Today at an out of state advisory meeting, the conference table had many laptops, cell phones and blackberries of attendees (including mine). The organizer asked us to turn everything off saying, "I don't want to sit up here talking and watch all of you working all day." And I'm sure most if not all of us actually did plan to work throughout the meeting. But we didn't. And everyone did seem more engaged in the conversation; and there wasn't the continuous running out of the room to "take a call" that seems to happen now.
It wasn't that long ago when we were able to routinely have discussions without distractions.
1 comment:
Cindy,
I've struggled with this as well, as an Association Staff member and as an instructor. My recent few GRI classes, I've encouraged the students to bring in their laptops as sort of a test.
Both in the meetings and in the classroom, we found that the instant access to information while in the meeting to help answer questions was invaluable.
I find that most facilitator and instructors get irritated, because of their ego.
Meetings and classes interrupt a lot of our day that is already in high demand. We need to learn to embrace adult learners and meeting attendees need to stay connected.
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