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Smart phone technology has generated a lot of debate about rules and manners and the obsession with staying online or connected twenty-four hours a day.
The constant fiddling with mobile phones during meetings and presentations is now forcing companies to draw up rules for the use of them, something that has been neglected for too long some executives say. Some managers have become so irritated by the constant fiddling on phones they are even banning them from meetings.
Those on one side of the argument believe being permanently connected is the way of the new millennium even that switching off, even if in a meeting or a presentation, can only result in lost sales or opportunities.
On the other side of the argument are those who have been annoyed and irritated far too often by people sending texts, accessing emails or jumping on to their Facebook or Twitter sites on their Blackberrys or iPhones with no regard for the person addressing a meeting or making a presentation.
Enough is enough is what they are saying and calls are being made for a new rule book, an etiquette guide if you like, for how and when to use the smart phone.
I have to agree, I am more with the second camp. I know that in this age that forces us to work in the minute, attention should always be paid to good manners and fiddling with or sending texts on a mobile phone in company or in a meeting or a presentation to me is just plain bad manners.
Having said that, I often wonder why we have live meetings or live presentations at all these days. Everyone is so obsessed with being on line – and many would rather be online than in any live meeting anyway – you have to wonder what the point of any meeting is anyway. Why don’t they just do these on line too?
Smart phone technology, such as the Blackberry or iPhone, has turned our mobile phones into something of a mini-office. That’s not to say that the fiddling and tapping away on mobile phones was absent before we had this technology. Sending texts when in meetings or presentations has long annoyed and irritated many who want audience focus and participation.
It’s just that the smart phone technology has almost justified impolite behaviour. It is saying “I’ve got something more important to attend to than this presentation”.
Over in the USA, some business leaders and political heavyweights are fed up with what they see as rude and blatant use of new technology they are rewriting the rule book. The Creative Artists Agency and United Talent Agency in Hollywood have banned Blackberrys in meetings and state Senate majority leader, Malcolm Smith, was recently asked to leave an important meeting discussing budget matters after he read his emails during the meeting.
Favour is tending towards smart phone use as more of a percentage of people use them for just about everything, all day, every day. They can even replace the old pen and notepaper in a meeting but people need to be a little cautious when using their smart phone for this purpose.
A client could easily misinterpret the note taking as chatting by text as one Manhattan talent-book agency found out recently. The founder and CEO was forced to justify and explain notes taken in a meeting after a client complained about the constant use of the phone by an employee during the meeting.
No matter what is decided as the blanket rule or etiquette in the use of today’s mobile phones when in the company of others, there will have to be some consensus. Otherwise, misunderstandings such as the one just mentioned are going to be everyday occurrences and that can eliminate all of the benefits that the smart phone technology have given us.
Do you use your mobile phone in meetings?
Sourced: The New York Times
Good things used to come in glass or so the slogan went but most of our drinks manufacturers have turned, or are turning, to plastic – PET plastic that is.
Two Australian winemakers have followed in the footsteps of soft drink manufacturers and and turning to plastic as the container of choice. Wolf Blass and Sirromet Wines cite environmental reasons for the decision claiming plastic bottles produced almost 30 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than glass bottles and are cheaper and safer to recycle.
Bottling wine in plastic in preference to glass was first considered for sale at sporting and other venues where glass was banned. The small glass size bottles for this purpose have been available for some time. Now these two winemakers are taking a further step.
Australian wines have been bottled overseas in PET for some time, the argument again being that bulk wine can be transported to countries such as the UK and then bottled in PET. This, they say, reduces the weight in transportation and thus reduces carbon emissions.
I would imagine this also lowers the production costs of the wine, probably a much more important reason for the winemakers’ decision. Perhaps we will be able to buy the wine at a much cheaper price?
The winemakers have made a gamble however. They are banking on the product moving through retailers rather quickly. Wine in plastic has a shelf life of only twelve months after bottling. So for their sakes, it will have to be a popular option.
Would you buy wine in a plastic bottle or will you stick by the glass one?
Sourced: www.theage.com.au; www.choice.com.au.
Remembering people’s names is not only an art but a necessity. Forgetting them can stall a business relationship and can often be downright embarrassing.
We meet so many people through our work and socialising that remembering all their names can be extremely difficult especially if the meeting has been swift. So often I hear people say “I’m hopeless with names” or “I never remember people’s names”.
Addressing a person by their name can win you a lot of points. Not only will it build an instant rapport with them but it can make a very good impression and in turn they will probably remember your name too. A friend of mine who not so long ago became a trainer and coacher remarked recently that calling his students by name gave him an instant rapport with them.
It is probably true that some people just have a really good knack for remembering names but sometimes this “knack” has been trained in the art of recalling names.
I know sometimes the reason I have forgotten someone’s name only shortly after being introduced to them is because my mind has been elsewhere, thinking about what I had to do or something like that.
Generally I am pretty good at remembering names but I do have times that I am not so good and I have tried to improve my ability to remember by concentrating on the name when I am first introduced.
There are many who advise to repeat the name back to them such as “nice to meet you John” and if possible repeat it often in the first conversation you have with them.
This may not always be possible. In work situations especially sometimes you meet people very briefly and don’t have the opportunity to repeat and repeat the name. In this situation I often deliberately try to repeat the name to myself a few times. It does help.
Often I have heard it suggested that using mind pictures to remember names can be very helpful although I have never really found this suited me.
One trick I do find useful is to think of a celebrity or famous person with the same name and repeat this whole name to yourself automatically associating that person with someone of fame.
There are people who have lots of practice at names everyday and lots of them. Teachers have classes full of students they address personally. Supervisors with quite a few people reporting to them are constantly relating to people individually.
Some of us just don’t get that regular daily experience so the best idea is to practice and purposely try to improve your skill.
If all else fails perhaps you could quietly ask someone else the person’s name if that is possible or maybe you can just admit you can’t remember their name.
Do you have a special trick or tips for remembering names?
So interested were people around the globe to find information on the hospitalisation and death of Michael Jackson yesterday, that the millions and millions of people who jumped on line put unprecedented pressure on search engines, Google rating the Jackson-related searches as “volcanic”.
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If you would like to see how much damage one of your sneezes can do, I’ve found a video game for you. It’s called Stop Swine Flu, although its original name Sneeze seems far more appropriate
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It is impolite, even rude, not to cover your mouth when you yawn but it is really amazing the amount of people who don’t even bother. If you are yawning, a mouth wide open looks pretty awful – almost like one of those clowns in a side show at a fair – and it’s just simple bad manners.
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Journalists and opinion writers have had a lot of fun this week with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s new penchant for using Aussie slang and strine. Increasingly Rudd has injected some rather odd Aussie slang into his announces and responses.
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While many are losing their jobs and their nest eggs and can’t see an end in site to their woes, a Brit has found something else to complain about.
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96-year-old Graduate, Chao Mu-he
To beat boredom in retirement, Chao Mu-he from Taiwan took up studying for a master’s degree. At the age of 96 he will receive his master’s degree in philosophy from Nanhua University in southern Taiwan.
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Comment by Janet Collins
on Smart Phones and Etiquette
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Looks like a pretty good phone I must say. Thank you for sharing your opinion here. I think new rules may make it easier for bosses to deal with the problem. That way they won't have to single out any person and everyone is aware what is, and what is not, accepted.
It would make it easier all round I think.
Thanks for dropping in.