It’s Not The Laptop . . . It’s You
April 8th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
We read this story in the Los Angeles Times about banning laptops in meetings with our faces scrunched up. Do managers really “remove chairs and force people to stand” and “get everyone to drink a glass of water beforehand” to make their meetings more effective? Was the author of the piece being sarcastic when he called these solutions “innovative”?
We empathize to a point.
Managers are “[f]rustrated by workers so plugged in that they tuned out in the middle of business meetings.” And that sucks.
But you know what also probably sucks?
Those managers’ meetings.
Here’s a tip for people who are having a hard time with people not paying attention: have your meetings be necessary. People aren’t stupid. If you are wasting their time, then they will tune you out. If you aren’t wasting their time, then they will give you their attention.
And don’t think that taking away the technology will solve the problem. The mind is a powerful tool. Employees may not be able to “tune out” without their laptops, but they can always think about sex and food.
I often take my laptop into meetings because I can’t afford to stop working to have a big group discussion, but that doesn’t mean I find those meetings useless. I’d say its close to 50/50 the importance of meetings to people in an office. Some people don’t need them, they can read a memo or an email and be fine, but for some reason there are employees in my department even that don’t grasp things until there is a big group discussion.
In general I agree with your take on the topic though, we could eliminate a lot of meetings and be more productive with that time.
This situation reminds me of a question that I’ve always wanted to ask the majority of managers in corporate America:
“How many of you realize that you’re talking to a PAID AUDIENCE?”
In my experience, most meeting-mad managers are simply in love with the sound of their own voice and their fantasies of “leadership”; the purpose of all these daily/weekly/monthly meetings is to serve as the main proof that they are, in fact, “large and in charge.”
If the vast majority of these managers ever had to earn an honest living as a true public speaker — and by that, I mean create and promote interesting, meaningful meetings and talks where individuals would actually PAY THEM to hear what they had to say (and retain the right to walk out in the middle of it if they found their meeting to be trite, boring, overly-long, or repetitious) — they would soon starve to death.
Great post. Right on the money.
There are few who specifically discourage attendees (in the meeting notice) from bringing laptops with. This, I believe, is extreme. I wish I had my laptop with especially when these meetings drag out and the chair/moderator does a poor job of keeping it on the topic and on time!
I have to say I have noticed few that don’t tune out despite having their laptops with, they show; what I would like to call the three P’s of good meeting habits: Preparation, Participation and being Present; couple this with a meeting chair that makes excellent use of time and keeps everyone engaged and you have yourself a gathering you walk away from satisfied that all objectives have been met and energized to resume work exactly where you left it off.