How Do You Get People to STOP Talking in Meetings?
I know…meetings are supposed to be all about talking. But, I’m not talking about that type of talking. I’m talking about people that just like to hear themselves talk, or like to interrupt others, or like to take the meeting down an entirely different direction. These people may be members of your team, executives, vendors or a host of any other group of characters that takes great delight (or maybe they just can’t help it) in hijacking a meeting.
So, what are some of the things you have done to respectfully ask these people to “stop talking” for the sake of the rest of the group?
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It is simple really, a meeting's agenda is a must, items for discussion are prioritised in addition set aside a time frame for each discussion, and the most important person driving the meeting is the person who chairs... they are in control and must ensure the meeting stays on track no deviations. Saving Changes...
Mitch KraytonPresident| Krayton SeminarsDenver, Co, United States
Have an agenda and stick to it. Post it in the front of the meeting. Review it at the start of the meeting and remind everyone about the constraints of time during the meeting to complete the agenda. When a person is off topic, refer to the agenda and indicate this is off topic for this meeting.
Also when a person is highly opinionated and intends to disrupt the room, use the room to control it. As the room, "What do you think about that?" and the room will either agree, in which the room has said this IS important, or the room will confirm your position and keep the discussion on agenda.
Lastly stand behind someone else to have eyes focus there, and off of the interrupter, and then that new person will begin speaking.
Three tips I use a lot. Saving Changes...
Peter WrightProgramme Manager| BAE SystemsSouthport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
In my experience an agenda set's the scene for some meetings and sometimes you need to allow some discussions to go off piste. It is a balancing act.
One way I have used at all levels is to stop the multiple conversations as they start up and ask each one what the item/discussion/issue is that they were trying to sort out in the meeting/with the person next to them. Log those items ideally on a flip chart/book/note as Parked Items.
Then when the meeting moves to the last agenda, normally AOB, review these items in turn. The risk here is that you may not have allocated sufficient time to AOB to actually cover the items off, so do that up front. If there are no issues the meeting can finish early.
This way the individuals are either happy the items are not being ignored or they will not want them written up and therefore identifies it as not being within the scope of the meeting (potentially) .
As a PM you'll have to facilitate and lead lots of meetings; this will come up often if you let it.
Meetings can be productive if you do the following:
- Develop a set of meeting rules of engagement and publish
-Assign a timer for the meeting
-Assign a note taker
-Setup a parking lots for future or off topic ideas
-Faciliate and redirect any off topic issues as required
A well faciliated meeting is another way to demonstrate your project leadership.
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Stan YanakievCustomer Project Manager - IT| Hewlett-PackardSofia, Bulgaria
1. Send agenda before the meeting and ask for inputs
2. Keep the agenda visible during the meeting
3. Have AOB (Any Other Business) time alocated at the end when other discussions may happen
4. Answer questions of the person who interrupts, suggest to move the talk in AOB section or to have a dedicated meeting.
5. If nothing helps, invite the audience to share their thoughts, this should help exhaust the topic and get back to agenda. Saving Changes...
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