Hello from someone who used to have her meetings hijacked all the time!
Like you, I was never clear-about whether people were just being rude, were anxious or in a hurry, or trying to help in an unhelpful way. Whatever the mix of causes at different meetings, there are definitely some specific things you can adopt to improve the situation.
What I’m going to talk about here is behaviours at your meeting. I’m not going to talk about preparation for the meeting, which I’ve covered elsewhere, so let’s presume that you’ve prepared and everyone in the room has had every opportunity beforehand to read your agenda and understand why they are there.
First of all a comment about our behaviour when someone interrupts. It’s really easy to respond with some element of apology. Something like, “Yes, sorry, I was just about to cover that.” I want you to you to practice not apologising when this happens.
I know this will take some getting used to but work on it. No apology is expected, you have not done anything wrong, and in fact it is the interrupter that is disrupting the flow of the meeting. If you spend time talking to the interrupter instead of about your agenda, how useful is that for the rest of the attendees? So, please, no apologies from you when you are interrupted!
Having said that, I’ve put four practical steps I find make a real difference:
- Set clear expectations from the start. In particular, let people know when they can contribute and ask questions. “Hello and welcome! Before we get started, I’ll explain how we are going to cover everything in the agenda I sent you and on the sheet in front of you/on the screen. On each agenda item, I’ll give an update then I’ll for any ask comments and questions. Please hold off questions until those points, so we can all understand where we are on each topic, thank you.”
This on its own will reduce the number of interruptions. People know they have a chance to ask questions and will feel less anxious or bursting to interrupt. Of course, some will still come up, but when they do, you know (and so does everyone else) you have already set expectations for how questions will be managed, so you are on firm ground when you re-state those expectations.
- When you get an interruption anyway
For example, when an attendee interrupts your intro to ask, “What about my team’s workload,” if that’s part of what you going to cover, pause and say, “We will be talking about the project workload a little later on point 5” . If it’s not on the agenda, restate the rules: “Let’s come back to that under Q & A – I won’t forget.”, or “I’ll schedule some time to cover that with you outside the meeting.”
Sometimes it’s easier to just answer a question right there. Decide depending on how you feel the meeting is going. It’s your meeting – you decide!
- Of course, don’t forget to go back to the questions.
“Ok, we’re at the Q and A agenda item. Bob, you were asking about…”. Or, “Bob, I can’t answer that right now, but I’ll be in touch later today to work out a time to cover it properly.”
It’s never going to be 100% interruption free, but this should help you feel a lot more in control of your meetings.
