Distanciel: Good meeting practices

Distanciel: Refers to teaching or, by extension, work that takes place at a distance rather than on site (Larousse). Opposite of face-to-face. These words have been part of everyday life for most of us for some years now [1].

Do Agility and Distanciel seem antinomic to you? I remember coaches and Scrum Masters who swore by co-location, deeming any alternative to be heretical and doomed to failure. Covid, and the confinements that followed, came to beat back most of these noble convictions. And the generalization of scaling up, involving geographically distributed teams working together, has finished off those that remained. Not to mention the fact that telecommuting has been a great success with many employees [10], and that this trend shows no signs of abating.

“Home is where I work, and I work everywhere.” Alfred Nobel

Agility means (among other things) interaction between individuals, preferably face-to-face [2]. Communication involves voice, but also body language and image [3]. However, in remote environments, body language is - at best - largely reduced or degraded, and visual aids neglected or poorly adapted. Logically, Agile practices suffer as a result.

So how can we be fully Agile, even remotely? And even better: can't we find some advantages? That's what I invite you to discover in this series of 3 articles entitled “Maitrisez l'Agilité en distanciel”. Let's start with the basics (most of which are also applicable in non-Agile contexts).

☝ This article was originally a memo I sent to my Agile Circle colleagues after the first lockdown. For us Agile coaches and Scrum Masters (at least those who were still working for their customers, as it was a complicated period for profiles such as ours...), remote Agile practice was not a common thing. Remote working, with the spread of telecommuting and the multiplication of multi-location environments, has since become so widespread that, in my opinion, it warrants an article in its own right.

Le son

“You’re on mute.” Anonyme

Sound quality is paramount! Preferably use headphones and microphones, and limit background noise as much as possible (options are available on most headsets), to avoid requests for repetition - and the associated loss of time - or worse, misunderstandings. Indeed, in remote sessions, participants will be even more reluctant to express their doubts or questions than in face-to-face sessions, and all the more so when there are a large number of them. And you know that small misunderstandings can have big consequences later on... Overall, prefer short sentences (unlike me in this article!), a simple vocabulary and be careful to ar-ti-cu-late.

Don't forget coordinating conjunctions (but-or-and-or-ni-car): they give structure to the message and make it easier for your audience to understand. Often implicit in face-to-face situations, through tone or body language (and sometimes even through large, evocative gestures), they need to be explicitly formalized in remote situations.

⚠️ Be careful with humor, it's a minefield! Already, face-to-face, it can be received differently, as we've all certainly experienced. But off-line, it's even riskier. At best, your line of humor will fall flat. At worst... it will be misunderstood and perceived as insulting - something you probably won't even realize, precisely because of the limits of remote transmission. Of course, this is even more risky in multinational environments, where some participants may have less command of the language, or have particular cultural or historical specificities.

What about emotions? They're not absent from our business meetings - quite the contrary. In fact, they're absolutely essential - if only to keep your audience alert and attentive. Naturally, they too are conveyed a great deal (especially?) through body language. So what can you do? If you're feeling like an actor, exaggerate your emotions, burst out laughing, growl, wail loudly, stomp on your chair (but be careful with certain emotions, such as anger...). For the rest of us, be poets: simply express your emotions in words.

⚠️ And when you're speaking in a language that isn't your own, and which you often don't master perfectly, it's even more complicated! The same precautions apply, but need to be applied even more rigorously. What's more, let me share with you the advice of some English-speaking friends and family, for those of us in France who speak English: unless you have a perfect command of pronunciation (and that's very rare), let's assume our accent to the full! Speaking slowly and distinctly, articulating carefully, will always be preferable to attempts at approximate or erroneous pronunciation, which will be even more confusing for the listener. And don't forget that English speakers like short, simple sentences: subject-verb-complement.

The video

We'd be forgiven for thinking that video is a welcome way of alleviating verbal and vocal communication deficits. Yes, certainly, but only in part. And in my opinion, the benefits of video are quite marginal. Here's why:

• Quality is still often very relative, and fluidity sometimes lacking: in 2023, 80% of French employees claimed to have lost time in their hybrid meetings due to technical difficulties [14].
• The reduced size of video thumbnails, on small screens and/or when the number of participants increases.
• Partial framing (on the face and upper body) and sometimes the angle of view, giving a profile or three-quarter view.
• Spontaneously, we tend to focus on those who are speaking, even more so than in a face-to-face meeting, due to the vignette being highlighted by default, or due to the degradation in sound quality, forcing us to concentrate more. But it's often just as interesting (if not much more interesting when you're an Agile coach!) to see those who don't speak up. Admittedly, depending on the system used, it's possible topinpoint a particular participant, even if he or she isn't speaking, but the exercise is awkward - at the very least, it's less natural and reactive when, in a face-to-face exchange, it would suffice to glance briefly at the audience.
• Finally, I'm convinced that, unconsciously, we behave differently in front of a webcam than we do in front of a real person: to convince yourself of this, think of Chandler's syndrome [ 4].

