All about Disruptions and Interruptions
Prevent and deal with Disruptions and Interruptions in Live Social Audio Moderation #clubhouse - updated July 28, 2022
Content
Part I: The Definitions of Disruptions and Interruptions.
Part II: What can everyone do to prevent disruptions?
Part III: What can Mods do?
Part IV: Checklist — What can Mods do Before, During and After Disruptions?
If it comes down to the Block feature, Block Judiciously
Why? Reasons for Disruptions and Interruptions
Part I: The Definitions Disruptions and Interruptions.
The interrupter is someone who comes into the space, got invited up to speak, then they start talking about what they want to talk about. It is off topic. They may go on and on for too long, and they are not following along with what's happening with the group. They don't understand the guidelines that's been established. They didn't hear it, or they weren't paying attention.
Signs of Disruptions in Social Audio
Intentionally or unintentionally… Disregard established norms, orders and expectations, which leads to a disjointed experience in-room.
Intentionally or unintentionally… Overshare unwelcome content and display disrespectful behavior. Such as…
Speaking over people without stopping.
Deviating from the conversation, topic and title.
When told to stop, they continue speaking.
Irrelevant and/ inappropriate comments in the in-room chat.
Inappropriate profile picture.
Feelings get hurt.
Moderators give up power to the disruptions.
Moderators are not able recover and reach the destination they had hoped for the gathering.
Part II: What can everyone do to prevent disruptions?
Disruptions in a participatory space come from unfamiliarity, discomfort, and fear. Here are ideas to inspire trust and connection.
Self Check-In
Am I of sound heart and mind to participate?
What qualities and characteristics am I looking for in the people I hope to meet and talk to?
W.A.I.T: Why am I talking?
Enter all Stages with the Intent to Build Trust and Connection
Show up to contribute to the topic and let people get to know you.
Show up where you feel welcomed.
Ask for extra time to settle in, ask for a reset, ask for a recap of the topic.
If you are not seeing what you are looking for, Start a room by hitting that (+ Room) button in the hallway.
If it comes down to the Block feature, Block Judiciously
People can react and jump to the conclusion of Blocking a Disruptor or Interruptor without understanding the capability and consequence of the feature.
The Block feature is a significant decision, to permanently restrict someone from entering and seeing the replays of all the rooms you speak in.
Most people cannot recalling who they blocked. Therein they will not be able to find people to unblock when they want to undo this action.
Blocking can be detrimental to public conversations and shows, to room leaders and speakers who are friendly to both Blocker and Blockee.
Take time to consider thoroughly before Blocking.
Options before or instead of Blocking:
“Remove Someone from the Stage”
“Remove Someone from the Room”
“Report an Incident”
If you must block someone, screen-capture their profile to track who you blocked. You may want to unblock them sooner or later.
Find a third party individual to mediate the conflict between you two, and come to an agreement for when you may or may not want to show up in the same space at then same time.
Do not block people who annoy you, have different opinions and beliefs. Accept the possibility that both sides are not ready to receive each other’s viewpoint.
If you must Block someone, unblock them after a cooling off period.
Part III: What can Mods do?
As the leader and moderator of the room — step in to help them out. Stop them if they are participating in a way that really isn't gelling and making sense for everyone in the room.
INTENTION SETTING
Now, let me take a step back, even before you open the room… take some time to sit with the idea and the inspiration for the space.
“What do you want the vibe, the tone to be?”
“What's the agenda, if you have one?”
Really, I'm saying, “How much planning is going to make you happy for this room that you're having?”
“Is it going to be a lot of planning, or very little planning?”
“Is this something that is organized well in advance, or is this an idea that you're coming up with, and you are going to let it fly, and see where it takes you?”
You're also thinking… “Is it going to be with a team of mods that you want to work with, or is it a solo led room?” Just a few things to consider (as a leader).
Join The modernchi Social Audio Program if you’ve found these prompts helpful.
Not ready to join?
Double-click below to listen to “Solutions for Interruptions / Disruptions” Every second of listen time from listeners like you — will empower more people with their creative processes.
HAND RAISING
Now when you do open a room… the important control to think about is the Hand Raising. It is defaulted to ‘ON’ or open when you open the room.
“Do you intend to keep it open for the most part, or do you want it off sometimes, or turn it on and off?”
The cool thing about a clubhouse room… is accepting new speakers to join you and inviting people up to join you, or allowing them to raise their hand and accept them to join the speaking stage. You just never know who will come through, and who you will meet.
That's the fun part about it. Some of them may become your friends forever!
I also want to note that it really makes the most sense for the top left / leader of the space, or the person next to them to… (well they can talk about this separately before they open the room, or in the backchat now that that they have it…) to make the decision about one of them being the person who would control the flow of adding speakers into the conversation. Because this person may or may not also be the person going over the context and what's happening in the space, and doing the reset to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to get re-centered into the topic.
