Recently I attended a conference through the Society for Human Resource Management. During one of the break out sessions, someone’s cell phone went off. The facilitator, Chris Maslin of The Biltmore Company, paused mid sentence, and immediately began dancing to the dance-beat ringer tone. When the ringer stopped, Chris picked up with his comments and continued the session, smiling, upbeat and seemingly happy to have those few seconds of positive energy.

A few years ago, as training professionals preparing for a Sales University, our team would communicate “rules of engagement” as part of the session opening which included appropriate cell phone usage. To lighten the tone of what was considered a necessary but potentially patronizing rule, we used movie clips as a fun way to make the point. We played a clip from “Two Week’s Notice” where Sandra Bullock’s cell phone goes off during the wedding where she was maid of honor, ending it when she says “sorry, gotta take this…” and runs down the aisle to take the call. The clip got a chuckle from the audience, but inevitably, someone’s cell would ring during the session and the facilitator would remind the attendees to turn their phones off.

A couple of years go, I was participating in a workshop with facilitator Philippa Bond of INFORM Training. Ever the idea leader and one to test the edge, yet also needing to manage the inevitable cell issue, Pip announced during her introduction that she was going to be in a bike ride to raise money for an important non-profit cause. To support her fundraising efforts, when someone’s cell rang during the session, she would be accepting that person’s donation to her cause. As always, someone’s cell rang, and the fund-raising began. It evolved into a fun and positive way to accept that the cell phones would go off — and even led to donations and awareness of her non-profit issue.

We all know that mobile technology provides constant communication access and is part of our personal and professional lives, even representing an evolution of how we communicate. Opinions vary about how mobile technology should be used, especially during workshops, meetings or other environments where we need to listen, discuss, interact, learn and make decisions. Let’s consider what is involved when someone is able to truly focus. Consider a parent who is in an important meeting and worrying if his sick child is worse. He can quickly glance at his device and get affirmation that his child is feeling better – enabling him to relax and focus. Or the executive who wants to be in the session, but is waiting on a key piece of information to make a crucial strategic decision. Knowing she will receive a real time alert allows her to be there. The sales rep can focus more, having received confirmation that his proposal submission is complete. A service manager can delegate a client issue from her device versus having to step out and make calls. Further, the ability to google and clarify a question real time can enable someone to contribute more to the discussion, not less. And, texting a colleague across the room to express excitement about the trending data just shared, doesn’t take away from the experience. The emotional connection adds to the quality of the information and makes the outcome of the communication better.

Mobile technology is a part of our lives and supports learning, sharing and next level thinking. What if we assume positive intention when someone is on a device during a meeting, accept that mobile devices are a resource and tool that enables more, not less. And, realize when we hear those few seconds of dance beat music, we could just dance.