Maybe it was the article I was reading in which a prof at Cal State found that 16- to 18- year-olds can perform seven tasks at the same time, people in their early 20s can handle six and those in their 30s perform five and a half. This means it will be getting harder to get newer generations to summon the capacity to focus and concentrate when they need to, so, why fight it?
Maybe it was my own informal experiment at five meetings I participated in recently where I encouraged participants to use their devices if they felt that it would enhance our exchange. The result was interesting. First of all it forced me to be more entertaining to capture their attention, secondly the Sudoku puzzle solvers and Facebook updaters paid more attention and thirdly, others were actually transmitting information gathered in the meeting to their staff and getting feedback.
Younger employees find mobile devices entirely second nature and will probably never be “off the grid” on or off the job.
My suggestion is to leverage this ability to communicate and encourage the use of devices in meetings, assuming that you still have meetings in your organizations!