As you have learned, facilitating a productive meeting requires skills that may be critical to your career success.

Your Task. 

Individually or as a team, describe how you would deal with the following examples of unproductive or dysfunctional behavior and other challenges in a team meeting that you are running. Either report your recommendations verbally, or, if your instructor directs, summarize your suggestions in an e-mail or memo.

a. Liam likes to make long-winded statements and often digresses to unrelated subjects.

b. Olivia keeps interrupting other speakers and dominates the discussion.

c. Ben and Oscar are hostile toward each other and clash over an agenda item.

d. Mia arrives 15 minutes late and noisily unpacks her briefcase.

e. Grace, Lydia, and Levi are reading e-mails and texting under the table.

f. Emily is quiet, although she is taking notes and seems to be following the discussion attentively.

g. Levi, a well-known office clown, is telling off-color jokes while others are discussing the business at hand.

h. The meeting time is up, but the group has not met the objective of the meeting.