Interruptions
Disagreeing is not the only tricky part of a meeting. Interruptions are also difficult to manage as is the flow of the meeting. In this section of English for meetings, you will learn how to keep the communication flowing.
When someone interrupts another participant in your meeting, you might need to step in and take control so that the meeting doesn’t lose the speaker’s input & ideas. Below are a few handy expressions that tell the interrupter to be polite and wait. The first few expressions are the most polite, while the last are the most direct.
It can be especially frustrating if you are the one being interrupted, but luckily there are English expressions that are ideal for that situation too. Just remember to keep your cool.
In general, interrupting is a no-no, but sometimes you need to step in to redirect the discussion, correct a mistake, or give information that is needed at that point. If you absolutely need to interrupt, you can be more polite by using one of these expressions to start.
Some meeting participants are tougher to keep in line than others. For participants that regularly cross the line, try one of these:
In those moments where you need to keep the meeting moving forward, these expressions can help you follow the agenda, stay on point, and finish on time:
Joanna: | Taking this data into account, we can reasonably expect sales to…. |
Henry: | Sorry, can I interrupt? Have you considered the changing consumer habits? |
Chairperson: | Henry, I wonder if we can give her the opportunity to finish. |
Henry: | I apologise. Joanna, please continue |
Joanna: | Thank you. As I was saying, sales next year could increase by 15% according to this data |
Check out the other units in the English for Meetings Workshop. In each section you will find standard English phrases that you can mix, match and adapt to your specific content.
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