Almost Always Connected

Over the past six months I’ve worked intimately with a terrific bunch of people.

They’re a technology company, so just about everyone there has all the toys. Mobile phones, tablets, ultrabooks. You name it. Even the reps have not just one, but two cell phones each.

So what have I noticed in meetings?

Politely, I’ll term it continuous partial attention.

Not every person it afflicted, of course, but I sense that several are indeed suffering.

What is going on when an internal meeting is underway and each attendee is constantly scrolling on a screen and tapping little notes away?

Is it that we, as intelligent as life gets, can now better multi-function?

Or is it that less and less is sinking in?

I have one piece of simple advice for any sales manager running a team pow-wow.

Banish phones.

I have noticed some people have already cottoned on to this themselves. They already leave their phones behind at their desk anyway. So to expand this to a whole team shouldn’t be too hard, right?

I once remember a winner of a sales manager who used to say from the start, a decade ago now,

“phasers on stun”

to signify that all phones should be on silent.

Things need to progress now.

Anyone can wait an hour to check-in. Ensure all gizmos are left outside the room. Including yours.