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Shoutout to the member who suggested using a timer to keep our book club debates on track
We kept going over our scheduled hour, so I started a 10-minute timer for each major discussion point. It forced us to focus and actually finish the book's themes. Anyone else have a trick for keeping a lively group from spiraling into endless tangents?
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seanperry2mo ago
Ever try a talking stick? My old hiking group had one for planning trips... it sounds silly but when only the person holding the stick can talk, it really cuts down on people talking over each other. We used a literal stick from the trail. The hard part was remembering to pass it around instead of just waving it while you made your point. It made everyone pause and actually listen.
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amy_bailey862mo ago
Oh man, @seanperry, that totally works. My book club tried something like that with a big plastic spoon because we had one chronic interrupter. It felt goofy at first, but holding that spoon made you really think before you spoke. We even had a rule that you had to put the spoon down on the table after your turn so someone else had to pick it up. It slowed things down in a good way and people actually heard each other's points.
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