ON GADGET ETIQUETTE IN MEETINGS

MULTI-TASKING NO NOs

ABC News ran a story on a recent silicon valley trend with the titillating title "Going Topless to Office Meetings", wisely adding the sub-title, "Why Silicon Valley employees are going to meetings Laptop-less".

Here's the gist:

"In the headquarters of Dogster, a networking site for pets, employees are allowed to bring their dogs into meetings but they can't bring their laptops or any other electronic device...
So far, Google, Yahoo and Apple are among the companies encouraging their employees to ditch high-tech distraction and engage with their colleagues.

Topless has gone beyond high-tech companies. Laptops are not allowed in some classrooms at USC's law school. Etiquette coach Colette Swan said, "We are becoming an internalized society. We are living in our laptops, our cell phones, in our texting."

It's a logical trend going forward, although increasingly difficult to enforce, as more innovative gadgets come along all the time. 

A case in point is the LiveScribe pen that I wrote about some time ago, which is finally starting to ship to pre-orders.  It's designed specifically to improve productivity in the workplace (see demo video here). 

But I'm sure like any other technology, users will find ways to use them for distracting purposes.

Disclosure:  I'm an investor in Dogster.

Comments

[Alex Tolley]

The problem is not with laptops per se, it is that they are used inappropriately, typically for reading and answering email. Execs seem particularly prone to the problem. If they were just used to take notes, view the ppt slides, that would be fine.

On the other side, I see this is possible because of poor meeting protocol. Meetings that invite too many people, are unfocused, long and boring.

[Deepak Das]

"Distraction by Gadget" is not just an enterprise problem. This has spread to the common man as well. I wrote an article on this at http://tinyurl.com/3c6ooq