Did you want fries with your meeting?

"How can I help you?"

"I'd like a productive meeting, that is just the right amount of time, with the right people in the room, who are appropriately paying attention."

"Would you like fries with your meeting?"

Two things struck me this week that I wanted to call out here.

Some meetings beg for people to bring laptops with internet connections so that questions can be answered, sites can be browsed, etc. that relate to accomplishing the goals of the meeting. Other meetings, scream for no internet connectivity at all - demanding the singular focus of everyone in the room.

If you are running a meeting, you should feel empowered to establish what kind of meeting you're running in advance of holding it. Tell people it is a "laptop free" meeting, or a "laptops welcome" meeting, etc. You could replace the word "laptop" with "internet" and it would work just fine, too. Where ever there are laptops and connectivity, you run the risk of getting someone's partial attention, or losing your own. It just happens. If you think you've lost someone's attention to the internet - bring them back in with a question. And if after a meeting you've run someone asks you to reconsider what your ground rules are, think about it - have a conversation. Sometimes it isn't black and white.