At a recent staff meeting we discussed the challenge of keeping meeting participants engaged and mentally "present" when smartphones and other work or personal situations are vying for their attention. No doubt you've experienced people reading email, sending text messages, and taking calls during meetings. I admit I'm guilty of that. It's a fact of life that budget and staff reductions mean a few people are doing the work of many, and focusing on any particular topic is a luxury, no matter how important the topic in question. I've been thinking about strategies for minimizing distractions and keeping people engaged. Here are three ideas.

1. Schedule regular message breaks. We schedule coffee breaks, so why not schedule message breaks. Including 5-minute message breaks every hour or so might give people the permission they need to put their distractions on hold; at least the ones that are not emergencies. (If your director calls, you may not want to put him or her on hold.) I admit I haven't tried this yet, and there may be some downsides. I used to have a recurring dream about giving a group a 5-minute break; they left and never returned. I think it's worth a try, though.

2. Make good use of the intellectual capital in the room. While there is an appropriate time for imparting information, we lecture far more often than necessary. Tap into the knowledge and experience of your participants by limiting the amount of time spent lecturing and increasing the amount of time participants engage with a speaker and each other.

3. Use small groups for discussion. If you have 45 minutes for a group discussion, and 30 people in the room, any one individual will have only 1.5 minutes to participate actively in the discussion - assuming everyone contributes equally. In reality, relatively few people will dominate the discussion, leaving the rest of the group uninvolved (and checking their email). Instead, try small discussion groups of 5-7 people. Most people will have an opportunity to participate in the discussion, it will be harder for a few people to dominate, and participants will be more engaged. And it's harder to surreptitiously check your email when you are one of only five in a group.

Smartphones can be a distraction during meetings, making it difficult to stay "present".