Earlier this week I spent a wonderfully inspiring day being reminded of the power of establishing a thinking environment with Nancy Kline, bestselling author of Time to Think.

During this time the issue of digital addiction came up and how “we have become slaves to the tools which were supposed to empower us”. Well, I’m as addicted as anyone and there is no ways I was letting this little smartphone be dragged out of my sweaty palm without a fight. However let’s consider the following;

One, giving someone your focussed attention, listening curiously and without interruption, significantly improves their ability to think independently,

And two, having your smartphone, ipad or laptop visible during meetings effectively stops you from thinking well. And what’s possibly worse, it also stops others from thinking well,

And if we understand that the quality of everything we do, every decision we take, depends on the quality of the independent thinking we do first, it would seem obvious the first responsibility of leadership is to help people think,

And that means providing full, generative attention, without interruption or distraction, while people think together.

If making meetings a digital no go zone would substantially increase the value of that time it seems a no brainer to me. So brace yourself, grab a pastry to calm the jitters, and turn that phone off! (And if you are now rolling your eyes in disbelief, check out the evidence in this longer article by Daniel J Levitan …..or, you could just trust me!).

if you are keen to know more about generating great thinking in your meetings chat to us about our Time to Think accredited Transforming Meetings workshops.