The Project Book

CHAPTER 59 BE PRESENT

Recently, following a project steering committee meeting I’m part of (as an independent adviser) for a large infrastructure program, I had to take an executive director to task for checking his phone throughout the meeting.

I’d tried to catch his eye a number of times, to give him a disapproving ‘Put. The. Phone. Away.’ look, but he was too engrossed in whatever was on there. Afterwards, when I asked what it was, he said that he was swapping texts with his wife about furniture. The message he sent to the project manager running through their report was one of indifference and, frankly, disrespect — and unfortunately it’s something we see a lot of in our organisations today.

Baby boomers (born 1946–1964) and Generation X (1965–1984) often associate addiction to phones with Millennials (1985–2004), reproving them as the ‘Distracted Generation’. One 2016 report on internet trends estimated that teenagers check their phone at least 150 times a day. Yet Nielsen’s Global Survey of Generational Attitudes produced some surprising results — for instance, on the percentage of meals that were not technology free: Millennials (40 per cent), Generation X (45 per cent), baby boomers (52 per cent).

Distraction is clearly a problem for all generations, not just Millennials. For some, technology has become their master and they’re glued to their phones at the dinner table, on the train, while waiting for their kids at school, even when talking to others! It’s a problem ...