Meetings – Business English Skills 360 https://www.mybeonline.com The ESL Podcast that Looks at the Other Side of Business English Fri, 26 Mar 2021 12:31:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.mybeonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cropped-business-english-skills-360-amp-banner-1-32x32.png Meetings – Business English Skills 360 https://www.mybeonline.com 32 32 Business English Skills 360 podcast lessons provide essential tips and language for communicating in English. Free transcripts and PDF downloads are available on the website: https://www.BusinessEnglishPod.com www.BusinessEnglishPod.com clean episodic www.BusinessEnglishPod.com BusinessEnglishPod@mac.com BusinessEnglishPod@mac.com (www.BusinessEnglishPod.com) Copyright Business English Pod Ltd. 2006-2021 Business English Skills 360 - The podcast that looks at the other side of Business English. Meetings – Business English Skills 360 https://www.mybeonline.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/Business-English-Skills-360-iTunes-1500.png https://www.mybeonline.com/category/english-meetings/ TV-G Skills 360 – Decision-Making Meetings (2) https://www.mybeonline.com/skills-360-facilitating-group-decision-making-meetings-2/ https://www.mybeonline.com/skills-360-facilitating-group-decision-making-meetings-2/#respond Sat, 26 May 2018 22:10:38 +0000 https://www.businessenglishpod.com/?p=11561 Learn business English for leading decision-making meeting.

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Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 Podcast. I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at leading a group to a decision.

If you tuned in last time, you may remember what I said makes a good decision. It’s one that people buy into, and people see the reasons behind. Well, that’s easier said than done. If you’re leading the meeting, you might wish for a simple and straightforward discussion that ends in one - and only one - logical decision. But dream on. You should expect a few obstacles along the way.

For one thing, sometimes people can get a bit personal. I mean, one person makes a suggestion, and someone else attacks the person, as opposed to the idea. It might be pretty easy to detect, like “Come on Dave, you always come up with the stupidest ideas.” But it might be a bit more indirect, like “Geez Dave, do you have any other great ideas?” In any case, you need to shut this down immediately. Call people out for personal attacks, and keep the discussion focused on ideas, not personality conflict.

This is part of your role as a facilitator. You’re supposed to encourage people to listen, prevent interruption, and generally make sure people feel respected and heard. As soon as people feel attacked personally, they’ll shut up. And you don’t want anyone to shut up, because anyone in the room could be sitting on the million dollar idea. So bring it back, nicely, to a focus on ideas, like this: “Okay everyone, let’s just focus on the issue at hand…” or “All right, but what about the website ideas?”

Another thing you need to shut down is conversation that goes completely off topic. People do this without even realizing it. They hear something, it reminds them of something else, they start talking about it… soon enough the conversation has gone from the topic of increasing sales to the best place to buy muffins. Your job is to steer the conversation back. Don’t be shy about it. Just come out and say “Muffins are great, but they’re way off topic.” Even people who tend to stray appreciate this.

Okay, so what about the people who love to hear themselves talk? I mean, there are some people who will go on and on and on about the same idea. Well, you can’t let them go on forever. Once you realize they’ve made their point, find a slight break in their little speech and jump in with a summary. Try something like: “So you’re saying…” or, if you need to be a bit more aggressive, you could say: “Okay, okay, hang on just a sec. As I understand it, you think…”

Another obstacle in a decision-making meeting is what we call “groupthink.”
Groupthink is when people just follow along with the ideas being discussed, without thinking for themselves. Or, they don’t try to come up with anything new. Instead, people just accept what is being put in front of them.

So how can you deal with groupthink? Well, you can try to encourage some creative thinking from the get-go. Tell everyone what groupthink is, and then tell them to avoid it.]]> www.BusinessEnglishPod.com 8:41 Skills 360 – Decision-Making Meetings (1) https://www.mybeonline.com/business-english-skills-360-leading-group-decision-1/ https://www.mybeonline.com/business-english-skills-360-leading-group-decision-1/#respond Sat, 19 May 2018 23:10:08 +0000 https://www.businessenglishpod.com/?p=11498 Learn Business English for leading a group to a decision during a meeting.

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Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 Podcast . I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at how you can lead a group to a decision.

In fact, it might be better to say we’re talking about how to lead groups to good decisions. After all, any meeting chairperson can push for a quick decision, or call a vote before matters have been fully discussed. But that’s not the kind of leadership I’m talking about. And that doesn’t necessarily produce good decisions. A good decision is one that people buy into, and one that has a strong rationale behind it. Achieving these two things can’t be done quickly, or forcefully.

