Side conversations ruin meetings by destroying focus and fragmenting participation.Approach 1: Ask for cooperationStart by asking everyone to cooperate. Look at the middle of the group (instead of at
the talker) and say:"Excuse me (pause to gain everyone's attention). I know all of your ideas are
important. So, please let's have one speaker at a time.""Excuse me. I'm having difficulty hearing what [contributing participant] is saying.""There seems to be a great deal of interest for this issue..