Can it happen? You bet it can. Every meeting should be a NO PHONE MEETING, unless it's a conference call, then that is just silly.
At a recent committee meeting for a non-profit that to helps kids, a cell phone rang, and
the person actually answered it. I was like, "WTFacebook?" How rude! One person, didn't respect everyone else's time, and had to answer a call. It rattled me, and I lost focus on the task at hand. Why wasn't the phone left in the car, or at their desk? What can be so important that you need to disrupt a meeting, just to tell someone that you are in a meeting and you'll call them back. Remember, voicemail? Let it do it's job.
I wasn't in charge of the meeting, but I wanted to reschedule when everyone could give 100%. Perhaps a little harsh, but what is so important in our lives today that we can't go an hour without checking out phones? Seems like we are more concerned with alarms, emails, likes, tweets, gifs, messages, shares and anything else that being human and interacting with others.
If you think I'm crazy for suggesting "No Phone Meetings" I'm not alone. According to Forbes.com, 84% of working professionals believe texting or sending emails during a formal business meeting is highly unacceptable and rude.
Want more productive meetings in a shorter amount of time? Have meetings with zero phones. Set the expectation of no phones. If a phone rings, the owner is kicked out of the meeting. No exceptions. We all need to get back to respecting others and their time.
We all need to treat the boardroom table like the dinner table. #nophonemeetings #salescomedian