HBR Guides to Being an Effective Manager Collection (5 Books) (HBR Guide Series)

CHAPTER 15

Refocus a Meeting After Someone Interrupts

by Rebecca Knight

You did everything you were supposed to do: invited all the right people, sent out an agenda in advance, and got everyone’s agreement on the process. But despite your diligence, your meeting is being hijacked. How should you handle a persistent interrupter? Will it work to just ignore the person? And how can you regain control of the meeting?

What the Experts Say

Whether it’s a team member who disagrees with your approach, an employee from another department who brings up irrelevant information, or a colleague who wants to use your meeting as a soapbox for their own personal agenda, dealing with interrupters during a meeting is challenging. “When someone interrupts you, blocks ...