There is a moment that keeps repeating itself. A meeting is scheduled. People gather around a table. Coffee cups are placed. Notepads are opened. And then—almost like a ritual—the mobile phones are placed on the table. Screens facing up. Sound on. Vibration mode ready.
Already then, something has been said—before a single word is spoken.
I have many times asked for something that seems provocatively simple:
Can we have the meeting without mobile phones on the table?
Not out of a need for control. Not to be old-fashioned. But out of respect. Presence. Focus.
The reactions are often the same. A short laugh. An explanation.
“I need to be reachable.”
“Something important might happen.”
“It only takes two seconds if it buzzes.”
And right there, in that explanation, lies the whole problem.
When the Phone Becomes a Third Party in the Room
A meeting with mobile phones on the table is not a meeting between people. It is a meeting between people and potential interruptions. Every glowing screen is an open door out of the room.
We like to believe that we are still present. That we can listen while briefly checking a message. But presence is not binary. It is gradual. And every ping, every vibration, every notification takes a little bit of it away.
It is not only about the person who looks at their phone. It affects everyone around the table. Eyes drift. The conversation loses its rhythm. Someone pauses mid-sentence. Another starts speaking a little faster, as if competing with an invisible opponent.
The meeting gets a worse pace. Less depth. A poorer outcome.
The Silent Signals of Leadership
Few things send stronger signals than what a leader does—without saying a word.
When a leader places their phone on the table, it says:
This meeting is important, but not important enough for me to shut the world out.
When a leader answers a text message in the middle of a discussion, it says:
What you’re saying can be interrupted at any time.
When a leader stands up and says, “I’m sorry, I have to leave,” because something buzzed—without it being a real emergency—it says:
My external agenda always comes before our shared one.
This is where the illusion breaks. Because nothing builds trust faster than full presence. And nothing undermines it faster than divided attention.
“I Have to Be Reachable” – For Whom, Really?
This may be the most revealing sentence of our time.
Reachable for whom?
And at what cost?
Most text messages, emails, and notifications are not urgent. They are simply new. And we have learned to confuse novelty with importance.
Organizations survived for decades without managers being available around the clock. Projects moved forward. Decisions were made. People solved problems. What has changed is not the need—but our tolerance for silence.
Silence has become something threatening. A void that must be filled. And the mobile phone is the perfect filler.
The Group That Never Fully Gathers
In group meetings, this becomes even clearer. One person looks down at their phone. Another does the same, “just to check the time.” A third sits mentally ready to leave the room at the first signal.
Suddenly, the group is no longer a group. It is a temporary waiting room.
And the irony is that we often complain about inefficient meetings, lack of engagement, and poor decisions—while systematically dismantling the very conditions required for a meeting to actually work.
When everyone is a little somewhere else, no one is really here.
The Bodily Intelligence That Disappears
There is a dimension rarely mentioned in discussions about mobile phone use: bodily communication.
When we sit face to face without screens, we pick up tone of voice, pauses, breathing, micro-movements in facial expressions. We sense when something is off. When someone hesitates. When an argument doesn’t quite land.
This is information. Deep information. And it disappears when the gaze drops to a screen.
Digital communication is efficient. But it is also flat. A meeting without presence reduces people to background voices, while the real focus lies elsewhere.
A Tech Gadget or an Identity Prosthesis?
Here we approach the core question.
The mobile phone is no longer just a tool. For many, it has become an extension of the self. A constant confirmation that one is needed, wanted, connected.
Putting the phone away then doesn’t feel like setting aside a gadget—it feels like stepping out of oneself for a moment.
Perhaps that is why the resistance is so strong. Not because the meeting demands something unreasonable, but because it demands something unusual: undivided attention.
True Professionalism Is the Ability to Be Unreachable
There is a paradox here that few talk about.
In a world where everyone is constantly reachable, real professionalism is the ability to be unreachable—when the situation calls for it.
To say:
I’m in a meeting right now. I’ll get back to you.
To show:
This conversation deserves my full attention.
That is not inefficiency. It is prioritization.
And it is often the most experienced, secure leaders who allow themselves this. Those who know that the world does not collapse because you are offline for 60 minutes.
A Simple Experiment
Try this.
At your next meeting, ask everyone to put their phones in their bag, pocket, or in a shared pile away from the table. Not forever. Just for the duration of the meeting.
Feel the difference.
Listen to the tempo of the conversation. Watch how eyes meet. How pauses appear—real pauses, not ones filled with screen light.
Often something unexpected happens: the meeting becomes shorter. Sharper. More human.
Respect Is Not a Policy – It’s a Behavior
We can write endless guidelines about meeting culture, focus, and efficiency. But in the end, it comes down to something simpler.
Respect.
Respect for time.
Respect for the people in the room.
Respect for shared thinking.
The mobile phone is fantastic. It has changed the world. But it has also quietly entered spaces where it doesn’t belong.
Not all meetings need to be phone-free. But some must be—if they are to be worth having at all.
Because a meeting where everyone is fully present is not only more effective.
It is also rarer.
And precisely for that reason—priceless.
By Chris...
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