Our recent Google x UnWork roundtable brought together senior workplace leaders to explore the trends defining 2026. One issue dominated the conversation: meetings. Here’s a closer look at why hybrid equity remains one of the most persistent challenges organisations face.
The Challenge: Unequal Experiences, Fragmented Communication
Meeting culture is broken. Despite years of hybrid working, organisations are still struggling to create equitable experiences for in-room and remote participants. Participants described scenarios where colleagues sitting in the same physical space join virtually, creating confusion and fragmented communication. Remote attendees appear as small tiles on screens, voices overlap without clear attribution, and the technology that was supposed to enable seamless collaboration often works against it.
“I don’t know who’s speaking on the screen,” one leader noted, a simple observation that reflects a deeper problem.
Beyond hybrid inequity, there’s meeting overload. Employees feel pressure to attend everything, lack confidence in declining invitations, and experience fatigue that reduces the effectiveness of the meetings that truly matter. The result is a system where presence replaces purpose, and collaboration suffers.
The Opportunity: Redesigning for Real Collaboration
Technology alone won’t solve this. The organisations making progress aren’t simply investing in better cameras or microphone arrays: they’re rethinking meeting ownership, clarifying when physical presence genuinely adds value, and designing spaces that support equitable participation rather than privileging those in the room.
Some are introducing meeting protocols: clearer agendas, designated facilitators for hybrid sessions, and cultural norms around camera usage and participation. Others are designing rooms with remote participants in mind from the outset, treating the virtual attendee experience as equally important as the physical.
The breakthrough will come when organisations stop trying to retrofit old meeting habits into new formats and instead redesign collaboration from first principles. What does effective hybrid interaction actually require? When does asynchronous work serve better than synchronous meetings? And how do we empower people to own their time rather than default to attendance?
The answers are emerging. But they require cultural change, not just technical upgrades.
Want to explore how leading organisations are transforming meeting culture? Email [email protected] to register your interest in attending a future roundtable event.