Chandler Bing can't help but wince whenever he has to pose for a photo. Friends, episode 5 of season 7

On the other hand, organizations can expressly request that video not be activated, to relieve network and VPN load, or to save money. In fact, video significantly increases the volume of data exchanged: simply switching off your camera will reduce it by 93% [16]. Reducing data flow also means saving energy, which, when carbon-based, has a positive environmental impact [5]. So there you have it: think of the planet, switch off the camera and work in your underpants!

In reality, I often observe that people don't spontaneously activate their cameras, or are reluctant to do so when asked. While suspicious managers will readily come up with all sorts of less defensible reasons for this [6], it can also be caused quite simply by shyness, modesty in the face of the perception of an intrusion into an intimate, personal space (the home, a bedroom, the possibility of a third party appearing...) or a way of not submitting to a form of pressure and control (or perceived pressure and control).

Extract from “The Challenges of Hybrid Work” study by Vyopta (2022)

Visual aids

Unlike video, visual support is essential. It helps capture and hold the audience's attention - and that's a real challenge in remote meetings. It aligns everyone with the issues and purpose of the meeting. As far as I'm concerned (unpopular opinion!), the good old Powerpoint medium is the perfect answer. But you still need to think carefully about the form and content to best serve the message you want to get across - but that's not the point here. Whatever the case, it's essential to illustrate your message by sharing visuals during the meeting, to complement or enrich it: this will overcome the limitations of verbal and vocal communication inherent in the remote environment. And it will optimize your videoconferences: the quality of the information communicated in relation to the time invested. This means extra attention upstream, and therefore extra preparation time.

“A picture is worth a thousand words” Proverb attributed to Confucius, Chinese philosopher of the 6th century BC.

In the absence of a whiteboard, if you want to interact with your interlocutors - or even try to bring out the collective intelligence of your Teams meetings! - there are a number of high-performance, easy-to-use tools that meet this need: Miro [7] and Klaxoon [8], for example. While they are relatively easy for participants to learn, the facilitator will need to invest a few hours of practice. You'll quickly lose your audience's attention if it takes you several minutes to painstakingly link two circles with a bidirectional arrow! The experience must be fluid above all else: here again, prepare in advance, simulate, experiment.

💡A tip: if you don't have a modern, adapted visual collaboration tool, a Word document, or another Powerpoint, shared on the Cloud can do the trick, even if the experience will be far less fluid.

Exchange format

In fact, remote meetings where each participant can only rely on the other's voice, possibly accompanied by visual aids, are more tiring, as they require greater attention and concentration from the participants: as the proportion of non-verbal communication is reduced, verbal communication is naturally intensified [15]. Even with the use of suitable visual aids, it is necessary to favor short formats with limited but precise objectives. Reduce the length of exchanges, even if it means increasing their frequency: for my part, I don't put much hope in meetings lasting more than an hour, and I try to build up formats in 30-45 minutes [11]. If it's not possible to reduce the length of a meeting, take breaks.

Simple to implement, the Lean Coffee format helps structure exchanges to optimize benefits while controlling timing.

Then there's the question of how to distribute the floor. In a face-to-face setting, this is natural (although....): a breath, a brief pause, a questioning glance towards a speaker are implicit opportunities for the other participants to add to the discussion, or to ask a question. But from a distance, the famous blank will inevitably occur: nobody knows whether to speak or not. Some will want to fill it at all costs, even if it means going off-topic or diverging. Most will remain silent, out of shyness or fear of cutting off someone they imagine is about to speak. Nothing completely new here, but it will be exacerbated by the distance. So how to proceed? Open-ended questions:

• “What do you think of ...?”
  
  
• “Do either of you have anything to add?”

... which 99% of the time result in a blank loooonnnng - prefer a closed question:

• Do any of you disagree with...?"

When a closed question just won't do, use an interactive support: give them a few minutes to throw out their suggestions or remarks on a Miro board, or more simply organize a mini-poll in the conversation backing up the meeting. If necessary, go around the table asking everyone by name to express their views: comments will magically appear - sometimes even on a subject that had been raised 30 minutes earlier...

☝As ease and confidence grow, some of the more extroverted will soon no longer hesitate to speak up, pushing the more discreet into the shadows. Most communication tools offer a feature that allows you to ask for the floor (usually with a raised finger). Make this a rule of practice, and be sure to distribute the floor fairly.

