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Nucleus of Entrepreneurs
How to deal with difficult participants
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General Considerations
• Convey confidence
• Always be attentive
• Do not insult
• Breathe deeply and think before speaking
• Stay calm
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Difficulties in the Nucleus can be caused by
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Interested / positive participants
Dominating participants
Aggressive participants
Clown participants
Negative participants
Silent / shy participants
Endless speaking participants
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Interested / positive participant
• Absorbs
• Contributes
• Is open to new ideas
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Positive participant : What to do ?
• Do not emphasize him / her too much
• Put him / her in weaker sub-groups for support,
but before doing so talk to him / her about his /
her task
• Do not overload him / her ...
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Dominating participant
• Wants to dominate and lead the group in his /
her own manner
• Wants that his / her opinion gets precedence
• Tries to quell quickly the discussion
by presenting the “ideal” solution
• Uses frequently scientific terms
• The other members withdraw, they may react
aggressively
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Dominating participant : What to do ?
• Confirm the statement of the dominator
• But ask the other members for contributions and
invite them to express their opinions
• Indicate through a summary that the
dominator’s statement was understood
but that not everyone might share the same
opinion and that there are other points of view
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Dominating participant : What to do ?
• Invite the dominator to elaborate his / her
proposal for a presentation in plenary
• In case the dominator presents his / her view as
the only right one, elaborate in group the
advantages and disadvantages
(flipchart or cards)
• The general strategy : Analyse the dominator’s
statement / opinion / proposal in an analytical
way
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Dominating participant : What to do ?
• Delegate a special task to the dominator during
the meeting … keeping him / her busy
Examples : writing cards, preparing a synthesis,
• Apply other techniques
Examples: marking time, passing the ball …
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Aggressive participant
• Contradicts arguments, procedures, participants
and counsellor
• Speaks with irony or aggression when his / her
arguments are not followed
• Reacts sensitively to critics
• Blows up and calms down quickly,
speaks without thinking previously
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Aggressive participant : What to do ?
• Try to identify the causes of the aggressive behaviour
– Identify under which conditions the agression occurs –
Always? Only sometimes?
– Inform yourself more about his life, personel problems,
eventually talk to him individually and offer help
• Take care not to offend.
Do not confront him / her, treat him / her with respect
• Ask others for help, eventually also other Nucleus
members
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Aggressive participant : What to do ?
• Make the meeting attractive and motivating
and do not lose focus on the aggressive
participant
– Recognizing emotions: "I'm feeling that you are
upset ... "
– Repetition, summary: "You mean ..."
– Concretisation: "Give examples ..."
– Praise: "I'm glad you're addressing ..."
– Interest: "Your argument seems to me ..."
– Return: "What do you think ..."
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Aggressive participant : What to do ?
• In the worst case and the aggressive participant
disturbs the Nucleus’ work continuously :
– Discuss individually with the formal and informal
leaders about the aggressive participant’s behaviour
– Check carefully whether the opinion prevails that
s/he should be excluded from the Nucleus
– Initiate a debate about the expected communication
forms in the Nucleus
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Aggressive participant : What to do ?
– The proposal for the exclusion of the aggressive
participant from the Nucleus should come from
Nucleus members
– In case the aggressive participant does not quit
voluntarily start a vote
• General rule :
Better an end with horror
than horror without end !
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Clown participant
• S/he tries to draw attention with tricks or actions
• This becomes controversial when the tricks
annoy
– involved persons
– the whole group
– the proper application of the methodologies
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Clown participant : What to do ?
• If the group responds well, no need for action
• Use him / her in appropriate moments for the
vitalization of the group
• “It’s ok, but now we will return to the subject …”
• “What do you want to say?” – in case of an
aggression
• Ignore him / her and the jokes
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Clown participant : What to do ?
• Demonstrate the fallacy of this attitude
(tricks / individual attacks),
confirming the seriousness of the Nucleus’ work
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Negative participant
• S/he has the talent always to identify the
negative or dark (pessimist)
• Tries to prove that something does not and
cannot work, even without trying
• Provokes with irony and derision the antipathy
of the other participants
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Negative participant : What to do ?
• Accept his / her point of view in a neutral way
• When it makes sense oppose with arguments
and different visions
• In case of justified critics, search for clarifications
and let discuss the group
• Generalized critics answer with “What do you
want to say with this?”
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Negative participant : What to do ?
• Counter irony with the request for detailed
explanation
• Show that exist different solutions
• Integrate him / her in group work, where s/he
might reevaluate the position
• Cite experiences of other colleagues /
institutions / enterprises
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Silent / shy participant
• Hides in the background
• Neither the group nor the counsellor perceive
much his / her presence
• Eventually exist communication, inferiority, etc.
problems
• Often likes to participate actively
but expects help from the counsellor
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Silent / shy participant : What to do ?
• Talk to him during breaks, encourage
• Define pairs for special works and take care
that s/he will get the “right” partner
• Encourage self-confidence, convey success stories
• Assign to him / her specific tasks in the Nucleus
• Adress directly to him / her “easy” questions
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Silent / shy participant : What to do ?
• Start an activity that participants learn to know
another better
• Find out his / her potential, strengths ,
experiences, capacities in order to use them in the
meetings
• Request his / her participation at appropriate
moments during the meeting
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Endless speaking participant
• S/he has no difficulty in being a “transmitter”
• Inable to listen
• Looses the objective of the discussion,
therefore looses the respect of the group
• In this case the group expects interventions from
the counsellor
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Endless speaking participant : What to do ?
• Let him / her talk and interrupt at the
appropriate moment
• Repeat his / her statement in a clear, concrete
and short manner
• Delegate a specific function to him / her that
requires him / her to listen
Example: Writing cards about the different
points of the discussion
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Endless speaking participant : What to do ?
• Request from him / her to respect the others
• Start a list of control of everyone's participation
• Apply techniques during the discussion
Example : 30 seconds, small ball …
• Talk with him / her in order to use his / her
potential in favour of the Nucleus
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