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One conversational skill that's always been so tough for me is interrupting. When you're in charge of a meeting, you are also responsible for giving everyone an
by sweetjuly 4y ago
One conversational skill that's always been so tough for me is interrupting. When you're in charge of a meeting, you are also responsible for giving everyone an opportunity to respond should they have something to offer. Unfortunately, you often end up with a small fraction of people who consistently have zero sense for how much airtime they're using and just go on and on and on. I've tried so many different techniques on how to appropriately and gently interrupt--from soft-touch things like asking them specific, narrow questions to get them to feel like they're done to more direct positive-transitions like "oh wow, that's a really good way to put it; does anyone else have any thoughts on that?". It's always felt so painful and difficult but I can't seem to crack a way to do it otherwise.
- beaker52 4y ago“Stop. We’ve understood you and now we should consider other perspectives. Anne, what’s on your mind?”
- borski 4y agoI think that’s a distinct problem from the one the article describes; the article seems to be written about mostly one on one communication. Group conversations change the dynamics massively, even moreso when the conversation must be productive, as opposed to just enjoyable.
- sweetjuly 4y agoThis was more of a "yes, and" comment. The social instinct that is drilled into (most) everyone to not interrupt that this article mentions makes interrupting someone that is dominating the conversation way harder.
- borski 4y agoFair point! I think too few people recognize that the dynamics of 1:1 conversation and many:many and 1:many conversations are so distinctly unique, so I do think that recognizing that is important!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]