By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

One of my favorite movies is Kindergarten Cop with Arnold Schwartzenegger as the hapless undercover cop in charge of a class of kindergarteners. Even with his rippling physique and imposing stature he initially struggles to maintain control of the room. In this age of smartphones and sleep-deprived workers sometimes it can feel like you are dealing with a roomful of distracted kids instead of a focused team of colleagues.

One of the ways that you can make meetings run more smoothly is to physically adapt the space to give you the advantage if you need to exert authority over an inattentive crew.

Here are the actions I used recently in client meeting of executives:

Always make sure you can see who is entering and exiting by not sitting with your back to the door. This ensures you aren’t caught off guard by the assistant bringing in papers that need to be signed or the refreshment cart.

Clarify how much time you actually have. Having this information spoken aloud will reinforce the agenda timings you have already set out and signals to the group that timing is important.

Move the furniture around if necessary so that you can see everyone easily. I sat in the center of long side of the table and pulled away the extra chairs on either side of me so that it was easy to make eye contact with all the participants.

 Choose to stand rather than sit. This gives you higher status and makes it easier for you to refocus attention if people get off-track.

(S)he who holds the marker has power. I asked if I could stand and use the flip chart. By doing this I now had 4 colours and a big visual focus to keep people’s attention where I wanted it.

Move around the room. Sometimes I would stand directly across from the person who was speaking. Other times, it can be more effective to sit and be on the same physical level as the other participants to show solidarity. At other times I would step back completely from the table and stand against the wall to allow the group to have a lengthy, internal discussion.

It is possible to stay in charge with a few simple actions. You can then declare in the words of Detective Kimble “You are mine now. You belong to me.”