I love my iPad. That’s not in dispute. In the loo, resting on the couch, airplanes, trains—it’s manna from Apple.
However, if I were compelled to stock-watch, email, game, surf, or otherwise entertain myself when someone else was presenting or leading a meeting, I would leave, or not attend in the first place.
I’m not coaching here. I’m asking you: please put it away during meetings.
iPad-mania is sweeping senior executive suites and boardrooms, and it’s simply rude. Junior people who put the slides, board books, or agendas together, or who have planned that presentation for weeks, are wondering why you can’t pay attention, or are completely disinterested in where you are right now.
I said the same thing about Crackberries a while back. Yet the 20-second furtive, under-the-table glance at those devices now seems positively polite in comparison to the 10 to 20-minute interactive I-Pad festivals going on in meetings nowadays.
Do I sound like a bit of a fuddy-duddy? There’s an app for that, I’m sure, but there’s no good app for your iPad in someone else’s meeting.
Unless you’re planning to share your game of WizzlyWogg with the entire meeting, I respectfully request you put it back in its award-winning and oh-so-tastefully-designed sheath.
David Peck
The Recovering Leader
