Reading the room when half the executive is on a screen
In a fully physical room, a delayed nod still travels. On a grid of tiles, the same delay looks like buffering. Chairs then fill the gap with extra talking, which the remote directors correctly hear as the decision already being made in Melbourne.
We ask hybrid teams in Leading Hybrid Leadership Teams to appoint a second reader: one person in the room whose only job is to name who has not yet spoken before the vote. It is a small role and it irritates people who like a brisk agenda. It also surfaces the quiet veto that used to hide behind a frozen camera.
Consent should be spoken. If a remote director only types “fine” in chat, we treat that as a request for a slower round, not as a signature. The paper can wait twelve minutes. The pretend alignment cannot be unwound later without a fight.
None of this requires new software. It requires the chair to look ugly for a moment and ask a named person what they are withholding. That is the work we practise. The rest is furniture.