Recently as we began our staff meeting, I had our entire staff place their phones in the basket. We began with a time of silence for around 2-3 minutes and then went along with our meeting.

In the noisy world we live in with so many distractions and interruptions, we hardly have any time to pause, to breathe, and be still. Even when we are together in close proximity, our minds wander and our focus is on checking this little mobile device incessantly. We are not present to engage and connect with one another.

I’m not sure if it was my little experiment to place our phones in a basket during our meeting, but the level of engagement and discussion within our team was off the charts. I wonder the heights of creativity and connection we can gain from putting our phones away during our meeting times?