Meetings in progress 

Managing difficult situations

Your meeting objectives can also be thwarted by a number of minor incidents such as the examples below. However, in every case there is a constructive solution and you need to take action before a minor distraction becomes a major disruption.

Talkers and whisperers: Stop the meeting momentarily.

People who talk for too long: Politely break in and thank them for their contribution, then ask another person for their contribution.

Irrelevant interjections: You can try guiding the interjector back to the subject, or ignoring them completely. You could also overlook their request to talk if you are certain that their comments will be irrelevant.

People who disagree or argue with every idea raised: Ask the group whether they think the comments are helpful. Do they agree with the comments being made?

People who cling to an idea and won't move beyond it: Ask them to keep their comments brief and match their output with contributions from others.

Inattentive people: Tell them you will fill them in at the break, or that the minutes will clarify their confusion.

Silence: There are several ways of dealing with this, including backtracking, reintroducing an issue, calling for questions or asking questions of specific individuals.

Deadlocked opinions: Summarise the arguments without asking for clarification, then put the question to the vote. You can shift from discussion to action plans, applying the ideas to see if the deadlock can be broken. Failing that, you may have to adjourn or close the meeting.

Boredom: Reiterate the objectives of the meeting and make them relevant to the participants.

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Meetings in progress