MEETINGS

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Warm‐up Activity

Tick the items that apply to you:

I attend meetings at least once a week.
I enjoy meetings.
I talk a lot during meetings.
I find it easy to convince people of my point of view.
I sometimes turn up to meetings late.
Meetings at my company are always minuted.
Meetings at my company are always formal.
Meetings at my company never last more than an hour.  
Meetings at my company usually involve more than ten people.
I sometimes feel that the meetings I attend are unproductive.

Note‐taking Activity

You will HEAR a speaker talking about ways to have more effective meetings. As
you listen, take notes and then compare your notes to your partner’s.
Seven keys to effective meetings:
1 ______________________________
2 ______________________________
3 ______________________________
4 ______________________________
5 ______________________________
6 ______________________________
7 ______________________________

Follow‐up task:

1 We heard: “State the objectives clearly at the beginning. Otherwise, people may wonder, ‘What am I doing here?’” and “A meeting should never be just one person talking. Otherwise, an email would do the job just as well!”

Let’s practice this sentence structure:

You should always take minutes. Otherwise, __________________________________.
You should always set a time limit. Otherwise,__________________________________.
The participants must be sensitive to others.Otherwise,___________________________.

2 “Criticise the idea and not the person.” What does this mean? Give examples.

The Language of Meetings

There are many language functions that may come in useful during a meeting:
1 Giving opinions
2 Asking opinions
3 Interrupting politely
4 Redirecting a conversation
5 Agreeing with another participant
6 Disagreeing with another participant

For each language function, two examples are given. Add your own third example:
1 Giving opinions
“I feel we should adjust the pricing to be more competitive.”
“In my opinion, we need to adjust the pricing in order to be more competitive.”
______________________________________________________________
2 Asking opinions
“Frank, what’s your opinion on this?”
“What do you think about this, Valerie?”
______________________________________________________________  
3 Interrupting politely
“Sorry to interrupt, Joe, but…”
“If I could just interrupt, …”
______________________________________________________________
4 Redirecting a conversation
“Getting back to the point about…”
“We’re getting off the topic here…”
______________________________________________________________  
5 Agreeing with another participant
“I strongly agree with Joe on this.”
“I’m with Joe on this.”
______________________________________________________________  
6 Disagreeing with another participant
“Sorry, Joe, but I disagree.”
“I feel I have to disagree about…”
______________________________________________________________

Practice Meetings

Let’s practise having a meeting. Follow your trainer’s instructions and sit in groups of five or six. During the meeting, try to give as much useful input as possible. Try to use the words and phrases we have learned in this unit.

Agenda

Item 1
Many of the employees have been asking whether it would be possible to work from home one, two or three days a week. They argue that they can do their job just as well on their home computers or company laptops and without the stress they face at work. Discuss whether this could be possible.

Item 2
Several incidents of workplace bullying have been reported in our company recently. Specifically, there have been reports of racism and also reports of bosses abusing their authority. These cases have been dealt with; however, we need to discuss ways to prevent these issues arising again in the future.