B L U E P R I N T HOSTING REMOTE MEETINGS Polite interruption - How do you politely interrupt someone if they’re going on and on and on? The value that you bring to the table doesn’t have to be from you talking. Simply facilitating the conversation and making sure it stays on track is enough. Sometimes the conversation can start off on track but then tangent or get into the weeds. Mirror a word the person that you’re trying to interrupt said. Find something they said and use that to guide the conversation back to center. For example, if you’re asking questions in a meeting, 2 close-ended situational questions followed by open-ended pain questions, the person might tangent or go long on the open-ended questions. “We have a lot to cover today, and I know this topic will start a conversation. I might interrupt to make sure we stay on track with time. Does that sound fair?” TOP MISTAKES OF AN ONLINE MEETING X Be careful of making the meeting too rigid by just reading from a PowerPoint slide or being the only person to talk the whole time. X Avoid letting your audience become distracted. This can happen when not being prepared and your tech fails during the meeting. The time it takes to fix will derail and lose momentum. X Make sure to involve everyone, keeping feedback or redirection as positive as possible.