In 2018, the French public school system banned using mobile phones within the school grounds. They have since discovered increased student participation, focus, and creativity and improved exam results. While the benefits are clear, countries like the UK and the US are watching but do not know how to implement similar policies since there will be an outcry.
Why is this so difficult? Schools are there for students to learn, and if taking action shows improved results, how could it be so bad? There may be some extreme situations where they may be necessary and helpful but are the exception. How did we cope at schools before mobile phones?
The same thinking applies to organizational practices. Some want to institute the best methods to obtain better outcomes in their work, but instead, allow the current practices to continue in fear of reprisal from employees. The average person spends three hours and 15 minutes on their phones daily, and 1 in 5 spend upward of 4 hours and 30 minutes. How often do you not sit in meetings where some participants are engaged on their phones far more than the conversation? As an organization, we should not complain when our results are below expectations, or as an employee, you are required to work overtime to catch up, purely because of the mindless distractions we had all day.
Instituting reasonable and practical practices and policies that make sense for everyone is simple enough, and yet we manage to pursue what is insensible and impractical – and for what reason? For example, how many of us would not prefer to spend three hours a day doing the things we genuinely enjoy instead of prolonging some desk agony we proactively extend to compensate for the mindless distractions?
