Shannon Kalvar takes the approach of assuming many meetings not only have the habit of drifting fast off point, but are happy doing so. Hence why she’s called this article Three effective ways to anger people in meetings.
Instead of allowing this to go on, Shannon suggests three approaches to quickly putting the meeting back on track.
Cut people off after the third iteration
My personal inclination is to cut people off after they have repeated themselves for the third time. Especially when the repetitions involve something wholly irrelevant, or even worse just discovered to be irrelevant, to the meeting’s purpose. As a rule, though, people tend to like their iterations. It makes them feel like they have accomplished something when they say the same things over and over again. Taking away that feeling of accomplishment will not make you popular.
What are some other ways to be ‘ruthless’ in the meeting room?
Three effective ways to anger people in meetings – [TechRepublic]