So how can we go about leading a group to a decision? Well, right at the start of the meeting, you need to set the stage for a good discussion, and a good decision.

Setting the stage involves a couple of important things. Firstly, you need to be very clear about the purpose. If you’re meeting to make a decision, make sure everyone knows it. Also make sure they’re clear on the decision-making process. Does it have to be unanimous? Are you striving for consensus? Will you put it to a vote? These are not issues to be left to the middle of a heated discussion.

Now, it’s often a good idea to have a bit of a process to a decision-making meeting. And that process typically goes like this: start with information-sharing, then run through or brainstorm different options, then evaluate those options through discussion, and finally make a decision.

Notice that generating ideas and evaluating ideas are separate steps. That helps prevent people feeling criticized or getting defensive. Of course, people will bounce around a bit. You’ll be evaluating options, and someone will bring up an important piece of information they neglected to mention earlier. That’s fine, and unavoidable. But overall, it’s a good idea to follow this rough process.

Within this process, leading group decisions is all about facilitating good discussion. And the magic of good facilitation is making everyone in the room feel listened to and emotionally validated. That can seem easy for the outgoing people who like to think out loud and are comfortable jumping into the middle of conversation. But the deep thinkers need more time to articulate their thoughts. For this reason, when you think discussion has stalled on a particular topic, just wait. You’ll be surprised what emerges after a minute of uncomfortable silence.

Overall, you need to make sure that everyone has had a chance to speak and express themselves. Sometimes this means calling on people directly. Or it might simply mean staying attuned to how those weaker voices attempt to join the discussion. If you’re perceptive, you’ll be able to see when someone wants to say something. Maybe they lean forward and open their mouth slightly. Or they make gestures with their hands. Your job is to help these voices be heard.

One thing you should be doing throughout the discussion is checking back with the participants for a variety of purposes. For one, you might confirm agreement by saying something like “Okay, is everyone on board with this plan?]]> www.BusinessEnglishPod.com 67 clean 7:36 Skills 360 – Teleconferences (2) https://www.mybeonline.com/skills-360-english-for-teleconferences-2/ https://www.mybeonline.com/skills-360-english-for-teleconferences-2/#respond Sun, 08 Mar 2015 15:21:43 +0000 http://mybeonline.com/?p=1020 Learn English for leading and managing a teleconference.

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Transcript

Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at how to lead a teleconference.

Leading a meeting is rarely easy. You’ve got to manage time, an agenda, and – most importantly – a diverse group of people. Now, what about if the meeting happens by phone, with each person or small group calling in from a different location? Nobody can see each other, and there may be a variety of distractions that you, as the leader, can’t shut out simply by closing the door. Sure, teleconferencing is a marvel of modern technology, but it can be challenging.

If you’re leading a teleconference, the usual advice about facilitating meetings becomes all the more important. That includes having a clear agenda and starting on time, which is sometimes difficult because of an added layer of technical complexity. So well before the meeting, make sure everyone has the correct call-in instructions and that everyone knows what time the meeting starts in their local time. Then sign in early so you can deal with any technical problems as people join.

And what should you do as people join? As the leader, you need to welcome them, by saying things like: “Oh hi Dave. Glad you could make it,” and “Welcome Janet from Miami.” Take the time right at the beginning of the meeting to introduce everyone, or have everyone introduce themselves, saying their name and where they’re calling in from. Remember, people can’t see each other, so they only have voices to go on. Doing a roll call at the beginning let’s people associate names with voices.

Now, during the meeting, your job is similar to that of a traffic controller. You need to help the discussion flow around each point on the agenda and lead the group to destinations, or decisions. A free-flowing discussion is somewhat easier in-person, when everyone can see each other and signal that they want to say something.

But on a teleconference, this is more difficult. You might want to try more formal turn-taking – or “go around the circle” - at certain points because it’s more orderly. For example, you could say: “Okay I’d like to hear what everyone has to say on the CFO’s announcement. Let’s hear from Susan first, then Sam, then Nick and finally Brenda.”

If you do let the discussion flow, you may have to encourage participation from everyone. It’s pretty easy on a conference call, especially with lots of people, to hide in the background. Feel free to call on people by name, like “Tanis, do you have any thoughts on this?” As you manage the discussion, you may also need to help people understand. For example, you might say “Just so everyone’s clear, Tanis just said…”

Managing the flow also means responding when people want to cut in or cut people off, like this: “Okay Roger, if you can just wait a sec and let Tanis finish please.” Or if two people begin talking at the same time, you might have to say something like “Okay, let’s have Wendy first, then Frank.”

