How to overcome the “grid effect” in virtual meetings

If you lead meetings, you already know what the grid effect is, even if you’ve never heard the term before.

Picture a call that’s going downhill fast: half the group is off camera, some are visibly typing, one person is dominating the conversation, and everyone else takes that as their cue to tune out. Someone else, you imagine them thinking, is probably paying attention.

It’s similar to the bystander effect, a social phenomenon where onlookers in a crowded setting don’t intercede in an urgent situation because they believe someone else will take action. It’s rarely the fault of any individual, but a reflection of innate human behavior in a specific kind of group dynamic. The same is true in a meeting grid – no one means to lose focus; it’s the nature of the setting. 

Extensive research into virtual meetings has found that the anonymity of a virtual meeting, even in a relatively small group, makes it feel much easier and more socially acceptable to multitask or do other work during a call. Additional research has found that it’s much harder for more junior employees to interject or redirect a conversation in a virtual meeting, making it feel less worthwhile to contribute.

So while it’s understandable and human, the grid effect is still bad news if you’re the person who called the meeting – and it’s not a great sign for organizational outcomes more broadly.

Why the grid effect is a problem

Modern organizations waste a lot of time on unnecessary meetings. Atlassian’s research has found that as many as 72% of all meetings are ineffective – a costly waste of time and attention. People have become so accustomed to “could’ve-been-an-email” meetings that they may go into a meeting assuming it won’t be worth their time. (They very well may be right; many meetings probably could be an email or a Loom.) 

But after the meeting audit dust settles, you’re left with the conversations that really do matter – and you can’t afford to let the grid effect take over. Even a relatively small virtual meeting of 9 or 10 people has only a 33% participation rate, compared to the 55% participation rate of a comparable in-person meeting. 

That level of disengagement shows us the grid effect in action. When two-thirds of people in the room aren’t taking part, that means that two-thirds of stakeholders aren’t weighing in on key decisions; that two-thirds of experts are not contributing their knowledge to planning or ideation sessions. When that happens, everyone on the team pays the price. 

How to drive virtual meeting participation 

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Gatheround, a platform that reimagines how people connect over video, and puts participation at the center of the process. Our verbal participation rate for a group of 9-10 people is just over 80% — almost 2.5x higher than other video tools. We measure verbal participation using a proxy indicator — the number of people in an event or meeting who choose to participate in an opt-in breakout activity.  Over years of refining the product to achieve that result, we’ve learned that almost everyone wants to participate in group conversation; they just need the right tools. 

Here are some steps meeting leaders can take to maximize participation and make the most of meeting time: 

1. Set expectations and norms ahead of time. Communicate clearly how people are expected to show up, what ideas they should bring, and what outcomes you hope to achieve. Ideally, articulate this as a pre-read document or consider trying a page-led meeting. This is also a helpful exercise to make sure the team meeting agenda is effective and doesn’t waste time on repetitive updates or announcements. 
2. Encourage and promote a variety of ways to contribute to the conversation. Most meeting tools provide polling, reactions, chat, and other non-verbal ways to participate, in addition to breakout rooms, but many meeting leaders forget to introduce these into the agenda or encourage participants to use them. That’s a big missed opportunity, since these features offer a low-stakes way to take part and may also help people get comfortable enough to go a step further and verbalize their ideas and opinions in a group setting. 
3. Structure discussion and decision points for equitable dialogue. If you have an important decision to make or want everyone’s input, lean on features like breakout functionality and round-robin sharing (offered by most video tools as an add-on) to discourage grandstanding and keep dialogue moving between all members of the group. This can be especially important for getting input from more junior members of the team. 
4. Listen more than you talk. As the meeting leader, you’re in the best position to facilitate an effective conversation, guiding discussion points and questions and collecting inputs. Avoid the temptation to take over or provide too much context during the meeting – this is where a pre-read becomes very important. 
5. Make it difficult to multitask. This is easier than you think. First, tell everyone ahead of time that they are expected to participate. Second, make your agenda very participatory. For example, ask everyone in the room to respond to a prompt or take a roundtable approach to each agenda item, where every person in the room is expected to have an opinion. If people know that others are waiting for their contributions, they won’t tab away to check their email. 
6. Know when to call it. If a regular meeting on the calendar is consistently missing these marks, it might be time for a ritual reset to reimagine how you use that time. Maybe you’ll pull it down and swap it out for an async standup or an email update – or maybe that hour could be dedicated to something brand new, like a regular brainstorm or a team retro. 

The grid effect is no one’s fault, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of your hands. A conscientious and creative meeting leader probably already knows how to think outside of the box – and what is a grid but another box?

For more insights into creative and effective ways to gather, follow along with what Lisa and Gatheround are up to.