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After you speak, continue to look at
attacker and wait for person to talk about what caused attack.
If attack continues, interrupt with:
"Excuse me, we need to respect each other. And I wonder what makes you feel upset over this."
"Excuse me, we heard that. Now, what makes you feel that way?"
"Excuse me, I'm interested in hearing what your concerns are."
Approach 3: Call a break
If verbal approaches fail to end attacks, then call a break or end meeting. This will give you a chance to meet privately with attacker, rewrite agenda, rebuild communication, and (if appropriate) schedule another meeting without attacker.
You could say,
"We seem to be at an impasse. I want to take a break so we can all calm down."
"This hostility makes it impossible to get any work done. So, I'm adjourning meetings. We'll work on this later and then reconvene at another time."
Note that some people use anger to force others to cooperate with them. If you adjourn meeting, you will have to meet with attacker to resolve conflict.
"We need to work on this outside of meeting. So let's adjourn."
Use these techniques to restore a safe environment to your meeting.
Meetings are a forum for finding solutions, making decisions, and reaching agreements. When you apply these approaches to disruptions, you will maintain productive environment necessary to accomplish your goals.
This is seventh of a seven part article on Managing Monsters in Meetings.
IAF Certified Professional Facilitator and author Steve Kaye works with leaders who want to hold effective meeting. His innovative workshops have informed and inspired people nationwide. His facilitation produces results that people will support. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.stevekaye.com. Call 714-528-1300 or visit his web site for over 100 pages of valuable ideas.
