• Dominant personalities. Try to avoid eye contact that might provoke a question or comment, ask others for their comments, or suggest that you meet at the end of the session to talk through the issues being raised. See the tip on dominant participants for an extended discussion of this issue.

• Mobile phones and other electronic interruptions. Set clear expectations about these at the start of the session (remember that some people may need to be contactable during sessions for work, childcare or other personal reasons). If an interruption, such as a phone call, does happen then it is better not to ignore it – the learners’ attention will have already moved to the distraction. Isolate the event by asking the person to leave the group if they do take the call. Do not humiliate a learner if he or she has simply forgotten to turn off a phone but wait patiently while they deal with it. If you are working with learners who are very likely to be contacted – for example, a workshop with healthcare professionals who may be on call – explain at the beginning of the class where they can take a call without causing disruption.

• External noise. If the noise is so bad that you cannot be heard properly or is so distracting that it is clearly affecting the learning environment then do not be afraid to stop the session. If you can ask the noise-makers to stop with some chance of success then you should do so, but if it is unavoidable then stop the session and try to rearrange. Struggling through will probably achieve little – you must be in control of the environment as much as possible.

• Latecomers. Ignore them. Making an issue of the lateness at the time will only exacerbate the interruption. Do try to have a word with the latecomers at some point though, stressing how disruptive lateness is. There is an extended discussion on this topic in the tip on Latecomers.