Hello folks. Every day you come and check out my English training videos, and now you`re one step closer, you are one step further to achieving your successful goals. Keep up that great work.

Today we are going to look at how can you politely and effectively interrupt someone during a business meeting.

But before we move on, if you`re new here, please do me a favor, click and smash the like button, subscribe to my channel. Because you will help yourself by helping more people to find me. Thanks so much.

Now I`ve got a question for you: what comes to your mind when you think of interrupting? Comment below. Tell me your answer.

So you might probably think of impolite aspects of conversation, right? For example, you might think oh, I can`t interrupt him even if I do need him to clarify some details. But I can`t do that, because that`s not polite. ?Believe it or not, interrupting can be effective, highly effective actually, ?if it is done with politeness and skill, examples could be like you raise your hand, pause and wait for the presenter to give you further instructions, and by doing this, the person speaking will not be caught by any surprise or feel offended. Because you see, often times people speaking in meetings tend to get carried away with what they are saying and may not know when to stop. ?So it is perfectly acceptable to interrupt someone if you really need to make a point or to ask a question.

In today`s lesson, first of all, I`m gonna walk you through an effective interrupting technique called the INSET technique. As long as you can understand and apply this technique very well, it will make you a better contributor in your workplace meetings. Guaranteed.

Now let`s dive into it.

INSET technique Step 1

INTERRUPT CLEARLY.?At the very first step, you need to interrupt in a clear manner by saying the following sentences.

Pardon me but...

Forgive the interruption, but…

I’m sorry to interrupt, but...

Sorry for interrupting, but...

Could I add something to that?

INSET technique Step 2 NEED TO THINK

Apparently, you are not supposed to interrupt other people`s talking in a very direct way. Because that way your words would probably sound more impolite or even rude due to lack of patience. So you need transition. You need to show the person that you highly respect him or her. And you interrupt them is because you need to maybe ask for clarifications or double check some information. By saying the following sentences you are telling them that you are taking their words seriously. You are paying much attention to their speaking.

What exactly is the problem here?

Now, how I can put this?

Let me see if I’ve got this straight.

What is it that we're talking about here?

Let me just check that I understand this.

The third step of INSET technique is called to show what the issue is.

In this part, you are aiming to tell the speaker what the problem or the issue is. You need to draw his or her attention to the issue that needs to be addressed. Okay? So you can use the following expressions:

The problem we have to address is...

I think this is a question of...

Aren’t we forgetting an important issue here?

What we need to deal with here is.....

Now we`re moving to the E step for explaining your opinion. What does this technique mean is as you can understand by its literal meaning to explain your vision, to explain your opinion, to tell the presenter, to tell the speaker your thinking, your thoughts upon some certain topic. Okay? For example, what`s your opinion towards something? So you can simply use the following sentence structures.

I believe we should...

Doesn’t it seem that...

Why don’t we...

Don't you think we should...

Wouldn't it be better to....

Wouldn't it be more practical to....

Shouldn't we be....

In the end, we have the test agreement step. So you have to test what the other person is thinking of? For example, you can say, does that make sense to you? means do you really understand what I was talking about? You do this because you need his or her feedback. Because if you are interrupting other people`s speaking, it means you are intervening in a conversation. You are engaging yourself in an interactive conversation. You need the other person to respond. ?You need to know what speaker`s attitude is, what his or her reaction would be like so that you can get the right hint, the right clue to move forward. Right??So you can ask questions like this:

Don’t you agree?

Doesn’t that make sense to you?

Could we agree on this?

Do you see what I'm getting at??

Do you understand where I'm coming from?

Wouldn't you agree with that?

Would you agree to that?

?

In this section.?I’m going to show you some examples of both effective and ineffective interruptions. Now ask yourself: Can I tell, can I distinguish effective interruptions from ineffective interruptions?

Ineffective Interruption Drill

Andrew: OK, the next issue we need to look at is the travel arrangements for the marketing tour next month. We’ll need accommodation and travel reservations for four people, and…

Elsa: Three, Andrew, if you remember Sara said she wouldn’t be able to make it.

Andrew : Right. We’ve also decided on the hotels and presentation venues, and...

Elsa: I’m sorry to interrupt, Andrew, but — let me see how to put this — it doesn’t seem very practical to have two presentations in Los Angeles, does it??

Brad: Yes, I agree with Elsa. Couldn’t we...

Andrew: That may be so, but I’ve already made the bookings. It wasn’t...?

Elsa: But wait a minute—weren’t we supposed to meet today to finalize the venues and timings, and then make the bookings?

Brad: Yes… um… I think…

Andrew: Well the hotel said they could get us better rates if we booked within 24 hours, so I thought…

Elsa: Yes, I get that, but we may need to make some changes to the schedule once we’ve all gone over the logistics.

Brad: I agree… we should…?

Andrew: Look, we’re going to lose money if we make any changes now. I propose…

Elsa: Forgive my interruption, but I think the issue here is that we may spend more if we set up two presentations in the same city.

Brad: Yes, I think Elsa is...

Andrew: I see your point. Maybe we could...?

Elsa: Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Why don’t we merge both presentations? Even if we lose some amount to cancel one booking, we’ll save more if we keep the number of presentations down.

Brad: Yes, that seems like a good…

Andrew: Sounds good to me. Let’s discuss this further.

Effective Interruption Drill

Andrea: Let’s look at the short listed applicants for the PR post. I recommend we hire Sally Crenshaw since she seems to have the best track record, and…….

James: Pardon the interruption, but I think Faith Greenberg may be a better person for the job. Doesn’t she have more experience than Sally?

Andrea: She does, but Sally has worked on more high-profile projects than Faith has.

James: Well, do you think that’s such an important consideration for this post? We may not be able to find someone else who’s worked for more than eight years in this field. I think we should consider….

Andrea: Just a minute, James – I hear you, but Sally’s got exactly the right profile that we need for the upcoming project for Vision Inc. Her background…..

James: Let me just say something here. I get that, but I feel we should also keep in mind that Vision may want someone with a little more experience than Sally.

Andrea: If that’s the only issue, then I think we could convince them that Sally would be right for the job. Wouldn’t you agree?

James: We probably could, but I think Faith’s profile speaks for itself. We don’t want to get into negotiations with the client about….

Andrea: Let me see if I have this right. If you think Faith’s profile is more suitable, we could ask Sally to give us a new cover letter that explains how her skills could be….

James: Sorry, but don’t you think it’s a little too late for that? We’re running out of time here.

Andrea: I agree, but we could get Sally on the phone immediately and see if she can give us….

James: Forgive me for cutting you off, but I think that may take more time than we can afford, especially when we already have another suitable profile to send to our….

Andrea: Hold on. How can I put this? I think we should give Sally a chance since her experience in the field may be worth putting off the decision for another day.

James: I guess you’re right. The issue here seems to be to get someone for the task ASAP so that we can bag this project. We don’t want Vision to get tired of waiting and go to someone else.

Andrea: I think we may be able to buy another day’s time from them. They were pretty happy with the previous project we did, and….

James: That may not necessarily mean that they’ll wait for us indefinitely. I propose that we contact them today and let them know that we’ll send them the finalized details tomorrow.

Andrea: I agree. Also, I think we can let Sally know that she should send us a new cover letter for this project by the end of the day so that we can….

James: The end of the day may be too long. Let’s say 3 p.m. Can we agree on that?

Andrea: OK, that sounds reasonable. I’ll get on right away.

James: Sounds good, thanks!

Alright, you gorgeous people. That’s all for today. If you have any other questions, please leave them on the comment below. Have a nice day. See you next time >_<.