Technology Can Dovetail With Productive Meetings (Commentary by I. Barry Goldberg)

One of my clients is a global tech manufacturer on a high growth track. The weekly meeting of their Operating Committee looks like a scene from a futuristic sci-fi movie produced in the ‘70s. People are on the call from Europe and Asia via teleconference. Everyone has their laptop open in front of them and a “CrackBerry” close at hand.

A meeting like this is also a facilitator’s worst nightmare. We have all been in meetings where technology is a distraction. I have seen people in meetings do everything from Facebook updates to online conversations between attendees making fun of the meeting. This particular team is about as effective and purposeful as any I have ever seen. But it was not always this way.

Technology is a way of life in business. We depend on it in ways we never would have dreamed of as little as a decade ago.  Even the slowest adopters are dependent on technology for the operation of their businesses. But technology can be more than a tool — it can also be a toy. My experience with technology in meetings is that unless its use is backed up by clear agreements — agreements that the team is willing to self enforce — then most of it is a way to feel disengaged, superior and self important.

Recent research from the Department of Communications at the University of Texas backs that up. “The Social Influences on Electronic Multitasking in Organizational Meetings,” by Keri Stephens, assistant professor of communication studies in the College of Communication, and doctoral candidate Jennifer D. Davis, appears in the August issue of Management Communication Quarterly. The primary finding is that “…organizational norms and social cues, not communication overload, are the strongest predictors of whether individuals use their laptops or smart phones to electronically multitask during a meeting.” In other words, we use the technology to distract ourselves or avoid the real work of the meeting.

In recent years, many organizations have experimented with meetings that are strictly technology free. No mobiles and no laptops in the room excepting one that has the presentation data for a projector. And for certain meetings, such limits are appropriate. But when the topic of the meeting requires access to data, or suggests the need to keep notes, these draconian measures are counterproductive. And besides, they insulate the team from the real issue.

Workgroups and teams need to trust each other to set boundaries and stay within them. Moreover, they need the courage to be self-regulating. The research at UT talks about “…organizational norms and social cues.” In short, we give those around us permission to check out, distract themselves and others and waste the meeting time by simply ignoring them when they do so — or by doing the same ourselves.

The team I described above was as bad as any a year ago. They tried the “no technology in meetings” rule and found that for weekly status meetings, they were hamstrung.  So, not only did they set new ground rules but they literally scripted a way to call each other out in the meeting when they saw someone crossing a line.  (“Bob, I notice you are doing e-mail”)

Today, there is no need for such confrontation. Technology is used to take notes and update data needed for the meeting. You would be amazed to watch how much this team gets done.  Meetings are shorter, have more impact and no one misses them because they are where decisions are made and work gets done. The key to this level of productivity was not in tossing out the technology, but in changing the organizational norms and social cues. In short, they had to make agreements and give themselves the accountability to enforce them.

The full study is available here.

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