across our history, as Peoples of faith, we have found that there are some core statements that find their way through all of our discernment. Over the 400 years Quakers has been going these have been continually settled down as what is known as ‘testimonies’. In this article, I'll explain how the testimonies map across to good practice in hybrid meetings.

Equity Testimony and hybrid meetings.

We are doing hybrid meetings to help include those that don't wish to or cannot be at the physical meeting room(s).

It can be important for our responsibilities to travel into the office on that day and be at the meeting or it can be important to our responsibilities and the right ordering of our lives not to travel into the office on that occasion, but to join remotely. and be at the meeting.

Equity in this case is the principle of inclusion, as experienced by being an equal participant, whichever way one participates. The responsibility of the meeting organisers is to plan for that inclusion.

There are some absolutely important examples of this in meetings for as Quakers that we hold to make complex business decisions. One such example in our way of organising ourselves regionally is known as Area Meetings. Area Meeting is the organising structure that joins up the different local Quaker meetings to organise our decision making. We share our decision making in this way so that we can organise powerful actions such as the protesting I referred to earlier in the article. We also share our decision making so that we can support ourselves with finance for our work, appointing volunteers to jobs that need to be done and to share community news like deaths, marriages, births and updates on our work.

A Quaker Area Meeting or National Meeting held across many locations. We will be doing this for Quakers in Business future conferences.

In South East Scotland you have the very rural area of Dumfries and Galloway and very urban area of Edinburgh all in one geographically large Area Meeting. Some of the travel times across the area can be 2 hours each way. We don’t always have great transport options. We also don’t always have great physical health, some of our most talented members are elderly, disabled or carers for other members of their household. Of course we want to include them. Hybrid makes it possible.

Quaker business method has been going long before we got to this stage of hybrid meetings and when I think back to the many successful Quaker founded businesses, I would suggest that they would have used such methods in their time. You can see some many examples of very famous examples of Quaker Businesses in Britain over the 400 years. Such as Cadburys, Rowantree’s, Sainsbury’s, Lloyds and TSB, Bourneville’s, Carr’s biscuits in Scotland. We are known for setting up and knowing what is successful in all types of businesses.

Sustainability Testimonial and Hybrid Meetings.

The Canterbury Minute is one of the most shocking documents, calling us all to do everything in our power to save the planet.

Hybrid meetings mean less travel for everyone. They also mean the strategic use of travel for business. So when we do need to be physically face to face, we should be, as building community and proper ‘Human Relations’ is essential for all business. Yet as we can all now travel less, we can go by more sustainable forms of transport for the occasions when we do need to travel to see people face-to-face.

Quakers have always been people have written and felt very strongly spiritually connected to the practice of being close to the Earth and close to nature. In fact we find ourselves very much involved in Extinction Rebellion, and involved in Friends of the Earth Scotland, where I serve as a volunteer Trustee. These connections about holding up the whole earth

We are now in an age where we can truly be local yet think and act global.

The sustainability of the business process is also about creating a sustainable culture. In the early days of banking the banks run by Quakers were known for their stability because they discerned every loan they made and every piece of borrowing they accepted. This meant the banking was slow, yet honourable. John Woolman, in those days wrote about these principles of business practice, about using discernment in the way that you do your transactions.

Example of discernment tool in hybrid meetings - this case scaling questions used via www.menti.com

These things are very complex, but they improve our diversity of decision making. When we include people, we include perspectives in our decision making.

Using a scaling or ranking tool during a meeting, such as used in the film, photographed here, can help the group discernment process in multiple ways.

Participants votes are anonymous
You can see the results live
Everyone can do it at the same time, you don’t have to wait for your turn to speak.
You can all talk about it as you go
If you don’t have a device, others can put your entry in on your behalf.

Simplicity Testimony and Hybrid Meetings

It might seem bizarre to you right now that I am linking hybrid meetings to simplicity, because most of the human species have not yet experienced hybrid meetings running as smoothly as old face to face meetings.

Not yet. (but practice & training leads to improvements, which is why our 3 levels of training are available to whenever you want.)

But actually meetings are about one simple thing - to connect.

Connection is the main reason to call a meeting. Humans connecting is why we should and do have meetings. The involvement of diversity of thought is the benefit of having a meeting. The inclusion of different perspectives improves business performance.

The truth is, that actually hybrid meetings are best done in the spirit of simplicity.

Once you think about it hybrid meetings are simple affairs, you have a meeting in order to connect and in order to meet the humanity involved in meetings needs a meeting that is designed to work well. Hence inclusion is extremely important, the wellbeing of staff, the clarity of what you are meeting for, the gathering of the agenda, the checking of who is on board with decisions. These are really important principles in all meetings.

If you have not understood why to meet then you have not got hold of what it is to connect. To connect is a powerful tool in business. Whole books are written about the power of Presence. Peter Senge, with Otto Sharmer even founded the Presencing institute to emphasis the point.

If you are meeting to shout at people or get your point across, then I gently suggest that you have lost the plot about what the meeting is about. Other humans who deserve full respect.

So simplicity needs to be a thread in all meeting planning. Have we made this about connection? That's the one question camera angles, audio equipment, they just help us connect. If you are not meeting to connect, then do not meet.

This means leaders know they need to set a competent example of how to run these new types of meetings.

Hybrid Meetings are a call to action for all Quakers who want to be Patterns and Examples.

So friends, and capital F Friends, (capital F Friends is our in house code for talking about Quakers), I implore you to understand hybrid meetings through the lens of these three testimony’s.

As a movement over the 400 years where we have often challenged British society, on slavery, on peace and on justice.

Chairing a discussion with post it notes

This simple practice of setting up and running all of our meetings as hybrid is not too difficult. We know that this is part of the world now. My training courses, coaching and consulting are designed to make this transition to a new way of meeting easier and smoother than all learning by mistakes.

Come to the workshops, do the training, hire PlacesWork.

Ask amongst Quakers in Business or your local meeting for the discount code that I have set up for all Quakers.

Let us move this forward to create hybrid spaces that create inclusion, equity, of esteem, sustainability of practice, sustainability of planet and most importantly, simplicity as we get used to it

Using Phone to participate in decision making

Help from PlacesWork on how to Run Hybrid Meetings Well

What can we do about this? Well, as an institute member, I have got ahead of the curve and founded this whole PlacesWork business that supports any business with training, consultancy, and coaching around how to do hybrid working well.

My training courses take the strain off all your staff and, all types of staff to enable them to learn about these tactics, tips, protocols, systems, even the tech that you need in your rooms to do hybrid meetings well, including the camera angles and the audio equipment.

I am now doing this with multiple companies, as you will find out by subscribing to my newsletter and looking around my website.