Finally, the number of participants is important. When it comes to a conversation between two interlocutors, there's hardly any difficulty: it's a format we've all been used to for a long time. Even the youngest among us have practiced good old-fashioned telephone conversations: when one of the participants has finished speaking, the other takes over quite naturally [19]. Beyond two participants, things get tougher. It's important to remember that the dynamics and fluidity of exchanges are essential, otherwise everyone will quickly go back to their emails or other occupations. This is sometimes already the case in physical meetings, where everyone remains focused on their computers - but that's another battle! Appointing a moderator (we like to call this a facilitator, failing which it's the Scrum master) seems essential to distribute the floor, ensure that everyone can express themselves in the best possible conditions, and keep an eye on the agenda and timing. Beyond a certain number of participants, and when the aim is to get them to collaborate together, features are generally available to divide the audience into sub-groups [9].

💡 “Pass the ball” is a dynamic distribution technique that I'm particularly fond of, and which also has the advantage of involving the players. When you ask everyone to speak (during a round table, for example, or a daily scrum), ask the speaker to designate the person who will speak next. Of course, it's important not to designate the same person twice, which means that everyone has to pay at least a minimum level of attention throughout the ritual.

A simple and effective alternative: a wheel of fortune, with the names of the participants (here the Miro Spinny Picker Wheel app, which offers a feature that allows you to successively remove those who have been designated - practical!)

Informal exchanges

“There is nothing more important in a group remote project than casual communication. Not just official emails and work updates, but the ability to sit back and chat.” David Rabin

In a face-to-face situation, it's perfectly natural to look up and ask a question of your bench-mate: a glance is all it takes to see if he or she is deeply focused on a task. Unconsciously, we consider it preferable to postpone our question until later, or to use a less intrusive vector, email or other. This is of course less obvious when working remotely. Yet it is vital to allow these rapid questions/answers, as they are essential to team dynamics - as much for questions of productivity and performance, as simply for the atmosphere and collective spirit [17].

And by the way, what happens to gossip in remote mode?

In most systems, everyone can define their own status or presence indicator (busy, available, etc.), even semi-automatically, but in my opinion, this is not very relevant in practice, as it is not kept up to date in sufficient detail. It's not uncommon for people to make immoderate use of occupied status - even if sometimes for very good reasons. However, whatever your profession, even if you're carrying out tasks that require a certain amount of concentration, you need to coordinate with the other members of your team. It's best to make wide and detailed use of all available channels, whether synchronous (scheduled meetings) or asynchronous (chat, email, comments...). Bear in mind that remote working favors asynchronous rather than synchronous communications [18]. In any case, each channel is adapted to specific types of communication, and calls for different levels of responsiveness. Anticipate conflicts (” so-and-so solicits me 10 times a day at the wrong time ”) by collectively establishing rules - working agreements - and reminding people of the benefits of these exchanges.

“Email is familiar. It’s comfortable. It’s easy to use. But it might just be the biggest killer of time and productivity in the office today.” Ryan Holmes, fondateur et CEO de Hootsuite

In another example, one of the team members I worked with, more specifically responsible for application deployments in qualification or production environments, has taken the initiative of reserving large time slots on scheduled delivery days, to which his colleagues are invited. They are not expressly required to join the meeting spontaneously, as in a classic Agile ritual. But it is agreed that they are likely to be called upon during these time slots, for example to deliver a component or to help in the event of unforeseen difficulties. This principle could be extended to other events of the samekind: customer presentation, peak activity, sensitive maintenance operation on a dependent system...

💡A few years ago, I saw a fully integrated virtual office system proposed by LifeSize, where everyone connected their webcam non-stop, with images of their close colleagues projected onto a dedicated screen, and their voices through loudspeakers, recreating the visual and aural ambience of a bench [20]. Cost, and perhaps a form perceived as too intrusive, have not allowed this type of system to become widespread. On the other hand, virtual office solutions that are less costly, simpler to implement and less intrusive, based on the principle of a metaverse, are being developed. My personal favorite is gather.town, with its pixel art style inspired by 80s video games [21].

Excerpt from a spontaneous conversation between 2 colleagues in gather.town.

What about the mixed format?

A classic case is when one part of the team or support team is on site, and can therefore interact face-to-face, and the other is at a distance. Nearly 8 out of 10 French workers (76%) declared in 2023 that their meetings included at least one remote participant [14]. Even if traditional Agile culture pushes for face-to-face meetings, often presenting them as a prerequisite for true Agility, I think it's better to focus on putting everyone on an equal footing. For example, when a team is spread over several sites, having one part of the team face-to-face in a room and the other part remote on their own workstations in front of Skype - or worse, in another room, also in videoconference mode - is terribly counter-productive. The quality of exchanges between face-to-face people, because of the naturalness and ease of communication that this implies, will be completely at odds with those at a distance, who will by necessity be partially excluded from the conversation. What's more, the lower sound quality on octopus-type equipment, the fact that people like to interrupt each other, or talk over each other, or use expressions and gestures... all these elements considerably hinder the understanding of those who remain at a distance. The rule I set myself: if only one of the participants can't be physically present, then it's very simple - everyone connects from their own workstation with their headset! The overall quality of exchanges will gain what the injunctions to attend face-to-face meetings will lose (admittedly, the sight of several participants in the same virtual meeting, speaking to each other from a distance, from one end of the same open space to the other, can be somewhat disconcerting and make you smile).

