InPro-Hym: Inclusive and productive hybrid meetings

Purpose and goal:

The project´s overall objective is to contribute to inclusive and productive work practices for hybrid meetings in private and public organizations that work with this form of meeting as part of their new digitally based working practices. Mälardalen University, together with a private organization, Hitachi Energy, and a public organization, the City of Västerås, has deepened and systematized knowledge about the challenges, needs and opportunities of the hybrid meeting in this step 1 project. This work has resulted in the development and submission of a step 2 proposal to Vinnova.

Expected results and effects:

The project is a step 1 project and the result is therefore mainly a proposal for a step 2 project based on the knowledge about hybrid meetings that was developed in step 1, as well as on the commitment for developing these meetings among the need owners created in step 1. The developed knowledge has also been presented to organizations other than the need owners, given the great interest in hybrid meetings that exist in society today.

Many are affected by flexible and hybrid working practices and in leading hybrid groups it is crucial how productive meetings are organized and carried out. Approach and implementation:

In this step 1 project, we have used a co-producing approach and qualitative methods, mainly inspired by design methodology. We have had two workshops where representatives of the two organizations, with different roles and expert knowledge, have gathered. Through design-based methods, they have shared their own experiences, experienced challenges and expectations around hybrid meetings.

We have then analyzed these results in the light of existing academic literature and defined some important aspects to further explore in step 2 and to discuss around in the organizations.