Trumblog

Years ago we lauded a departing director of the digital department with having implemented a wireless network thereby “faciliting web surfing during pointless meetings.” It was a joke, but of course it was true. Thanks to him that company and the companies that it subsequently morphed into had a culture of laptop open meetings.

In contrast, Jack Morton’s corporate culture is to have “topless” meetings, meaning no laptops unless requiredto support the meeting, run a PowerPoint, take notes on, etc. There is rampant BlackBerry and iPhone checking, we are human after all. When I started here it took some time for me to adjust to this difference. I brought my laptop to my first meeting or two and I was shocked that people actually locked their laptops to their desks (I’d never before been separated from my laptop at work long enough for it to be stolen).

I’m not sure which is a better system, or even if there is a better one. On the one hand I can’t multitask at a long meeting, but people also don’t have to repeat themselves because someone was covertly checking Facebook. I think that meetings are shorter without laptops, but the causality may be in the other direction. An existing culture of short meetings may have made laptops less of a temptation.

What made me think about this was a sister agency using one of our conference rooms for the last two days. The table was full of laptops, an incongruous site here at Jack Morton. Would it look normal at your office? What about your corporate culture drives topless meetings or makes them impossible? If you could change would you? Let me know in the comments.

Photo Credit: Speaker Selection Process – 1 by nep

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