Listening Deeply Part Two

I attended three meetings this past month, one was a teleconference and two were two day meetings in a conference room with ten people at each meeting.
One thing jumped out at me--there was a very high percentage of attendees who were NOT listening.  You might wonder how I could tell on the teleconference when I couldn't see anyone.   Two ways:  1.  participation.  (If you're listening and mentally participating, you have to have questions. It's just the nature of things. Questions asked means that you're listening deeply.) 2. involvement.  (When the organizer asks for comments and only one or two comment, one can assume that the rest aren't listening.)
During the sales meetings at which everyone was present, out of ten people at each meeting, only five were listening deeply.  The other five were doing emails on their computers.  The thing about opening computers at a meeting, the organizer may think that you're participating and using your computer to make notes, so you think you can get away with it.  Or the organizer may not want to make a scene.  But how disrespectful is this!
Back in the "day", before computers, when I started in sales, there were no cell phones or computers.  Customers waited for their quotes or their call backs. Now, every salesperson feels that every customer needs an immediate response.  And what is the result of this "immediacy"?  Everyone loses.  The group loses the possibly important comments of the distracted participants and the distracted participants lose by not learning the content of the meeting.
This distracted "attendance" has to stop.  Computers and cell phones have to be shut off.  We need to LISTEN DEEPLY and participate.  Do the quote later.  The world will not come to an end if the quote is done later or if the call is not returned immediately.
Think about the financial investment that the organizer has in the meeting. When you're not involved, when you're not listening, you are wasting the organizer's money.
Show respect: to the meeting organizer and to the other participants.  Listen Deeply and participate!!!