How Engaged Are Your Meeting Participants?

I arrived early for a business meeting the other day. The meeting had been scheduled well in advance and the list of participants included about a dozen team members. When the scheduled start time had arrived, there were just two of us in the room. Over the course of the next ten minutes, the other participants drifted in. Three of those who arrived late chose seats at the end of the table opposite the host. They spent the entire meeting pounding away on their laptop keyboards, looking up occasionally as if to appear engaged in the conversation at hand. Another…