Why smartphones are so toxic to IBM Design Thinking workshops
The standard issue working agreements for IBM Design Thinking workshops start strong. “Technology off,” we tell participants. “Your phones, laptops, tablets, VR headsets and other devices aren’t welcome in the meeting room.”
So, a question for my IBM Design Thinking facilitator comrades out there: how many of you actually enforce the guideline? I mean really enforce it by inviting offenders to put down the device or peel out of the room?
I do.
It’s usually an awkward conversation.
I’ve seen my share of stink eye.
But I’m here to tell you phones and laptops are toxic to IBM Design Thinking workshops. I believe the quality of output from a workshop reflects the time participants spend away from their devices. I’ve also field-tested a way to get participants to self-police the no-tech agreement. My bet is the approach will work for you, too.
Why participants resist
First, consider why it’s so hard to pull participants away from their phones.
Pew Institute tells us roughly half of smartphone owners in the United States can’t bear the thought of life without their phones. Can’t bear the thought! What’s more the research was done in 2014 — before Slack emojis became a viable way to invite friends to lunch.
Even though most adults (94 percent, according to Pew Institute) disapprove of using phones in meetings, the Technology off! guideline inspires panic. Workshop participants fear missing out on status updates, headlines, flash sales and even work stuff. So they resist. They sneak peeks at their phones during playbacks, nodding heads on autopilot while swiping and scrolling with their thumbs.
This is bad.
Empathy at stake
By now we know multitasking slows us down. We know turning from one task to the next requires time for our brains to refocus. Now also consider the findings of a study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Researchers found one’s brandishing of a smartphone not only reduced the quality of his or her social interactions, but also inhibited “the extent to which [they] felt empathy and understanding.”
Diminished empathy?!?!
Now we’re talking table stakes of an IBM Design Thinking workshop.
But, wait. There’s more.
Stress and brain drain
A separate study out of England’s University of Worcester found smartphones also increase our stress levels.
Yes, the incessant need to stay on top of status updates, headlines, flash sales and even work stuff twists us up tighter than a mattress coil. Even if we don’t know it.
Perhaps worse than the compounded stress is the creative toll.
Stress saps creativity. We know this. Moreover, research from the University of Texas, Austin, suggests the mere presence of our phones actually reduces our cognitive capacity. According to the study authors, just seeing the phone is “a brain drain.”
So having phones on hand in a workshop reduces empathy, increases stress levels and diminishes the amount of creative juice pulsing through the room? Sounds like a business case to challenge the time, travel and material expenses of a workshop where participants remain tethered.
So what’s a facilitator to do?
Consider my field test.
It was Friday morning, the start of Day 2 at a client workshop in Austin. Day 1 had run long. Participants’ sunken eyes suggested an even longer night of dinner and mischief.
Although we introduced the Technology off! guideline at the beginning of the workshop, on Day 1, my co-facilitators and I had been lax about enforcing it. Sure enough, the participants had strayed.
Now we were previewing the Day 2 events, and people already were on their phones. “Today let’s try a new approach to the working agreements — particularly the one about no technology,” I proposed.
I noted the amount of ground we had to cover in short time. I suggested the pile of money funding our time together. I reminded the group if something was business (or personally) critical — if they absolutely had to take a call or send a message — by all means they should step out of the room and do so. I also said my co-facilitators and I didn’t have bandwidth to play room monitor, so the group would have to self-police.
“Let’s pick a safe word,” I said. “It’ll be a word we use to call out someone breaching our Technology off! agreement.”
The group chose the word, “powder.”
An hour later, as groups brainstormed big ideas, someone called, “powder.” Then it took hold. By the end of the day, I heard “powder” at least four more times.
Power of peer pressure
A study on peer pressure in the workplace by researchers from University of Iowa and Texas A&M confirmed people pleasing is a strong motivator in the salt mines. My sense is the motivator came into play in the room. The participants had enough at stake to want to deliver. They also had a strong enough rapport with each other to call foul when they saw it.
We made great progress on Day 2. The workshop ran device light, and we arrived at an idea the client ultimately funded for prototyping.
There may be irony in having facilitators from a company that champions augmented intelligence invite people to power down.
But we also challenge ourselves to think.
As IBM Design Thinking facilitators, let’s bring the Technology off! guideline without apology or exception. With phones on hand, it’s just too easy for participants to search for answers. And the act of searching for answers defeats the blue sky purpose of mining for ideas.
5 steps to enforce ‘Technology Off!’ in IBM Design Thinking workshops
- Set expectations. Inform participants ahead of time that they’ll need to untether.
- Explain why. Relay the science in regard to distraction, stress and brain drain.
- Create a safe word. Invite participants to suggest the word they’ll use to call foul.
- Model the behavior. Use the word to call out offenders.
- Reward the first follower. Offer swag to the first participant who uses the word to call foul.
Adam Kleiner is a North Carolina-based creative director at IBM. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
