Ground them with Ground Rules, that is.
Recently a client asked me how to deal with interruptions, disagreements, and tangents that arise during team meetings. One or all of these techniques will be useful in most situations. Apply it to your situation and let me know how it works for you!
DURING THE MEETING
When conflict occurs during a meeting, you may have to interrupt
and ask those involved to table the discussion until a different
time. If what they are arguing about is relevant to the
discussion:
1. summarize what was said,
2. thank them for
bringing up some good points,
3. move on and agree to come back to those
points later.
It doesn't have to be resolved during that current meeting.
If interruptions and dominance persists in you meetings and group discussions, you might even have to pull the involved parties aside after
the meeting and talk to them about the incident(s).
BEFORE THE MEETING
Set ground rules or codes of conduct for meetings –
those rules might include:
- Don’t interrupt.
- Everyone get 5 uninterrupted minutes to speak.
- You can disagree without being disagreeable, which means don’t attack people or their ideas.
- For example: We can say “I disagree”, rather than “that’s a stupid idea. “
- If you shoot down someone else’s idea, concern, or comments, you should have an alternate idea to share. In other words, you can’t find fault without offering a solution.
Set the standard that anytime someone goes on a
tangent during a meeting, you will have to call ELMO. ELMO
means Enough, Let’s Move On. Ask everyone to agree to the ELMO
standard in advance -- don't wait until a conflict erupts and try to introduce ELMO to the team. When you feel like the tangent has gone on long enough (i.e.
it’s starting to sidetrack the agenda or effect productiveness of the meeting)
just say “ELMO”. Everyone knows that means it’s time to get back on topic
and back to the agenda.
Introduce these techniques now, and reduce wasted time and increase productvity in 2013!
Introduce these techniques now, and reduce wasted time and increase productvity in 2013!
