What is channel inequity?
Illustration by Liv Weinstein, daughter of Katherine R. Lewis
Why room plus Zoom equals meeting imbalance.
By Katherine Lewis
Having worked in corporate America for decades, it’s been a long time since I’ve experienced the feeling of being “new” in a business meeting—since I’d experienced that vague, frustrating awareness that my perspective wasn’t quite piercing through, that my presence wasn’t wielding the same power as those of my colleagues.
But on a recent zoom meeting, I was taken right back—and taken aback—when my colleague and I waited in the online meeting room for over 15 minutes before the in-person staff finally began to appear. Throughout the meeting too, I felt echoes of that familiar frustration as my colleague’s and my contributions just weren’t getting the same air-time that the in-person participants seemed to be enjoying.
And it’s not just me. A tech client of mine recently put a name to this disparity: channel inequity. His term referred to the same phenomenon I’d been running into in my own team-leading experience: Participants at hybrid in-person/virtual meetings were not all being received–or responded to–equally. Those ‘in the room’ tended to have an upper hand over those participating via screen.
If this was another odd pandemic development that would someday soon go away, it might not warrant too much attention. However, a recent YouGov poll indicates that nearly nine in 10 people currently working from home (86%) say they would be interested in continuing to do so after the pandemic. Nearly two-thirds of these individuals (64%) say they would be ‘very interested.’ Of those, 39% go as far as to say they would prefer to be ‘remote full time’ with 32% favoring ‘remote most of the time, with the option to go into the workplace occasionally.’ It isn’t known what the next step in a hybrid workforce will be. But HR research indicates that some employers are going to allow a combination of office and home– it seems the risk of channel inequity might be here to stay.
So how do we nip it in the bud?
The truth is that similar forms of imbalance have always existed in professional group settings, especially with international clients. Differing time zones, hierarchy, corporate-versus-field locales and the like have always made for somewhat unequal footing in message delivery and reception. But the introduction of virtual participation–that is, the addition of a whole new “channel” to the meeting space–seems to be exacerbating, even extending, the impact of these already-extant imbalances.
That’s why channel inequity needs to be acknowledged. Here are a few techniques that I have found to be successful with my clients:
Acknowledge Channel Inequity and educate team members to mitigate when possible.
If necessary, have someone act as a monitor during the meeting. Allow that person to pause and ask the question of those on screen, “Any feedback or requests for those in the conference room?”
Body Language. The biggest difference to being in the room is just that. How one sits, moves, stands, etc. says a lot (more than words, according to Dr. Albert Mehrabian, who notes that 55% of communication comes from body language, 38% from tone of voice and only 7% from spoken words.) Since the screen participants already have a limited view, you’ll want to avoid turning your back to the camera or putting your hand in front of your face as you speak, so as not to exacerbate the obfuscation.
Keep to meeting start times whenever possible. A scheduled meeting shouldn’t only ‘officially’ begin when those in the office walk in with coffee from the break room. Those participating on zoom are also on the clock. Let remote members know if you are running late so they are not sitting silently on video wondering.
Be mindful of audio. Rather than having everyone default to “mute,” ask in-office participants to leave their audio (mic) on so that screen participants can hear side-bar comments and share in any water cooler moments, even during breaks. Also, encourage in-office participants to maintain their speaking volume–sotto voce answers can make screeners feel left out.
Consider the visual. Have someone attending in-person actually watch the meeting from the vantage point of the camera(s) to see what the screen participants are viewing. It shouldn’t be a blank wall or someone’s chin if it can be helped. Have those in the room seat themselves to be viewed. In some instances, even though a few are gathered at a conference table, there might be an opportunity for all participants to be on screen, so that the ‘talking heads’ appear the same size.
On the screen participant side, it’s time to let the dogs out and keep the cats off the keyboard. In a hybrid work environment, onsite team members may no longer find pets a charming distraction once they are back in the conference room. Channel inequity is a two-way street.
Channel inequity results in unintended consequences where messages can be misinterpreted, misconstrued or missed altogether. Let’s work to make it better.