First thing that came to mind is "to stack the deck" - and in that context it would be the ability to predetermine the course of the conversation by limiting or directing its parameters.
>It seems there are people who work as professional "facilitators":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitator>
>According to the article, it seems one high-level skill they should possess is the ability to "stack a conversation". Not knowing what that means, I Googled and Binged it. I couldn't find any references that said anything other than repeating that it's a skill they should have.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
