Business Meeting Protocol
A follow on to the Management of Communications discussion regarding business meeting format and protocol. We recently tried to study (informally) our meeting habits and one point was almost unanimous, groups as a whole are losing discipline. The standard rules of order, that have been an assumed skill in our business environment, have ceased to exist. People do not wait for others to finish sentences, they jump in and finish the sentence for them or they start on the next thought and talk right over them. Others have side meetings at different locations around the conference table. The skill of listening is on the wane. It has had a noticeable effect on the productivity of many meetings. It is less evident when the meeting is being run by a strong personality but nonetheless degradation in discipline is still displayed. Please answer the following 3 questions.

1. Is it a cultural change?

2. Is this an isolated observation?

3. What is your opinion?