"Sorry I was on mute”. That seems to be the new cheapest excuse since “I did not have time”. Log on, say hello, then mute and continue doing other stuff: reading emails, taking a call, texting an IM, taking a comfort break, folding laundry. Sounds overly dramatic? Here is my confession – I have done all that (blushing while posting this). And my gut feeling is I am not the only one – hand on your heart. First of all I am to blame: lack of focus, poor judgment, wrong decision. Trying to do one thing while in the midst of another. Neurologically our brains are not made for multitasking. Not the ladies’, not the gentlemen’s nor anybody else’s. Still doubting? Read related research. Now why is it that we are still trying, especially when attending digital trainings or meetings? According to research the attention span of learners in a face-2-face environment is 20 mins – in the virtual environment attention drops after 6 mins – repeat six. Do you copy? In communication notably in learning the competition for our attention has fiercely intensified. While we have a certain oversight and even control over attendees in a physical classroom setting we have got almost none in a virtual environment. Some platforms now are trying to counter that giving the facilitator a flag next to the participant’s name if they are working in an application different than the meeting platform. Rumour has it though that people are using a secondary laptop, their tablet or mobile phone as a countermeasure. Another confession. Now we might be on mute, have bandwidth issues or other connectivity problems – I buy all that. Question is whether and how we as hosts can, say, make it harder for participants to disengage – or better – engage them more? One approach is, like in the physical setting, interaction – yet even more frequently. Challenge and reward – so they repeatedly get mini doses of dopamine. The Silicon Valley gurus openly admit this is the underlying concept of all addictive mobile device apps. Why not start the meeting on time, welcoming everyone and give them another 3 mins to just finish that one email they were composing, get a cup of tea or brief their kids to not disturb for the duration of the virtual meeting? Have a grid on screen to put their names and next to it just one expectation they have for the meeting? Acknowledge by calling out occasional ones for clarification. Ask them to (virtually) raise their hand when they have muted their mobile, muted their secondary mobile, switched off email and so on. Make it serious fun. When you share content ask them for their opinion and examples – again listen and acknowledge. Run polls occasionally to activate them and gauge how your audience is feeling. Use some whiteboards in between for a full brainstorm, pick some of their ideas and discuss. Even upfront there is stuff you can try next time: send them an email and sign-post prerequisites clear and concise. One client group of 20 wanted to gather in a meeting room and participate from one machine while content would be projected to one screen. We insisted everyone participate from their individual computer – with great interactions eventually. Ask them to tell their teams, bosses, peers to not interrupt during the meeting. Suggest sitting somewhere silent and hidden from the usual office mayhem. Recommend they check technology at their end e.g. to install latest updates of selected communications platform and browser, to clear cache, have webcam on, have headset, have back-up headset. Have them come prepared and ideally bring something to virtually share. When it is showtime acknowledge every effort they make to participate and contribute. And you can give them the ultimate reward: by all means finish on time or ideally give them some time back by finishing somewhat early. Better they feel “gosh this was a little short”.