Are “no laptop” meetings hitting where you work?
Jeremy Zawodny has an interesting blog post about the rise of "no laptop" meetings due to the abuse of the laptop in some companies. The thought is that since most laptop users are not paying attention then the muckity-mucks ban them to force concentration on the meeting discussion. I could see this work but I have to admit that the use of laptops in meetings is almost non-existent in my work so it’s not a problem. I have attended a few meetings where laptop usage was discouraged but once I showed them how I take notes on my Tablet PC all were assured I was paying attention. Hopefully they’ll never see my posts on "stealth blogging" in boring meetings. 
I can see that meetings can be derailed if everyone is using a laptop and typing away the whole time but I believe there is a better way to force meetings to be better run for everyone. That’s the "no chair" rule. I guarantee you that meetings will be better focused and shorter if everyone is standing, laptop or no.
People in my company have “no chair” meetings all the time in the hallway outside my office… I wonder if they realize I can usually hear what they’re talking about?
I’m all for the no laptop rule. And the stealth blogging post demonstrates tablets are no better. Having a dozen people sitting in a room with latops running is insane. One person tapping out the minutes is fine, everyone clicking away reading emails, bidding on ebay crap and screwing off is why they should be removed.
I was told to chair a meeting a few weeks ago. I told them no PCs. Nobody came … sigh. I waited for over three hours … twiddling my thumbs … looking out the window … checking out my pockets for pieces of lint.
I really missed not having my computer to pass away the time.
What a sad place to work that meeting are that boring and/or pointless that they would need to instigate such a rule.
Maybe there needs to be list posted of the companies with this rule so smart people know where NOT to apply.
Just a thought
If the meeting is so pointless that people actually feel the need to do other things while in attendance, perhaps a meeting isn’t the best medium. Do you really need to meet in person or could a couple e-mails take care of it? I know that meetings where I work are often nothing but a waste of time for everyone involved. A couple people talk about things that the majority of attendees have little to no interest in, and everyone’s time is simply wasted while they zone out, wishing they were back at their desk. I’m the only one who brings a computer to most meetings to take notes on my tablet, but it usually goes to sleep because there’s nothing worth writing. Looking around the room, you can tell most people aren’t actually “there” and only showed up because the boss scheduled a weekly meeting. I don’t believe regularly scheduled meetings make sense; you should call a meeting if you have something to discuss. Simply having a meeting every week for the sake of getting people together in a room is a pointless waste of time. At least the way our meetings are run.
This makes me glad I own my own business. We have one maybe two meetings a year, they last 90 mins tops and then we have pie
Next year I am thinking of having our meeting at a winery down the road. Then we can have a “no-chair” meeting. We will be at bar stools!