This week I came across a survey that talks about people who text during sex.

My immediate reaction was horror, thoughts about the decline of civilization, and the like. I thought about a piece I wrote last year when the results of a study on texting while driving were released, how much I hate texting in general, and then . . . I had a conversation with a friend.

I still hate texting. I still think texting during sex is such a frightening idea at so many levels that I don’t even have words to describe the full breadth of how I feel thinking about it.  But my friend’s question was: “you mean like answering the phone during sex?”.

OK, I don’t believe that’s a great idea either. Neither did my friend. But what if the survey was flawed and didn’t refer to people multitasking in quite the way I envisioned when I read it? What if “texting during sex” meant “looking at the screen when something comes in” . . . say, if you have kids who are out late at night?

Yes, I’m bending over backward to defend something dumb, and that I don’t really believe in. But the business change lesson (I did it . . . I turned texting during sex into a business change lesson . . . pass the word!) is this:

Things aren’t always what they seem

The next time someone tells you a story and you think you have all the angles covered, take a breath and think again. Business change can happen . . . anywhere.

Oh: and don’t text during sex. Please?