Recent Posts
- (Anti)Social Networking?
- Business Casual
- APICS Seminar 1
- Unanticipated Demand
- Marty the Manager
- Honesty is the Best Supplier Policy
- Just Blame the Vendors
- Go for the Surcharge, not Price Increase
- And Other Duties "As Assigned"
- Technology Free Meetings? Never!
Recent Comments
- Ajay on (Anti)Social Networking?
- Cindy on A Generation Gap
- Anne on Cyber Monday
- Supplier Woes on Honesty is the Best Supplier Policy
- sue edge on Technology Free Meetings? Never!
Most Commented On
- A Generation Gap (6)
- Ubiquitous Sourcing (5)
- Please Mr. Postman (4)
- Technology Free Meetings? Never! (4)
- Tradeoffs (2)
Archives
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
Blog
Technology Free Meetings? Never!
March 26, 2008
Are the meetings that you attend lately filled with those with laptops and the ubiquitous BlackBerry tap-tap-tapping away? According this article in the Boston Globe, there is building resistance to those technology tools. Why? Not enough people are paying attention to what is going on in the meeting. Some have called for "top-less" meetings…..ahem….meetings without laptops.
Perhaps it is the meeting itself that is causing minds to wander rather than the call of the next e-mail, stock quote, or IM. Or maybe the lure of the Internet in your pocket is too much to resist no matter how interesting the meeting. Sort of a chicken and egg deal.
I attended a meeting years back with about 15 people. We were jammed into a small conference room. During the meeting the lights went off; not due to a power failure but the motion detector timed out. There was no movement in the room for a full five minutes. That was a signal to end the meeting.
How do you handle meeting attendees more concerned with their toys then the meeting itself? Send me a comment and let me know what is going on in your company.
Posted by Richard G. Weissman on March 26, 2008 | Comments (4)
In response to: Technology Free Meetings? Never!
Mike W. commented:
I will ask questions of the person, such as for opinion or if they understand.
In response to: Technology Free Meetings? Never!
Kim Hamer commented:
I trust my employees to be able to prioritize their involvement on interfacing with suppliers and juggling the needs of their internal customers while attending meetings (The world does not stop when we are in them and there is a lot of them) If they are tap..tap..tapping during a meeting it is because their focus should be on returning value to the company. I have never seen any one of my employees playing with the market or texting their bf's on their BBs. Set your expectations and priorities as a group overall and encourage success. To often we think the worse and spend to much time researching to find out best intentions!
In response to: Technology Free Meetings? Never!
www.chuckcarman.org commented:
Or is the real problem a poorly focused meeting without an agenda or relevant subject matter that only exists so some stuffed shirt can hear himself talk. As technology becomes smaller and more powerful, it is now possible to meet customers, subordinates, and even family obligations while someone drones on about the SOS. It's not the laptop's fault the meeting is too long in time and too short in value.
In response to: Technology Free Meetings? Never!
sue edge commented:
depending on who is hosting the meeting...if it is one our vice presidents, the cells are on vibrant...no one would dare bring their laptops to a meeting...any call answered are done outside in the hall way....if i have to get in touch with my boss during a meeting i will text him...and i can honestly say, if the meeting is important to him, i won't hear back until the very end.....