We’ve all had that experience where we’ve planned the perfect discussion only to have it hijacked by a passionate side-person, lose focus halfway through, or produce the exact same takeaways as you had before you began the discussion.

With a few tricks in your back pocket, you can recover from some of these tricky situations or even prevent them in the first place! I’ll share some of my best techniques and provide some yellow flags I’ve learned to recognize that signified needing to make a change.