This is not recommended unless you have a busy body that is allowed in your company to continuously disrupt projects, give irrelevant input, and overall derail a focused effort.

You know who I mean.

• They make a case of rehashing that which has already been decided.
• They interrupt meetings with tangents.
• They have no real involvement or interest and are not a stakeholder but have some position of power or are related to someone at the C-Level.
• They mean well and may be able to help but their behavior and approach prevents their success.
• They love the sound of their own voice.

Options

• For rehashed issues, organize your minutes so that you put decisions as they are made at the bottom of every version.  You can then say “let me help you before you go further, you are speaking of item #17 which has been addressed”
• You might make them a “department/special section” and add their objections/ideas as a business analysis item in your documentation.
  • For example, “I have here in my notes to delay until March however we have noted this will cause us to operate 4 months off contract and out of compliance”.
  • This can be split up into two columns e.g. Item and Decision.
  • This will allow you to schedule them last on the agenda, after everyone has the information they need to move forward
• Find a task for them to do – you are always doing research, are they able to assist?  They obviously want to feel needed so find something that fits them and approach as a problem. Let them offer to help as the solution.
• Schedule meetings when they are busy – sometimes this is the only answer, especially if no one can rein them in to a more productive behavior.

You will never be without some people and personalities that have a need to be the center of attention.  To be successful, you have to think of ways with or around them so you can get your project done.  Either way, be gracious and accommodating as much as possible.  They just might have a key to your project’s success at some point in the future.