5 Reasons Mobile Phones are Killing Your Meetings (and how to politely prevent it)

5 Reasons Mobile Phones are Killing Your Meetings (and how to politely prevent it)

I have lost count of the times I’ve been in a meeting and within minutes there’s a phone ringing. But is it really an issue?

I think so.

  1. They make our meetings longer. It takes the human brain several minutes to re-focus after being interrupted.
  2. It’s discourteous to other team members.
  3. It takes very little to throw off the dynamic of a focused meeting, shifting the morale and participation of the entire group.
  4. Great meetings engage us. They are a time for innovation, debate and creative conflict. Human interactions that involve eye contact with each other, not with 4-inch screens
  5. Its liberating! If you’ve ever been brave enough to lock yours in the safe whilst on holiday, you will know that after those first few hours of withdrawal symptoms, it’s truly liberating. The world keeps turning. Our businesses, teams and customers somehow manage to survive without us (for a little while anyway).

You don’t need to act like a dictator to keep phones out of meetings. Before the meeting starts, establish the ground rules.

It’s far easier to ask people to refrain from using the phone than it is to get them to stop. Make a polite request that attendees turn off phones until the meeting is over. Explain that there will be a break allowing time to check for messages.

Author: Shelley Thomas August 2023

 

Back to blog