Coffee and a Do Not: Multi-Tasking in Meetings

Multi-tasking in meetings?  Inevitable.   The real issue is how you respect those around you.

In thinking through this particular professional “do not,” I had to come to grips with something…  I’m a multi-tasker.

On the most interesting of days, I crave motion like a ferret with ADHD and an espresso IV staring into an open sock drawer.

That’s life.  You and I like to have a lot of things going.

So, when I thought through this particular “do not,”  which is about multi-tasking in meetings, I thought about how it’s typically framed.

Usually, we hear about how multi-tasking in meetings is a bad thing because it takes our eyes off the ball.  It creates inefficiency and distraction.

Those things are right.

However, some level of multi-tasking is going on in almost any meeting; and the higher level the meeting, the more there is.

By that, I mean that people’s minds are on other things.  It might be their kids, or a problem at the plant, or a customer call that’s coming in over the next hour.

People are multi-tasking, they just might call it distraction.

So, what’s my angle?

My angle is that I’d rather not worry about the fact that professionals get distracted.  That’s going to happen.

What I suggest on this Saturday morning is that we focus less on the fact that people multi-task in meetings, and more on the fact that people are disrespectful to others in meetings by willfully distracting themselves.

In other words, we should avoid being unprofessional in our distractions.

The most obvious and pervasive focus of disrespect these days is facilitated by the use of phones and devices.  At some companies I’ve been around, having devices in hand during meetings is a given.  Laptops are open in every meeting, smart phones are used with impunity in meetings; and people generally accept or at least tolerate it.

Indeed, laptop use in meetings is viewed by some as a sign of forward thinking (“wouldn’t want to kill too many trees.”).

The issue is that far too often the “forward thinkers” are the ones looking online at new apparel to buy or what the latest political news is, all while other people are discussing content in the meeting. And, others know it. Behind privacy screens (or not) and in front of their peers, these folks put their disdain for the meeting and for other professionals in the room on display.

If you are senior, don’t do this.  Even if you don’t avoid it because it’s wrong; avoid it because it’s transparent to others in the room. People watch you too closely.

In the worst of cases that you and I might come across, relatively senior managers carry on instant messaging conversations with each other while sitting near one another in meetings–giggling  to one another along the way.  The more junior people in the room stand dumbfounded after some of those meetings, wondering what kind of role modeling they just witnessed.

In a few other companies I’ve been around, devices were verboten in meetings.  No, nobody stands up and says “no devices,” it’s just a norm.

Yes, they use more paper.

No, they are no less distracted than other company managers.

But, get this:  When they are present in a meeting, they “look” present in a meeting.  They leave the multi-tasking to the mind.

And, trust me, the “no devices” crowds get just as much done as the fully wired crowd.  And, they tend to do it in less time.

Oh, and they make eye contact.  Eye contact is a good thing when one is looking to show respect.  Devices distract from it.

So what?

Multi-tasking happens.  Sometimes it happens because we are focused on the right things (“How am I going to get that deal closed???”); and sometimes it happens because of personal distractions (“gotta go get my kid from school in 20 minutes…I hope this meeting doesn’t run long.”).

Your mind multi-tasks.  Sometimes you have to fight it and focus; and sometimes (believe me), you just have to go with it and see where it takes you.

This “Coffee and a Do Not” is titled “multi-tasking in a meeting.”  But, the reality is I’m saying “sure, you are going to multi-task…Just don’t be disrespectful and unprofessional in the process.”

Have a great weekend.