CARING ABOUT THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE
Now, sometimes when you open the room… it's exciting, people are coming in, you invite them to join the conversation, and a few people may come up (at the same time). So, it's important to acknowledge them by name… saying hello to them. Thanking them for joining you, and letting them know, “Hey please just hang in there for a little bit while I go over the the inspiration for the room.”
Or let them know where you are in the conversation. If you're somewhere along, in the middle, you can recap where you have been in the discussion, and where you are now, then where you are intending to go next. This also gives the chance to explain the format of the space.
“Is this a PTR room? Is this a PopCorn room?” I have also made a couple of videos on those topics, so go check them out - PTR or PopCorn, if you haven't gotten to those.
Another way to think about this room setup… is that, this is your house, your living room, or your shop.
You are hosting this conversation because you care about this topic.
Hopefully, you can drive us forward in some way to reach outcomes, gather highlights, and bring these topics to the next meeting that we will have.
GUIDELINE SUGGESTIONS
Now I want to share three guidelines I love to use. (As much as I can, I try to include this in my reset. It is a useful tool to read these out loud to stop a disruption.)
1 - We welcome contributions toward the topic.
Number one is to be concise, because we are here to work together to build a dialogue together.
2 - Be aware of how much or how little space you are taking up.
Number two, be respectful, be kind and make room for each other to speak.
3 - ‘I’ statements are preferred over advice-giving.
Number three, let's not jump to the advice giving because it's a lot more fun and enjoyable for everyone to hear each other's stories and lived experience.
When you talk from your perspective sharing in ‘I’ language, like, this is what happened for me, and so on and so forth, it's all a part of creating a participatory space.
Rewrite these guidelines in your own words, and put them into practice in your room.
WHEN THERE ARE DISRUPTIONS
Now if there is someone who is lost and deviates from the conversation, it's helpful to come in (as a mod) to express and encourage them to go and start their room on the topic that they really want to talk about.
Likely, what's happening is… they got inspired by the topic that you set up, and now it led them to think about this other sub topic, or side topic that they care about. Remind them to find collaboration. That they can message people to see if they can collaborate on their next topic.
BREAKOUT ROOM
Sometimes it works to go into a person's bio - to find a way to have a side conversation with them, (if you are not leading the room). That it may make sense (if you have been having a back and forth inside the room and it's off topic). You can initiate a room together (using the ‘WAVE’ feature as of Oct 2021), because it makes sense for the two of you to have a one-to-one mini breakout session away from the main group or main conversation, and then come back to rejoin later.
SECURITY: PROTECTING THE ROOM’S ENERGY
It comes a time when one of us will have to step in and be the bouncer or security.
Really it's about going into people's profiles who are in the audience to check them out before you invite them and bring them on to the stage.
Ask that they have links to their public social profiles, or that they have something written in their profile for why they're on social audio. Because this is how you know if they're there to look for community and connection.
You may want to get a few people involved who will be able to look out for people who are disruptive, to take the action to move someone off stage, and explain to them why you did that. See if you are able to re-engage them and bring them back up onto the stage. They're just there to seek attention, who knows, they may be hurting in life. The next step to take is to Move them Out of the Room, or Report Recent Speaker. To the top right there's the three dots where you can go to do that.
The goal is to make the room enjoyable and protect the energy and the vibe of the room for everyone listening in, and get back to a place to talk about the topic at hand.
How do you feel now that I've talked about interrupter and interruptions? What are you up to on clubhouse? How are things?
Subscribe to the YouTube for FREE if you’ve found these examples helpful.
Click here to listen to “Solutions for Interruptions / Disruptions” Every second of listen time from listeners like you — will empower more people with their creative processes.
Why? Reasons for Disruptions and Interruptions
Room leaders and creators with limited good sense, facilitation and moderation experience.
Visitors: Experience and exposure in social and professional settings different than the expectations established in a room. (One or more may apply.)
Limited experience engaging in meaningful conversations.
Accustomed to forcing new expectations and ideas onto everyone.
Limited mindset for learning and participating in group settings.
Limited language, communication and listening abilities.
Limited experience asking for time to listen and catch up, or asking for a reset.
Letting emotions takeover. Seeking attention.
Join The modernchi Social Audio Program if you’ve found these examples helpful. Also, this is what you will get access to below, if you join.
Checklist: What can Mods can do Before, During and After Disruptions?
Pre-Room
In-Room
Who to Invite, Vetting Tips for Handraising
Disruption Prevention Pro-Tip
Actions, Steps 1-5
De-escalation and Conflict Resolution Techniques and Phrases
After-Room and After a Disruption: Self Review and Debrief Methods
Special Thanks to all modernchi leaders and all participants on May 23, 2022.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Katy’s Social Audio Checklists & Tutorials to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.