Conclusion

Thank you for your attention! Next article in this series “Maitrisez l'Agilité en distanciel”: we'll take a look at classic Agile rituals in distanciel (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum etc). See you soon!

References

[1] Distanciel, like its equally common antonym présentiel... what dreadful Anglicisms are these, as Le Figaro laments: https: //www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/actu-des-mots/presentiel-distanciel-ces-anglicismes-qui-polluent-notre-langue-20201116#:~:text=Le The word “distanciel” has appeared, distance learning (CNED). But we'll use it all the same, in the name of reading comfort, and in the belief that a language, if it is not to die, must live and evolve with the times. Incidentally, I've used many others elsewhere in the article.

[2] Agile Manifesto (2001), see the first value “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools” and the principle “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.” https://agilemanifesto.org/.

[3] Albert Mehrabian (1967) established the three-V rule: words and their meaning account for 7% of communication, voice and tone for 38% and image for 55%; 93% of communication is therefore non-verbal.

[4] It's not very scientific, but I'm sure it will speak to everyone: we can be perfectly at ease and natural in face-to-face interactions, but as soon as we pose in front of a camera, some of us don't know how to stand or smile without grimacing ridiculously. That's what happened to poor Chandler in episode 5 of season 7 of Friends: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIxMAgxl9WM.

[5] MIT's Kelley Travers asserts in 2021 that disabling video during a videoconference reduces the meeting's carbon footprint by 96%: https: //news.mit.edu/2021/how-to-reduce-environmental-impact-next-virtual-meeting-0304.

[6] The Challenges of Hybrid Work study by Vyopta (2022): https: //go.vyopta.com/vyopta_wakefield_survey_22.

[7] Miro is a digital collaboration platform designed to facilitate team communication and remote project management: https: //www.miro.com.

[8] Klaxoon is an all-in-one collaborative platform for businesses: https: //klaxoon.com/.

9] Read with interest this article by Liana Kreamer and Steven G. Rogelberg, researchers and professors at the University of North Carolina Charlotte (2022): https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Kreamer%2C L.%2C %26 Rogelberg%2C S. G. (2020%2C April 29). Break up your big virtual meetings. Harvard Business Review. Available at https%3A%2F%2Fhbr.org%2F2020%2F04%2Fbreak-up-your-big-virtual-meetings. You can also experiment with Liberating Structures, many of which can be transposed or adapted remotely: https://www.liberatingstructures.com/.

[10] Following the various confinements, studies on the popularity of telecommuting have multiplied. For example, APEC published a study in 2023: Telecommuting for executives (apec.fr).

[11] Most experts agree on a length of between 30 and 60 minutes, as reported by People at Work magazine : https://peopleatwork-mag.com/une-reunion-efficace-cest-quoi/.

[14] OWL Labs publient chaque année un état des lieux du travail hybride à travers le monde : https://resources.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work.

[15] Read this article by JN Bailenson “Nonverbal overload: A theoretical argument for the causes of Zoom fatigue” (2021) : https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Nonverbal overload%3A A theoretical argument for the causes of Zoom fatigue&publication_year=2021&author=J.N. Bailenson.

[16] See this study by Greenspector (2021), a company specializing in measuring and analyzing the environmental impact of web and mobile applications:  https://greenspector.com/en/which-video-conferencing-mobile-application-to-reduce-your-impact-2021/.

[17] For further reading, see for example this study by B. Viererbl, N. Denner and T. Koch “You don't meet anybody when walking from the living room to the kitchen”: informal communication during remote work” (2022), which stresses the need to plan informal exchange sessions for teleworkers:  https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JCOM-10-2021-0117/full/html.

[18] Collaborative article by Microsoft employees (2022), who analyzed the evolution of communication data (email, chat, calendars, etc.) for over 60,000 of their colleagues since 2019 and the COVID pandemic : https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85114626092&origin=inward&txGid=7ffd2d19374dd5126176fd01ce665690.

[19] Although usage is evolving, asynchronous communications seem to be gaining ground: consider, for example, the growing use of voice in instant messaging conversations (e.g. Whatsapp): short voice messages in place of the usual short texts.

[20] LifeSize offers several videoconferencing solutions for hybrid working : https://www.enghousevideo.com/video-conferencing-solutions/lifesize-cloud-enterprise-meeting-solutions/lifesize-meeting-room-solutions.

[21] You can create and test a virtual office for just a few people at gather.town: https://www.gather.town/. Beyond that, there's a charge.