How to keep a smarty-pants from undermining your meetings

And, if you do it FIRST and in such a way as to direct the conversation to the strength of Mr. Smartie Pant’s point of common ground, you may have made an ally to build some of the best conversations on that which you are most passionate about . . . =) play with the devil in a way that suits you best, but know that you are dancing with the devil and always remember the three most powerful words in the universe: i don’t know, what do you think about that, _____? always have someone who has your back who can process these situations quickly and proactively to set your discussion back on your focus, now, hopefully enlarged. BTW, paraphrasing usually makes a speaker look very inexperienced and is best only in corporate/government worlds not dealing with general public. (IMHO!)