Should your meetings be low-tech?

Do laptops and smartphones hijack your work meetings? Do employees spend time checking e-messages, tweeting their friends and scanning news headlines rather than listening to your strategy to boost profits? Well, you’re far from alone. Technology has impaired many a work meeting.

Going low-tech

Because of this Jake Knapp, design partner at Google Ventures, writes in a current post on the Medium Web site that staff ought to be restricted from carrying technology into meetings. Bosses, then, will have a far less challenging time attracting the interest of their workers.

Bye-bye tablets

Knapp recommends that employees say goodbye to their laptops, smartphones and tablets before entering a meeting. This will make sure they concentrate on what you’re announcing and not a raunchy joke forwarded to them by their best friend.

A timer

To alleviate the jitters of your now tech-less workers, Knapp proposes setting up a timer where everyone can see it. Now, your workers understand that there’s a stop time for the meeting. And when that timer goes off? Keep your end of the bargain; end the meeting.