The whole point of this traffic control is to instill order and improve understanding. But how do you know if people understand? You don’t have frowns and furrowed brows to tell you that people are lost. So conduct regular check-ins, like this: “Okay, is everyone clear on this so far? Any questions?]]> www.BusinessEnglishPod.com 5:55 Skills 360 – Teleconferences (1) https://www.mybeonline.com/skills-360-english-for-teleconferences-1/ Sun, 01 Mar 2015 14:11:40 +0000 http://mybeonline.com/?p=1017 Learn tips and language for participating in a teleconference in English.

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]]> Learn tips and language for participating in a teleconference in English. Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript | Mobile Quizzes

Transcript

Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at how to participate in a teleconference.

With modern technology, you don’t have to be in the same room to have a meeting with other people. Teleconferencing tools allow us to connect by phone, VOIP, or video from across the country, or around the world. You can even join a meeting from home, your car or on plane at 30,000 feet in the air. Sure, it’s amazing, but teleconferencing brings special challenges, and we have to be mindful of things that real-life meetings don’t require.

For starters, you need to take steps to ensure clear and clean sound. You’ve probably been on a teleconference before and become annoyed by the sound of someone typing away at their keyboard. Or you’ve heard someone’s music or the clanking of cups and plates in a busy coffee shop. It’s not just irritating; it makes it difficult to hear people. So minimize this kind of background noise. Find a quiet place and use your mute button wisely. And try to avoid distractions. Some people think a teleconference is a good chance to get other work done, or check Facebook, but there’s nothing worse than getting asked a question when you weren’t really paying attention.

Now, there are several other ways that you can be a good teleconferencer. One of the keys is giving good verbal clues to other participants, because they don’t have any visual clues to go on. When you join the call, announce that you’ve arrived and let everyone know who you are. For example, a simple “Hello, it’s Dave here” should suffice if it’s an internal call. And if you join in the middle of the call, wait for a good time to introduce yourself rather than jumping in right away.

Besides introducing yourself at the beginning, you can say your name when you start speaking about something, like “Dave here. And I’d just like to add that we did even better than our original forecasts.” In fact, that example shows another handy technique that we might call “signposting.” Basically, signposting is when we announce what we’re about to do. It could be “I just want to add something,” or “I have a question,” or “I’d like to make a comment about that.” This helps manage the flow of discussion and makes it easier for people to follow you.

Sometimes the discussion gets chaotic. For example, it often happens that two people begin talking at the same time. In this case, it’s polite to let the other person go first, with a simple “please, go ahead” or “after you.” And being a polite and active participant also means demonstrating active listening techniques. In person, you can see someone nod or smile. But on a teleconference, you don’t have that kind of visual feedback, so you need to throw in a few “yeahs” and “rights” and “mm-hms” to show that you’re engaged, or that you’re even still there.

Of course, there are times when you might need to duck out mid-call. In that case, it’s best to just let everyone know, and to briefly announce when you’re back. You don’t want people asking you questions and getting dead air in response.

Now, sometimes it happens that you’ve got several people in a room crowded around one phone hub. It’s usually pretty obvious, because you get a lot of background chit chat.]]> www.BusinessEnglishPod.com 5:17 Skills 360 – Facilitating a Brainstorming Session 2 https://www.mybeonline.com/business-english-skills-360-facilitating-a-brainstorming-session-2/ Mon, 03 Feb 2014 08:34:25 +0000 http://mybeonline.com/?p=990 Learn how to run an effective brainstorming meeting in English.

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]]> Learn how to run an effective brainstorming meeting in English. Quizzes | PDF Transcript

Transcript

Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today we’re going to have a look at some great tips for running an effective brainstorming session.

Have you ever conducted a brainstorming session that simply goes nowhere? A few people throw out some ideas, but most participants seem uninspired or bored? You ask questions, but people don’t answer? Well, today I want to give you some tips for kickstarting the process and getting the juices flowing.

Okay, so you need to provide some kind of spark. But just saying “Okay everyone, we need to get the ideas flowing” is not actually going to inspire anyone. You need something different. One idea is to use visual stimulation. Bring a box of random objects that you can hold up or pass around. Or show the group random images, either ones you’ve chosen that relate to the topic or on sites like Pinterest and StumbleUpon. Looking at images or objects can send our thinking in new directions and trigger creative associations.

Another way to get ideas flowing is to get the room flowing. Try telling the group that every time you say “move!” everybody needs to stand up, walk around the room, and find a new seat. This gives people a very short break and a tiny bit of physical activity, which can be reinvigorating.

Moving seats also means that people are looking at the room, the flipchart, and everyone else from a new perspective. And finally, participants may find themselves sitting beside and talking with different people, which can inspire different ways of thinking. So every time you see people lagging a bit, yell “move” and see what happens.

