Carol has to let it go. Worst thing to do is interrupt the current flow. She will come across as a "Barker" like she had sat there not listening to what Alice or Bob had to say and was just thinking about what she wanted to say about topic one the whole time.
Best thing to do is wait until the end and circle back with a question that leads into discussing topic one. Doing this you immediately relinquish control of the conversation, and when appropriate say your thoughts.
Otherwise, just let it go. Is it going to kill you to not say it?
I read a good summary once of analysing the thought process:
- Does this need to be said?
- Does this need to be said by me?
- Does this need to be said by me now?
Which are good questions to ask when interrupting the flow of a conversation.
Your view is extremely simplistic and just doesn't reflect the sophistication of any abstract and complex conversation.
Especially if the topic at hand is a new territory with a lot of unknown unknowns. If no-one ever explicitly says that "OK, we covered topic one and now we move on to topic two. Is there anyone who wants to add comments?", then the conversation was not very civil, was not yet over, and whoever organized the meeting was an amateur, and let the worst thing happen: Alice and Bob change topics for no reason, instead of stopping them short.
You're reading a lot into what was a fairly simple scenario with no mention of what the topics were. It came across as being an informal meeting with no agenda, moderator or stated outcomes.
About all we can assume from the scenario are the power dynamics. Alice spoke first which says it's either her meeting or she is the ranking person there - not Carol.
If it was a meeting to address the potential critical failure of a system that Carol is the most knowledgeable about, then yes, she should speak up. It could be potentially negligent to not do so, but most meetings are not that.
It means a decision will be made without Carol's information that she'll have to live with, potentially hampering her ability to deliver something she's accountable for. If her manager finds out she knew something important and held onto it out of politeness, that'll come up in the leadership/collaboration section of her next review. If her manager doesn't know that she knew, it'll look like a hard skills problem.
>Best thing to do is wait until the end and circle back with a question that leads into discussing topic one.
Maybe this is a quirk of my meeting culture, but the success rate here is approximately zero.
>Does this need to be said by me?
This is a good one keep in mind, I do sometimes find that the point I've been hanging onto eventually gets said by someone else, and it's really satisfying.
Best thing to do is wait until the end and circle back with a question that leads into discussing topic one. Doing this you immediately relinquish control of the conversation, and when appropriate say your thoughts.
Otherwise, just let it go. Is it going to kill you to not say it?
I read a good summary once of analysing the thought process:
- Does this need to be said?
- Does this need to be said by me?
- Does this need to be said by me now?
Which are good questions to ask when interrupting the flow of a conversation.