Keeping the conversation on track — Cross-Cultural Meetings part 11

This article is part of a series on effective meetings between Japanese and non-Japanese.

One of the biggest time-wasters in a meeting is getting off track. It’s very easy for this to happen, especially when a meeting is going well, because that’s when people are participating actively and contributing ideas. However, some items brought up may take the discussion off on a tangent. It’s important to nip such digressions in the bud, so that not too much time is wasted.

Digressions come in two types. One is a diversion into something completely unimportant — for example, a conversation about a movie somebody saw. The second is something that does have importance, but does not fit into the plan for the current meeting. It may not be relevant to all of the participants, and other key people related to this topic may not be in the room. Or it may be of such importance that it deserves to be given more time than is available during this meeting, or needs to be studied further. For this second type of digression, one can plan another meeting focused solely on that topic, assign someone to research the topic and report back at a future meeting, or assign a task force to delve into it.

The trick, however, is how to handle the digression in a way that is smooth, and does not cause too much loss of face for the person who started the digression. That can be done using phrasing for transitioning the group back to the agenda.

For cases where the group has strayed onto an unimportant topic, one of these can be used:

• “Thank you, I understand, but I think we need to move on to the next point.”
• “It looks like we’ve departed a bit from the agenda.”
• “I think we’re off track.”
• “Since our time today is limited, let’s go back to our agenda.”
• “Let’s talk about this at lunch.”

If you would like to relegate the topic to another meeting, try this approach:

• “Let’s park this topic for now. We will discuss all of the items in the parking lot at next week’s meeting.” 

(Note: “Parking” is a meeting-management method developed for precisely this situation. The meeting leader draws a “parking lot” in the corner of the whiteboard, as a space for noting topics that are being “parked” to be revisited later.)

• “It’s clear that this topic is of great interest to you. However, since this topic is not on today’s agenda, and not everyone here is affected by it, I feel we need to table it for the time being. Let’s have another meeting tomorrow morning with just Jim, Susan, Ajay and myself to discuss this topic in detail.”

Here’s an example of how to assign someone to study the digression topic:

• “I can see that this issue is really on your mind, Susan. I’d like you to spend a couple days studying it, and then report back to us on your findings.”

And finally, here’s how to suggest the formation of a task force:

• “I think this topic deserves further attention. Let’s form a task force to investigate it.”

As can be seen from the above examples, the key is to not criticize the person who made the digression, and to keep a positive tone. This will help to maintain the meeting’s environment of open discussion. However, it’s important to make it clear that discussion of the digression must stop, and that the group needs to return to the agenda.

For more on how to make your cross-cultural meetings effective, get a copy of our free bilingual ebook here.