A small interview study on arXiv, nine interviews across three Norwegian Agile teams, looks at what hybrid work did to how those teams collaborate. Hybrid work reduced informal interaction. It created uneven participation. And the Agile ceremonies became what the authors call alignment anchors: the standups, planning, and retrospectives turned into the main place the team actually synchronized.
I think that last finding is the one with a decision attached. There is a steady argument that standups and retros are overhead a mature team should cut. In a hybrid or distributed team I think the study shows why that is wrong. When the hallway conversations are gone, the ceremonies are not overhead on top of the real coordination. They are the real coordination.
My view, from years of working with teams spread across rooms and time zones, is that the question is not whether to keep the ceremonies but how to run them so the uneven participation the study describes does not happen. Everyone on a call, or everyone in a room, but not half and half. A written agenda so the people who could not speak can still be heard.
Which of your team's ceremonies would hurt most to lose, and is that the one you have been thinking of cutting?
Photo source: https://photos.robertstowe.com/new-mexico