Thursday, April 30, 2009

Finer points of meeting etiquette

In reviewing my notes from the meeting facilitation workshop last weekend, I stumbled on the section about intervening when a meeting participant was talking for too long. These were ideas that trainees floated out:

  • Stand up.

  • Ring a bell.

  • Take a step or two towards them.

  • Say, "Thank you."

  • Say, "Time's up."

  • Hold up a red card. (This is in the context of communities that use coloured cards to send signals during meetings.)

  • Implement an agreed upon procedure.

  • Make a hand signal.

  • Address the person by name.

  • Throw balls of paper at them.

  • Shoot at them with a water pistol.

  • Ask them to wrap up.

  • Ask them to be succinct.

  • Act like a court jester.

  • Set a timer.

  • Say, "We're going to a commercial break."

  • I rather fancy the water pistol idea. As you may be able to tell, I'm in a kind of goofy mood this evening. :-)

    3 comments:

    ms toast burner said...

    You can take the girl out of Cowtown...

    ;-)

    A long time ago I waited tables in a very busy and popular restaurant. If a table lingered for what was considered far too long after their meal (thus preventing another sitting) the manager would place a portable expired parking metre at their table. It was done in jest, but still, it got the point across and not once was anyone ever offended.

    Humour works wonders, so have fun with the water pitol, Judy! :-)

    me said...

    Judy, Glenice has written an interesting post about communication which I thought would interest you.

    http://2bionicears.blogspot.com/2009/05/are-you-listening.html

    Unknown said...

    I too am partial to the water gun strategy, but then my friends say i'm in need of socialization. Whatever happened to the good old tried and true hook? That seemed to work fine.

    Glad to see you learning such good stuff, and sharing it with us. Thanks!