Insights / Delivery
A hybrid session is two rooms
The remote people know within ten minutes whether they are participants or an audience, and they are almost always an audience.
By McKinley Malbrough III, J.D., MS-HRM. Published September 10, 2026.
Short answer
Build the session as though everyone were remote, then let the in-person group use the same structure. Same shared document, same chat, breakouts assigned across both groups. Anything over about twenty people needs a second person watching chat and time, because one facilitator cannot read a physical room and a chat window at once. It costs the in-person group some atmosphere and gives the remote group a session.
Why do hybrid sessions fail?
Because they are built for the physical room and streamed to everyone else. Side conversations, whiteboards, and the energy of a group in a space are invisible or unusable to the people on screen.
The remote group then behaves rationally, and the pattern mirrors what shows up in who owns the hybrid policy generally: they multitask, because they were made optional.
What is the fix?
Build the session as if everyone were remote, then let the in-person group use the same structure. Everyone in the same digital document, everyone typing in the same chat, breakouts assigned across both groups.
It costs the in-person group a little atmosphere. It gives the remote group a session.
Should remote people be in mixed breakouts?
Yes, and enforce it. An in-person breakout of four with one remote person on a laptop propped on the table is not a breakout, it is a punishment.
If mixed groups are impractical, keep breakout groups entirely remote or entirely in person, and give them the same question and the same time.
Do I need a second facilitator?
For anything over about twenty people, yes. One person cannot read a physical room and a chat window at the same time, and the chat is where the remote session actually lives.
A producer watching chat and time is the single highest return addition to a hybrid session.
McKinley Malbrough provides education and is not an attorney. Contacting him creates no attorney-client relationship. If you have a legal question or need legal advice, contact an employment attorney.
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