How to Gracefull Exclude Coworkers from Meetings, Emails, and Projects

You and about twenty of your coworkers are sitting around a crowded conference room table, discussing the details of some project.  Some people are fighting for attention, trying to get a word in. A few won’t stop talking.  Others have tuned the meeting out, retreating to their laptops or phones.  At the end of the meeting, the only real outcome is the decision to schedule a follow-up meeting with a smaller group—a group that can actually make some decisions and execute on them.

Why does this happen? People hate to be excluded, so meet.....