Why I don’t tell people to close their laptops in meetings
Helping people be more responsive during meetings
Published in
3 min readNov 16, 2013
This story could be about a meeting a year ago, a month ago, or a week ago. It happens all too often. Ten minutes into the meeting, the presenter is getting visibly frustrated at the number of people on their laptops, seemingly not paying attention. Typically what follows are phrases like “I’m going to have to ask you to close your laptops!” from the person leading the meeting. I believe this is a missed opportunity. I don’t tell people to close their laptops in meetings, and here’s why:
- It’s taking a top-down, command-and-control approach. Their attention is theirs to give, rather than mine to take. I’d be making the decision for each person that what is being said is more important than everything else they could be doing at that time. What if they are working on something that had emerged that day? Responding to it for a few minutes during the meeting could be more valuable to the organisation. At the very least, being in the meeting means they can listen to most of it, rather than missing it all by not being in the meeting at all. As the meeting lead, I don’t have all the information as to how they should prioritise their other work ahead of or behind what I’m presenting. I’d prefer to give the individual as much context as I could about why we’re here, and then trust them to make the decision about where they devote their attention. Their attention is theirs to give, rather than mine to take.
- It‘s addressing the symptom rather than the cause. If I tell someone to close their laptop, does that mean they’ll automatically stop thinking about what they were thinking about and suddenly pay more attention to me. I doubt it. In fact, they’ll probably want to pay less attention to me because I have treated them like a naughty child. Alternatively, if I want to influence their decision about where they give their attention, it is up to me to make the content and format more interesting for them, and help provide clarity of priorities and purpose. So, I’d first look to myself to see what I could change, rather than looking for them to change. Then I’d look to understand people’s motivations.
- They may actually be getting more out of, and able to contribute more to, the meeting because they are using their laptop. Perhaps I sparked a flash of inspiration that they want to explore before they lose it? Maybe they’re checking what I said because they thought I may have made a mistake? Or maybe they’re taking notes or having a conversation with others inside and outside the room, as I’ve stimulated thinking that they can build upon. Unless I’m them or ask them directly, it would be impossible for me to know the answer. People may have more things to be distracted by if they have their laptop open, though inspiring and trusting their judgement is my preferred approach.
If you’re reading this and find yourself in the above scenario, perhaps you could share this with the person who told you to close your laptop.