Now, sometimes if you want good ideas from a group, you can ask them to think of bad ideas first. Yes, I’m serious. Sometimes we don’t know what we want or need, but we can figure it out by talking about what we don’t want or need. Here’s an example: say you’re with a group brainstorming better ways for your company to attract talented workers. A few good ideas have come out, but not nearly enough, and people are scratching their heads and getting frustrated.

This might be a good time to ask for “opposite thinking.” Try putting this question to the group, “Okay everyone, let’s change tack here and think of reasons people would not want to work for a company. What are things that talented workers don’t like in a job?” Believe me, when you ask questions about bad ideas or the worst examples, a lot of people suddenly have a lot to say.

And once you’ve got those bad or opposite ideas, you can just turn them around. So if someone says, “people really don’t like a work environment that is ugly and boring,” then you can turn it around and make “inspiring and clean workplace” one of your new ideas.

Okay, we’ve gone over some ways to get a whole group thinking, but there are some people who just don’t like working in large groups. They might not speak out confidently in a brainstorming session, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have good ideas. In fact, these quiet thinkers might be hiding some of the most fantastic ideas. So how do you draw those ideas out?

Well, one way is by providing a non-verbal input option. I’m talking about good old pen and paper. Make sure everyone has something to write with and on, and tell them that they’re free to provide their ideas that way. Or you can ask everybody to do this at certain points in the brainstorming. Then you collect the papers and write up the ideas on a board or flipchart.

You may also find that a great way to draw quiet people out is to reduce the group size.]]> www.BusinessEnglishPod.com clean 6:35 Skills 360 – Facilitating a Brainstorming Session 1 https://www.mybeonline.com/skills-360-facilitating-a-brainstorming-session-1/ Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:29:02 +0000 http://mybeonline.com/?p=987 Learn business English for facilitating a brainstorming session.

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]]> Learn business English for facilitating a brainstorming meeting. Quizzes | PDF Transcript

Transcript

Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at how to run an effective brainstorming session.

Every company uses brainstorming sessions to generate ideas and solve problems. But do all brainstorming sessions generate good ideas? Does everyone leave a brainstorming session feeling like they accomplished something? Well, that often depends on the facilitator. And if you are the one to run the show, there are several things you need to think about.

First comes good preparation. People need to head into a brainstorming session with a good idea about what they’re supposed to be talking about. So if you’re going to be running the session, don’t keep the topic a mystery. Email everyone well in advance. Make sure people come with a head full of ideas. If they don’t know what they’ll be doing until they arrive, they may not be as prepared.

Now, what happens when you start that meeting, when everyone’s assembled and your job is to get things going? Well, you need to set the stage for a productive session, and one great way to do that is to set some ground rules. You might want to create a list of your own that includes things like “turn off cell phones” and “no judgment.” Or you might want to let the group brainstorm their own list. Let them determine what guidelines will ensure they feel safe and free to share ideas.

Either way, you should write these guidelines down and display them for everyone to see. But remember, good brainstorming happens when people feel creative, free, and happy, so don’t get too hard-nosed or serious by making a bunch of “rules.”

Once you’ve got some guidelines, now you can pose the question or topic for the group. Right at the beginning, make sure you’re encouraging and setting a positive tone. When someone produces an idea, respond with “Fantastic, thanks Ron, let’s put that up here…” That helps create the right mood, and hopefully soon ideas will start flowing more freely. Once they do, don’t interfere. Your job is to record, and to maintain the energy. Keep praising people with comments like “Great stuff Nora” and “Right on Wayne.”

Okay, but sometimes people don’t express things perfectly clearly. And when this happens, you need to get some clarification. You can do this in a couple of ways. You can straight-up ask for explanation, like this, “All right Todd, thanks. Can you explain what you mean a bit more?” Notice that we are still thanking and praising.

You can also try restating what the person said to test an interpretation. For example, you could say something like, “Okay Todd, thanks. So you’re saying that we need to hire more staff? Is that right?” Either way, don’t get too bogged down in explanation. You just want things to be clear enough that everyone knows basically what’s being suggested.

Now, one of the most important principles of brainstorming is that we should separate idea generation from idea evaluation. So producing ideas and judging them are done separately. Brainstorming is all about the former, not the latter. So when someone says something like “I don’t know Todd, that probably wouldn’t help at this point,” you need to step in. But you should do it diplomatically, like this, “Okay Todd, let’s just focus on getting the ideas out for now and later we can take a closer look, sound good?” What happens when people start evaluating ideas? They stop flowing. And that’s not what we want.

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