At the beginning of a recent business meeting I attended, five of the attendees placed their smartphones on top of the conference room table. It reminded me of a scene from an old western where all the cowboys placed their guns on the bar at the request of the town’s sheriff.
This was not the first time I witnessed the smartphone “quick draw” at a meeting. Somehow over the past few years, it has evidently become acceptable to allow attendees to ensure they don’t miss a text or email during a meeting. This was formerly considered rude behavior. There was a time when the content and presentation at meetings superseded the “all important” text, tweet or email.
In fact, just about everywhere one looks, the smartphone is taking control and impacting and interrupting face to face conversation. It’s the new addiction and most people don’t seem to care. And, if it’s not the smartphone, messages sent from laptops, desktops and iPads are serving as the core of our daily business and personal communications.
The increasing attraction and dependence on electronic communication is easy to understand, because it is simple, fast and convenient. Yet in so many instances the true content and context of the intended message gets lost in cyberspace. This can lead to misinterpretations and breakdowns in communication.
In the workplace good communication is still an essential ingredient to success, teamwork and morale. If you and/or members of your staff are electronic communication “addicts” and believe that good business still relies on excellent communication, here are a couple of ways to break the habit:
Implement S.E.N.D. – Stop Emailing Now Dude(ttes) is a tough program for many business people to go through. Try it for thirty (30) days in your company. The concept is simple, the implementation is difficult. Request that all internal emails cease unless there is an attached file that needs to be reviewed. In lieu of an email or text, ask employees to actually get out of their chair and meet with the individual(s) to discuss the topic. This is an excruciating endeavor for some and may require employers to support electronic communication detoxification with crutches like chewing gum and stress balls. If successfully accomplished, the S.E.N.D. program re-ignites human interaction, supports teamwork and can enhance morale. It takes a heck of a lot more time to engage someone in person than “shooting off” a quick message, but the end results can be game-changing to your company.
Advanced S.E.N.D. – If you survived thirty (30) days of S.E.N.D., then you are ready for the next step. Now you are prepared to start using the telephone for conversations with people outside your company location, in cases where you would have historically sent an email or text. Practice is encouraged first if you have been relying heavily on electronic communication. For some, practicing verbal communication and telephone etiquette is a great intermediate step before attempting face to face conversation. Also, practice with friends, family and significant others is encouraged.
S.E.N.D. Master – Individuals who graduated to this level, need to pass several final tests to achieve conversation enlightenment. Mastery of S.E.N.D. is only reached when individuals have the ability to turn off their smartphones while working, operating a motor vehicle, during meetings and while in conversation with anyone other than themselves.
There was a time in the not too distant past when people at work did not have the means to communicate electronically. We actually met in-person to discuss business challenges and share successes.
Compared to today’s technology, face to face communication took much greater effort and time. Yet, not much was lost in the message and human emotion was expressed. We knew a great deal about people as we got to know them over time, rather than relying on Facebook, Linked-in or other web-based databases to judge or be judged. We laughed together rather than exchanging LOL’s.
It was a different time that’s for sure. There will be no turning back and that’s a shame. Today we have information coming at us at lightning speed with no ability to manage all of it very well. Our culture has evolved to being a bunch of button pushers to work, buy, play, date, communicate, eat and live. In the name of speed we have sacrificed our most precious attribute which is the ability to be truly human.
There is one button on our electronic devices that can save us though and get us back to basics at work and at home. It’s called OFF.
