Celia Popovic
However well planned you are, despite your extensive research and mindful consideration, occasionally you will encounter disruptive or unpredictable participants. When this happens it is only human to feel a range of emotions that may include anger, anxiety or discomfort. While these reactions are both normal and may be totally justified it may be more helpful to you to focus on the possible motivations of the disruptive participant.
There is a balance to be struck between allowing the disruptive participant to hijack the event and giving due consideration to their concerns. Identifying if the underlying issue is common to many (or most) of the participants can help. Understanding the needs and concerns of the participants may also help with this.
In the general advice, offered by Barbara Markway in her 20 Expert Tactics for Dealing with Difficult People, we are encouraged to de-escalate a situation. In particular, keeping one's own temper, speaking respectfully and avoiding defensiveness will help to lower the energy in the room. After the event remember to reflect on the situation, if possible discuss it with a colleague, and consider what you have learnt from the exchange. Perhaps most importantly as Markway suggests, congratulate yourself for dealing with the situation.
In Educational Development settings we may face specific challenges. Here are some of the more common examples and suggested ways to deal with them.
One participant tries to steer the discussion according to their specific interest
This has happened to me frequently! It may be that by being open and welcoming we encourage a participant to sidetrack the discussion from the one we had planned. This may or may not be a problem. I have certainly had the experience where the intended topic was abandoned because of a key issue raised by a participant, which turned out to be of acute interest to all of the group. I first checked with the group to see if they would prefer to discuss the new issue, and then adjusted to workshop accordingly. In this instance the change of direction was appropriate and valued by the workshop participants.
Unfortunately this is not always the case. If one person persists in bringing the discuss back to their specific issue to the detriment of the others, one solution is to invite the participant to discuss the issue with you after the workshop or at another mutually convenient time. This is usually enough for most people as they feel they have been heard, and can appreciate that the issue may not be of interest to everyone. Even better, then will now have an opportunity to explore the topic individually with you. If appropriate try suggesting they raise the issue with their Dean, Associate Dean or other figure of authority in their faculty or department.
Someone who keeps leaving the room to answer their phone, or texts continuously while in the room
If the culture around the use of phones is generally a problem, you may wish to consider setting ground rules before the start of a workshop. These are an agreed set of principles that will be shared by the group. Ground rules tend to be most effective when agreed mutually by a group, but it is not difficult for a facilitator to bring up a particular issue, such as phone use. A group may agree that phones will not be used at all, or that they will be kept on silent mode, or if an urgent call is necessary that the participant will leave the room. The point here is to gain control of the situation in advance, thus avoiding disruption.
It may not be appropriate to agree ground rules, particularly in a short session. My advice is to ignore the behavior if possible, and keep disruption to a minimum. If it really does become a problem, it may be appropriate to suggest to the participant that today may not be the best time for them to attend the workshop.
The online equivalent of leaving the room may be someone who fails to mute their microphone with distracting background noise or has their video on but is clearly doing something else. Most platforms enable the host to mute someone so you have power that many of us might long for in a face to face setting! As with face to face workshops, you many need to intervene if a participant's behaviour is potentially distracting for others.
Someone who is offensive to another participant
Fortunately, in my experience, at least, this is a rare occurrence. However, if someone is offensive to another participant it may be necessary for a facilitator or instructor to intervene and make clear the boundaries of acceptable behavior. As a last resort it is important to remember that you do have the authority to ask someone to leave.
An imbalance of power between two or more participants, eg where one person reports to another
Sometimes an imbalance of power is obvious. For example where two people are in a position where one is senior to the other but both are equal participants in the event. This does not have to be a problem of course, but one may feel inhibited in speaking in front of the other. This discomfort can be felt equally by the senior as the junior participant. At times it is appropriate for teams to engage in an event and such imbalance of power is not relevant. However, if you are aware that this is a situation and that it is not imperative for the two people to work together, be proactive to avoid the issue and ask participants to sit with people outside their team.
Two or three participant refuse to engage in an activity
I once ran an event at an educational developer conference. I assumed that my peers would be enthusiastic participants in the messy activity I had planned using plenty of glue, glitter, stickers and pens. However, I was wrong! Two elderly male (I make no judgement!) highly experienced developers resolutely refused to get 'stuck in'. I was astonished. It was a lesson worth noting. I had made an assumption that the participants in the event would enjoy the same type of activities as me, and that I would not need to explain the purpose or value of a creative activity. As the event concluded I noticed that despite refraining from direct engagement with the activity, the pair had taken careful note of the event and engaged in the concluding discussion as enthusiastically as the rest of the group.
It is not always necessary for everyone to engage in the way that you intended for them to benefit from the event. It may be worth asking them, privately, whether they found the workshop or activity of use to them, and if not find out what would have been more suitable. This can be useful information when planning a similar event in the future. This does not mean that you should exclude creative approaches, far from it. But it may mean that some participants would appreciate understanding how or why the activity relates to the topic under examination.
Reflective Questions
- Is dissent always a negative?
- How can we use disagreement or lack of harmony to our advantage?
- What motivates some people to be disruptive?
- While maintaining participant anonymity, share a difficult situation with a colleague and, if appropriate, how you managed the situation successfully.
References
Markway, B. (2015) 20 Expert Tactics for Dealing with Difficult People, Psychology Today, March 3, 2015, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/living-the-questions/201503/20-expert-tactics-dealing-difficult-people
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