From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK
May I report a highly effective way to counter interruptions while talking, to add to those offered in your article (10 March, p 34).
In the 1980s, I sat on the council of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs trade union. Meetings were always attended by the extrovert and voluble general secretary Clive Jenkins. He would frequently interrupt speakers during what were otherwise disciplined and strictly non-interrupted meetings in order, as he put it, “to be helpful and progress business”.
One member, who seemed to be interrupted more than others, developed the technique of instantly stopping speaking and waiting in silence until Clive, with his usual sweet smile of acknowledgement, had finished.
She would then immediately continue speaking at precisely the same point in the sentence she had been delivering as when interrupted. There was never any loss of sense, grammar or syntax. It was as if the interruption had never occurred. This was so effective that it eventually cured Jenkins of his habit.
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It is a very difficult trick to carry off, but it can be devastating.
